Mecca Bah — Restaurant in Brisbane City

How do I begin to explain this roller-coaster of a ride? Being greeted at the front door, we were taken to our table. We had a group of 12 for a birthday celebration, so nothing too large.

Having all our cuterly and menus on the table, made for a good first impression. The atmosphere and layout of the restaurant was cool and inviting.

A waitress came over asking if we would like to order any drinks, entrees and water for the table, which we did. Not knowing that table water wasn't free until after paying for the bill ($6.00 a bottle for sparkling and still).

Waiting approximately 20 minutes for drinks, and 45 minutes for entrees to be brought to the table (restaurant was less than 50% full at this point). The Dukkah Prawns, although edible, were not the best in taste. They were clearly suppose to be a hot dish, but came out warm at best (that's being generous). The garlic pizza, mezze plate, and trio of dips tasted great and well presented.

The drinks tasted good, and no complaints or improvements regarding them are noted.

Moving onto mains, waiting approximately 30 minutes after entrees came out (45 minutes after ordering), we were greeted with araromic smells that were divine, presented well, and looked the part. But that's when the roller-coaster became wild.

One of the meals, Lamb shank, had a piece of alfoil lodged in the meat, finding out after chocking and coughing the piece back up. Staff were notified promptly, coming back with an answer of, "we won't add this meal to your bill". Which was true at the end. Another meal, tangine chicken, was bland and lacked flavour. The person who ordered the meal, asked for it to be taken away early as she didn't want to eat anymore of it. The rest of the meals were satisfactory, but nothing remarkable.

Coming into the desert, 3 sticky date puddings, and 2 servings of Turkish delight were ordered. The cake for the sticky date was extremely dry, even with the caramel sauce and icecream. The sauce was flavoursome and the icecream was average. The Turkish delights were good.

With the bill, one person paid and got a reciept to have others split the payments to save time and ease the process at the register. After reviewing the receipt after paying, I noticed we got charged for table water (which is absolutely ridiculous), and a drink that was ordered, told that they ran out and changed to a cheaper drink, to be charged the original price anyway.

The overall experience was not up to standard of any restaurant, and the food was average for such a highly regarded cuisine. We won't be interested in coming back, even after spending above $800.00...

I had a great first experience at Mecca Bah, so we decided to have my friend's birthday dinner at this place. One of the worst decisions I've made since disappointing doesn't even cover what happened there.

We had to wait 20 minutes just to be served, and a further 30 to 40 minutes for the food to arrive when the place wasn't even busy. There was a waitress who basically ignored us while the other waitress was hurrying around and apologetic about our wait.

Worse still, the food was absolutely terrible this time round. Gone was the tender and juicy lamb skewers. What arrived was basically lumps of tough and chewy jerky with some burnt bits. The rustic smashed potatoes were more like undercooked boiled potatoes, which was extremely disappointing (see photo).

We also ordered a gluten-free lamb roast pizza for a coeliac friend and emphasised on the coeliac bit. The previous time, the pizza was amazing even with the gluten free base, chock full of delicious lamb, rocket and sauce (see photo attached). This time, the pizza base was basically a chunk of undercooked play dough, and there were so little toppings I was wondering how it even got sent out of the kitchen. All we got was less than a handful of lamb (see photo) and cheese. No rocket, no sauce. On hindsight, we should have sent it back instead of continuing to eat but we were starving after the 1 hour wait for the food. The worst part of this was that the food was not handled properly, and our coeliac friend had an extremely bad reaction to the food, which did not happen during our first experience. It's ridiculous that we paid extra for gluten free but it was not actually gluten free.

When we provided this feedback to the staff, the waitress was extremely apologetic and said that it was because they were training new staff. I don't know what happened there because it seemed like no one cared enough to check the food that got sent out since we got terrible food. I was surprised that the restaurant didn't even bother doing a quality check considering the price of the items on the menu.

Waitress then grabbed the manager when we approached her for at least a discount for the terrible experience on my friend's birthday. The manager was completely unapologetic about what occurred and after a few minutes of discussion, he agreed to remove the potatoes from our bill, probably just to get us off his back so we don't continue complaining in the earshot of other customers.

Sorry for the lack of other photos but we were starving so we didn't take many.

Overall, extremely disappointing experience. Will never...

Mecca Bah, Gasworks Precinct While scrolling through the EatClub app in search of a good deal for dinner, we stumbled upon Mecca Bah and thought—why not? A Brisbane institution that many will remember from its days in the Emporium complex, Mecca Bah has now found a new home in the ever-buzzing Gasworks Precinct. And I must say, the new venue doesn’t disappoint. The restaurant is beautifully decorated, warm lighting, Moroccan-inspired touches, and a laid-back yet stylish vibe that makes it feel like a bit of a special night out, even if it’s just dinner mid-week. As is our usual tradition, we kicked things off with a cocktail. The Mecca Mojito, a twist on the classic with Bacardi rum and a touch of honey and was refreshing, and I really enjoyed the subtle sweetness from the honey. Not quite ready to commit to a single dish, we opted to graze and ordered the Mecca Bah Mezze Plate. This came loaded with Turkish bread, green hummus, baba ghanoush, Brie, pickled onions, sun-dried tomato and feta mix, and slices of cured beef basturma. The basturma was probably the only miss—on the dry side, possibly prepped too far ahead—but everything else was flavourful, and very generous. Honestly, this platter alone could've fed us. Still, we soldiered on and shared a main, the Mediterranean Barramundi, served with green hummus, artichokes, sun-dried tomato, roasted broccolini and topped with walnuts. The fish was cooked well and the flavours nice. Alongside it, we ordered the Fattoush Salad, which was fresh, zesty, and a good light complement to the rich flavours of the main. To drink with dinner, we shared a glass of Squealing Pig Pinot Noir, easy drinking and paired well with the variety of flavours on the table. Although we were full, my sweet tooth got the better of me. Instead of stopping elsewhere for ice cream, we decided to try the chocolate brownie from the dessert menu. It was a solid choice, served warm with generous scoops of ice cream and a big chunk of Turkish delight. Rich, indulgent, and fixed my sweet tooth. Service throughout the night was warm, friendly, and professional, exactly what you’d hope for. Overall, Mecca Bah isn’t trying to be a deep dive into Middle Eastern cuisine, it’s more of an approachable, modern introduction. But it works for most if you’re after something a little different from your usual pub chicken parmy, and don’t want to blow the budget, it’s a solid local pick. We’ll definitely be back, maybe next time to try one of the...