Souk, Moroccan in the Atlas District - Small Mom-N-Pop at 12th and H Street NE - Closed

[youngfood]

Souk a small Middle Eastern restaurant opened at 1208 H Street earlier this week. It's a tiny operation that seems to be run by a husband and wife team with seating for dine-in and take out available. At first glace, it looks like a great addition to the neighborhood with a very inexpensive menu of Middle Eastern staples (hummus, baba ganoush, grape leaves, schwarma, falafel, kafta, kebobs, etc). The opening menu is attached.Souk.pdf

[Tweaked]

Stopped into Souk Saturday for a quick bite...and it was quick because either they don't have AC or it wasn't working and it was about 100 degrees inside the restaurant.

Very much a store front place, handful of tables, some cool Moroccan tiles on the wall, and a very open kitchen (as in all that seperates the kitchen from the dining room is a counter with a cash register.)

Ordered my falafel to go ...it was ok, much too one dimensional flavor wise and for $8 a bit skimpy, could have used something to brighten the flavor (maybe that's why they invented the falafel shop toppings bar)...I would be interested in trying some other stuff on their menu, but it was just too damn hot inside. oh well another time.

[Mark Dedrick]

I've enjoyed both of my meals at Souk, and it is a very affordable dining option on H Street. The space, as you mention, is tiny, although my understanding is that they're opening up their back room soon, which should add an additional 20 or so seats. Also, when I last ate there they still had not received their liquor license, which in my mind was a positive as you could bring your own.

[New Foodie]

Just remembered I never wrote up a review for Souk last week. Bottom line it was good, but not great, and with so many other options on H St, I'm not sure when we'll be back. It is fairly affordable, but the back room was SO dark it was hard to see what we were eating!

Their website annoys me, so I'm just going to post from memory.

We wanted to start with the hummus with spicy pepper, but were accidentally brought the hummus with chicken shwarma. Alas, because of the previously mentioned darkness, we didn't realize we had the wrong thing until we were a couple of pita bites in, and at that point didn't want to deal with trying to switch. The pita was thin, but tasty, and they certainly kept it coming. Our favorite thing of the night was an eggplant appetizer that I think started with a "Z?" It was eggplant and tomatoes, not as blended as baba, but had a great flavor. Definitely would order this next time.

For entrees the +1 had the chicken shwarma and I had the meat logs (ha, forgot the real name). My meat was pretty dry, so although the flavor was ok, it fell far short of a great dish. The chicken was much better, and the garlic sauce on the side was really good too. Both platters came with a huge mound of rice and a small salad on the side. For around $14 it was a lot of food.

My main beef at this point is that we went using a Groupon (or one of those social buying sites) and somehow ended up getting double charged (i.e. my credit card bill shows both our pre-Groupon total and our real total both as actual charges) and now I have to physically stop by the restaurant and bring my credit card bill to show them so that I can get refunded. UGH

[DanielK]

My main beef at this point is that we went using a Groupon (or one of those social buying sites) and somehow ended up getting double charged (i.e. my credit card bill shows both our pre-Groupon total and our real total both as actual charges) and now I have to physically stop by the restaurant and bring my credit card bill to show them so that I can get refunded. UGH

Really? Any restaurant that won't look up the double-charge themselves and credit on a phone call is not worth returning to.

Did you try calling the credit card company?

[New Foodie]

Really? Any restaurant that won't look up the double-charge themselves and credit on a phone call is not worth returning to.

Did you try calling the credit card company?

Yeah, I'm not happy about it, but since I don't live too far away it's worth it to me to go back and get my $50 back. I called my credit card company first, but they said I should talk to the restaurant first before calling them again. So, I guess I'm heading to Souk tonight or tomorrow

[deangold]

Really? Any restaurant that won't look up the double-charge themselves and credit on a phone call is not worth returning to.

Did you try calling the credit card company?

By law the restaurant is not allowed to keep the credit card number on file in any fashion without pre approval of the customer. THat being said, it is trivial to look up your batch report, se if the same card was charged twice and then, if the customer gives you the CC# over the phone, run a credit.

[John William G]

The opening menu is attached.Souk.pdf

Seems like a strange menu for a Moroccan restaurant. No green tea, no couscous, no harira, only one tagine. And stuff like Pita bread that is not usually associated with Morocco.

[Tujague]

Seems like a strange menu for a Moroccan restaurant. No green tea, no couscous, no harira, only one tagine. And stuff like Pita bread that is not usually associated with Morocco.

That menu is very outdated, from 2009; go to their Web site and you can see that they do, in fact, have couscous, harissa, and several tagines (I've had all of them there, so I can verify this). My first meal there was pretty good, the second a disappointment (stale-tasting bastilla). The back room is not just dark, the lamps in their metal shades are positioned so that they put a glaring light right in your eyes, without really illuminating anything. The front room, by contrast feels overlit. I want to like the place, but it's too flawed for me to return anytime soon without significant improvements.

[Mark Dedrick]

Probably not relevant, since everybody who wants to know probably does, but this place is closed. They're renovating, and hopefully something good opens here next.

http://www.popville.com/2013/09/work-finally-starts-on-souk-at-1208-h-st-ne/

[DonRocks]

Probably not relevant, since everybody who wants to know probably does, but this place is closed. They're renovating, and hopefully something good opens here next.

http://www.popville.com/2013/09/work-finally-starts-on-souk-at-1208-h-st-ne/

Thank you for posting this. If I don't have something listed as Closed in the Dining Guides, please assume that I don't know - it's also nice to bring closure to each thread. Do you know when it closed? And, do you know if the new rendition will have different owners? It sounds like it will.

I cannot stand it when I don't get a chance to try a restaurant before it closes - I feel like I missed out on a little slice of history, and that I didn't do my job.

[Mark Dedrick]

I'm not certain when exactly it closed. I do know that for quite a while it *appeared* to be closed at what I thought were odd times, but I hadn't seen anything about it being closed, and I thought I noticed it opened on other occasions. It wasn't a terribly memorable place, so for the most part I would just walk by it on the strip. I'll try to find out what exactly is going in that space.