Casablanca Restaurant - East Memphis — Restaurant in Memphis

For many years, this has been my favorite restaurant. I have made concessions for their various issues over the years because I loved supporting a local business with delicious food. It has been the place I always tell out-of-towners that they have to check out while they’re here. However, my most recent experience was my last straw and sadly we will never be back.

For a few months leading up to this experience, my husband and I noticed that every time we ate Casablanca food, which we have done faithfully once a week since we started dating, we would become so sleepy that we couldn’t stay awake no matter the time of day, and have stomach issues. This was a drastic change as I’ve personally been eating there once a week since 2015 and had not experienced this until 2022. The quality and freshness had also notably gone down, but that seems to be across the board in Memphis so I don’t hold that against this restaurant. However, I do hold my last experience against them.

We rarely eat in the restaurant so I always call ahead and go pick it up. Over the years, there’s been about a 50/50 chance that they’ll answer the phone, so I usually start trying to call as I’m leaving my house. It takes me about 20 minutes to get there. This time, they answered on the first call, but I was promptly put on hold. This is also normal, and also fine.

For the duration of my twenty minute drive, I was on hold. When I pulled up to the restaurant, I anticipated the craziest 4:30 dinner rush I’d ever seen, or maybe some emergent situation had occurred. You know, something that would explain being placed on hold for twenty minutes. When I walked in, still on hold, I saw exactly one table of people dining in, no one in the waiting area, no phones ringing, and two people at the register. It’s important to note that this is the second time I’d been on hold for my entire drive. The first time, I just let it go and didn’t say anything. But after months of sketchy food and walking in and seeing absolutely no reason for this wait time, I said “I’ve been on hold for twenty minutes just trying to place a pick up order.” The girl at the counter (who was truly doing absolutely nothing when I walked in) said “I’m the only one here. I can take your order now.” ???

I've worked customer-facing jobs my entire life and, especially in a post-2020 world, I have experienced being the ONLY person available or present. I get being short-staffed. But there was absolutely nothing happening in that restaurant. And given that my call was STILL on hold as I walked in, and she was simply standing there at the front desk, she had clearly decided not to take any to-go orders. And on top of that, instead of saying something radical like “I’m sorry, I forgot” or “so sorry, we’re swamped” (not that that would’ve been true), she just threw out a lame excuse. Very sorry to say goodbye to what was my favorite restaurant for so long, but Ali Baba has been a wonderful replacement with fresh food that doesn’t knock me out (and is cheaper), friendly and quick service, and online ordering.

Oh and we learned how to make the...

12/21/2020 me and my family visited this place in an attempt to have a nice Mediterranean meal. The server was taking an order from another table (which took a good 10 minutes while we are waiting to be seated). We attempted to sit the only family table available as we were 6 people and no sign at the desk stating “wait to be seated”, the waitress yelled at us and instructed us (in a very rude way) to go back to the front door and wait for her to get us seated. We moved back to the door and waited then she took us to the exact same table that we attempted setting at in the first place 😒. Anyways, we were the only table other than the other small family presented at the restaurant at that time. We got seated (far away from the other family), ordered our food and received our drinks. We took our masks off as we sip from our drinks waiting for our food to come. Here comes the server asking us to put our masks back on until we receive the food. She even asked us to keep a mask on a 2 year old until they are ready to eat their food. I questioned her request as it makes no sense to me (who works in the healthcare field and clearly understands the CDC rules and practice them daily). She said that i should put the straw under my mask and sip from the drink and I will be allowed to take my mask off when our food arrive 😳. She said thats what everyone does without any LOGICAL explanation. We have been in so many restaurants during the pandemic and we are always allowed to take the mask off when we are seated as the tables are 6 feet or more apart from each other. This server had no manners, very unprofessional and impolite. We asked to speak to the manager and she states no one is available to speak with us. We left the place after paying for the drinks (that we never got the chance to drink) and we will never go back. TERRIBLE service PS. After we left that place we went to Red Lobster and were greeted nicely. We took our masks off after we were seated with no issues (as it is recommended by the CDC and is done...

Drove in from Texas and checked into our hotel around 8:30 pm on a Thursday night and searched for some halal places nearby- Casablanca was the only high rated place. The plan was to carry out but when I called, I was told they close their to-go kitchen at 8:30 pm even though the restaurant closes at 9 pm. However, I asked if it was okay to dine in real quick since we just drove in and the restaurant is a mile from our hotel and the lady on the phone was really sweet and said they can still take us. We headed over quickly and were greeted very kindly.

We were quickly seated and ordered right away, our food took no more than 10-15 minutes and came out fresh and hot. Lots of restaurants tend to cut corners when they take customers in last minute but that was not the case here. The food was exceptional and not what we were expecting at all from a place with such a small muslim population.

Although we were the only people left dining in, the ambiance and overall decor and vibe of the place was amazing, can only imagine how lively the weekends must be.

We ordered a chicken shawarma sandwich, an eggplant parmesan sandwich, and kabab plate for dine in and asked for a chicken shawarma sandwich to go as well as the tea. everything was flavorful and 9/10

I was heavily impressed by the way our to go order was packed. They gave us large cups of tea and stacked everything really nicely in their custom tote bag for easy carry to our hotel. We were not rushed at all during our visit and are really happy with the way they accommodated us even 30 mins past closing.

Would definitely stop here again not just for the food, but some of the greatest hospitality I have received at a restaurant in...