L’Etoile d’Agadir: The Stars Over Agadir.

As a companion restaurant review to this week’s French Tease article about expats celebrating Ramadan in Paris, I’ll share with you an authentic Moroccan restaurant in Paris.  It’s not exactly in an ideal location, but is still worth the trek out to the suburbs (don’t worry, we don’t have burning cars in our neighborhood) to eat at l’Etoile d’Agadir. 

Of all the cous-cous restaurants in Paris that I’ve tried, my favorite lies just outside of Paris in Ivry-sur-Seine.  This Moroccan hideaway not only has the best cous-cous and tajine you’ll find here, but also an authentic atmosphere.

At L’Etoile d’Agadir, the walls are painted a sun-drenched yellowish-orange and the chairs are covered in burgundy-colored Maghreb fabrics.  There are Moroccan ceramics and baskets.  When you are seated, you get a carafe of mint water and sometimes, if you’re lucky, a complimentary rose liquor as a little welcome as you arrive. 

The cous-cous here is very light and fluffy, the vegetables are fresh, and the chicken and merguez are tender.  I think that portions are a bit small compared to Chez Omar (which treats cous-cous like an all-you-can-eat buffet), but the quality is better and you’re not surrounded by fashionistas in a Parisian zinc bar (how many zinc bars are there in Morocco?). 

And while their cous-cous is top notch, I prefer to order a lamb tajine—either eggplant or lemon.  Tajines are cooked for a long time, so all the spices cook together to infuse the vegetables and meat.  For example, in the lemon tajine, the lemons are so soft that you can eat the rind—where most of the lemon taste comes from anyway.  It’s lemony without being sour or tangy.

The restaurant also has Moroccan wine, from the Boulaouene winery in the Atlas Mountains.  This wine, a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and syrah, is harvested and made by hand and goes nicely with the tajine. 

On weekend evenings, you will occasionally be treated to belly dancing at l’Etoile d’Agadir.  “She has nice knees,” my husband once told me.  But my son’s eyes tend to gaze elsewhere.