Saharaween

About

Saharaween means 'people of the Sahara', and there's a certain romance about this cosy, quasi-opulent Moroccan restaurant and tea rooms in between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. Don't expect stiff wooden seats, rather loads of chunky floor cushions, low tables and colourful rugs, just as you'd find in a typical Morrocan home. If you're taken by anything, you can probably buy it - almost everything you see and touch in here is for sale. The popular North African food is courtesy of an ex-Momo chef who specialises in tagines, particularly the mhamar - an earthy-looking dish of lamb marinated in maghribi spices, served with glazed apple, plums and almond flakes in a pottery bowl with which the meal shares its name. It's impossible not to feel comfortable and relaxed at Saharween's - not something you can always say for a tourist-central restaurant. Enjoy.

You can hire the whole of the downstairs - aka the chillout room - for 40 people, or the upstairs for a hundred. Smaller groups of 12 to 15 can hire any corner you fancy; the favourite being the far left corner downstairs, which is really private, and can be separated from the rest of the room by curtains, creating a tent-effect. What fun! As well as the background Arabic music, a belly-dancer performs three times a night, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. You can also book her for your private party. Best of all, there's no need to pay through the nose for drinks because you can bring your own bottles. The (non-alcoholic) cocktails are delicious, though. No wonder people come back again and again.

Map

Nearest

Accomodation	Thistle Piccadilly (0.06 miles) The Royal Trafalgar by Thistle, London (0.09 miles) Radisson Edwardian Leicester Square (0.09 miles) Sofitel London St James (0.15 miles) Shaftesbury Piccadilly Hotel (0.20 miles)
Attractions	Theatre Royal Haymarket (0.05 miles) Rock Circus (0.12 miles) Segaworld (0.13 miles) Britain Visitor Centre (0.13 miles) Emily Tsingou Gallery (0.14 miles)
Pubs	Imperial The (0.13 miles) Intrepid Fox (0.27 miles) Ivy House The (0.87 miles) Zeta Bar (0.93 miles) Zanzibar (1.55 miles)
Train Stations	London Charing Cross (0.43 miles) London Victoria (1.18 miles) London Waterloo (1.21 miles) London Waterloo East (1.27 miles) London Euston (1.33 miles)