After Reading a few good reviews for Mecca Bah in manuka myself and some friends decided to see what the hype was all about.
We arrived at around 6.30 to make sure we got a table as they dont take booking, and lucky we did as it was already starting to really fill up.
We were seated quickly and after much deliberation picked 5 different entrees to share, Chickpea battered mussels , Sweet potato felafels, dips & bread, Lebanese sausages and some little pastrys filled with Middle Eastern cheeses. The stand out entree was the chickpea battered mussels, they were morish and had a delicious sauce. I am not really a sausage person but i was pleasantly suprised by the lebanese sausages, they were quite mild and didnt have a really meaty and fatty taste to them that most sausages do, they also came with a yummy chickpea salad.
For mains It was a tough desision between lamb kebabs or pumpkin and feta pizza but in the end I chose the kebabs. I found the meat to be a bit tough and not cooked very well, but the rice with caramalised onion that accompanied the dish was delicious and made up for it.
My friend got the Spiced chicken with eggplant, rocket & tahini sauce pizza, it was a huge pizza and she enjoyed it , but we all agreed the dough was to soft, so the pizza fell apart!
Some of the other mains ordered were Moroccan spiced calamari, which got the thumbs up, Flathead fillets wrapped in vine leaves, they too got the thumbs up, and lastly my partner got the lamb Tagine with cous cous, she found the cous cous to be too dry but enjoyed the lamb.
Even though we were all well and truly full we decided to give dessert a go, and i am glad we did. I ordered the ice cream and got three diffrent flavours, Tangy frozen yoghurt, Strawberry & boysenberry ripple and double chocolate, they were all yummy, my favourite been the frozen yogurt. My parnter ordered the turkish delight and Lebanese Ladies Fingers, and they too were very delicous however i would go for the icecream.
The service was great and we didnt have to wait long at all.
The prices were cheap entrees were no more than $10 and mains no more than $20, dessets were about $8 each.
All in all we had a good night at Mecca Bah but I would have to say, the hype is more around the location and atmosphere rather than the food, as is the case in most manuka resturants. ( Has anyone eaten at verve latley?)