I’d just come back from a week in Marrakech, which is not the ideal headspace for walking into a Moroccan pop-up at the back of a Fuller’s pub. I went anyway, the football was on, Cape Verde was holding their own against Spain, but I had other things to distract me.
Yassir Chair has been running Afuego Burger around London long enough to know how pub kitchens work. Tagine & Grill is his open-fire Moroccan concept, and after five weeks at King & Co in Clapham it found a permanent home at The Sun and 13 Cantons on 10th June. Chair was born and raised in Morocco before moving to London at 20, and the food is specific in a way that reflects that – not a generalised nod to North Africa, but charcoal-grilled meat, proper dips and slow-cooked tagine that wouldn’t look out of place anywhere in the city.
The pub sits just off Carnaby Street with the front doors open onto the street, letting in whatever breeze London is willing to offer. The back room is a proper expanse – big enough that a table covered in sharing plates has room to breathe, which is exactly how you’ll want to order. We started with stuffed msemen alongside the zaalouk, kofta-filled flatbread dragged through a roasted aubergine and tomato dip that was dark and concentrated. The kebabs are star – chargrilled chicken thigh, halloumi or lamb kofta, piled with pickled red onions, herbs and a wonderful ras al hanout dressing on an open flatbread – definitely the dish I’d go back for specifically. Three chargrilled Merguez, scattered with micro herbs, and considerably more powerful than they looked.
The tagine of the week is not to be missed. Each week, a new properly slow-cooked option in a classic small clay pot. For us, it was lamb and apricots, simmered low with almonds and spice. We were already full when it arrived and still made short work of it.
£55 between two before wine, for more food than two people should probably order. Worth every bit of it, and we caught the whole game.
