A staggering 8 million visitors a year – but there was no Moroccan restaurant in Canterbury… until now.
A Tribute to Moroccan Flavours
Café Marrakesh dares to bring authentic Moroccan cuisine to Canterbury, thanks to the vision of Dev Biswal and the culinary brilliance of self-taught chef Hyat Kholti.
I t is a world-renowned, historic English city, primarily known for the magnificent cathedral, Roman walls and medieval pilgrims. Canterbury is home of the Canterbury Tales and the immediate area attracts a staggering 8m visitors every year. But there is one thing this lovely Kentish city did not have… a Moroccan restaurant. However, that has all changed with the launch of Café Marrakesh.
This terrific small resto, just round the corner from the city’s famous cathedral, is the brainchild of a very innovative local man, Dev Biswal who is very ably supported by his Moroccan-born head chef Hyat Kholti.
What Hyatt has achieved is particularly notable as she is, in effect, self taught, having honed the fine art of food preparation by undertaking online cookery classes.
But it is Dev who is the principle driving force behind this place which opened only just before Christmas.
Already a multi award-winning chef himself and owner of The Cook’s Tale, a reputable Indian fine dining resto also located in Canterbury, he came up with the idea of a Moroccan eatery, something that had, previously, pretty much been unknown in the this city.
Hyatt, as luck would have it, was already working in the kitchen at The Cook’s Tale (cooking Indian food, of course) so appeared a perfect fit for any such new place.
And so it proved.
Hyat, who hails from Rabat, the Moroccan capital, jumped at the opportunity to help launch Dev’s new place and to showcase her ability to conjure up some quite delightful dishes from her home country.
That is exactly what she is now doing at what is Canterbury’s newest resto. While the food comes from north Africa the menu card is decidedly local, with Dev (for now, anyway) happy to promote Kentish wines.
The menu is deliberately kept small, partly due to the fact that Hyat wants to focus 100 percent of investing all her time and energy in ensuring that the few dishes on the card are absolutely spot on when it comes to quality and service.
It is possible the menu may expand in the coming months, says Dev,with a tasting menu and more veggie options. He plans to draft a few new additions, in tandem with his head chef, in the coming weeks. But, for now, both he and Hyat are perfectly content with the “small is best” policy.
And when the food is this good you cannot blame them one bit.
One example, is the lamb on the bone tagine which comprises slow-cooked lamb in a rich, sweet-spiced sauce with prunes and apricots and served with traditional Moroccan bread. Those two, very often over used resto-related words, “mouth watering”, could have been invented for this plate. It is cooked and served in a traditional tagine (an earthenware pot) and is wonderful.
Another on the mains card is chicken with lemon, parsley sauce and rice which is over-roasted chicken finished with a tangy sauce and is, again, utterly delectable.
Veggies might be tempted by the seasonal couscous, served with a colourful blend of fresh, seasonal veg in a light, aromatic sauce.
The starters, again while small in number, are equally fantastic, including the Charmoula flavoured crispy sardines, served in a rich tomato sauce and a fresh onion-tomato salad. It is very tasty indeed but if that is not your thing there is a great chicken pastille, another Moroccan speciality.
The menu may be small but the portions are anything but. Even so, try to leave a bit of space to sample one of the delicious (Moroccan) desserts which are the perfect way to end what is a perfect meal.
As Dev explains, Hyat, while obviously very talented at what she does, has been able to draw on some of the similarities (though often not obvious to many, including this writer) between Indian and Moroccan food.
Both cuisines include things like nan bread, or “batboot” (the Moroccan version is just smaller) and samosas.
The site where the new rest now stands has quite a colourful back story in itself.
The building actually dates as far back as 1820 and it was,for many years, a pub, “The Cardinal Cap” – in fact, Dev’s new director here (Frank Ward) used to frequent it while studying at a local college.
While the pub became badly rundown, the old bar still remains and there is a further link going back much further in time.
One Mary Carleton once lived on this very site but would later become notorious for her fraudulent lifestyle (she once even posed as a German princess) and came to a sticky end, being hung for her crimes. A blue plaque, recording her birthplace, will soon be unveiled here.
This wonderful resto is now fast attracting a reputation of an entirely different kind – for the sheer quality of the culinary creations conjured by Hyatt who, while used to cooking for family occasions back in Morocco, formally trained online to be a chef.
The success of Café Marrakech has not come without sheer hard work and major investment. As Frank explains, it was a near wreck when Dev took it over. So much needed doing,including new floors, that the launch date was put back a few months in order to complete the work.
India-born Dev, forever inventive and forward-looking, is likely now to feature Morocco on one of the culinary tours to other countries that he also operates in addition to his two restos. He also aims to start cookery classes, under Hyatt’s stewardship) later this year.
Hyatt’s relationship with her boss goes back to soon after 2018 when she first arrived in the UK,working in the kitchen at his former Indian resto in Margate. When he closed that place he was keen to tempt her to Canterbury.
At first, she was reluctant due to the extra travel it involved for her but she eventually agreed.
What a great decision that provide to be. The result is this smashing new addition to the eating out scene here.
As Dev rightly says, the food Hyat cooks is not like typical, bulk-size “restaurant food” at all but, rather, more akin to the small but perfectly formed version you might cook at home.
Canterbury cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage site but Dev’s new resto should soon be added to the city’s “must do” things for locals and visitors alike. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday.
