Mecca Bah

Was there for dinner on a weeknight. Pretty unimpressed. The drinks are super pricey and beer selection is minimal. Got some appetizers and pizza. The sweet potato cakes were burnt and flavorless and needed more sauce to offer some taste. I knew not to expect the pizza to be like Italian style, but I hoped for better flavor. It was pretty dry and the flavors didn’t meld well. The rocket salad on top was the only part I liked. The atmosphere is decent, so if you’re good with spending $ 18 for a cocktail, check it out.

I very much enjoyed the food, the amazing atmosphere and the open-​mindedness of the staff at Mecca Bah. Often when I ask for vegan/​vego food menus, I get a blank stare like its a chore but the waiter was more than happy to get it for me! I had a delicious pumpkin pizza with feta and it was absolutely amazing! Will definitely be going back

This place looks great
The food is not cooked
And the quality of the food is just about less than average

I go to Mecca Bah all the time. I’ve never had a bad meal here, or a bad cocktail for that matter. I go during lunch, I go during dinner. If they were open for breakfast, I’d also go then too.
My favourites are the vine wrapped barramundi (actually the best meal ever, on the planet Earth) and the chilli calamari. You basically can’t go wrong at this place.
Their cocktails are delicious, and some are quite exotic; I’m usually too far gone if I go at dinner to remember how nice they are after a bottle of champagne or two, but my friends rave about them, and they’re a good bunch.
Tables are serviced very quickly, facilities are excellent and clean, and it has a great atmosphere. I always choose outside seating as it’s got a nicer ambiance and the breeze is quite nice at times; in winter it does get a bit chilly if you’re not near a heater lamp!
Can’t fault this place, and I go probably weekly, for the past 4 months.

If I was only allowed to pick one meal to have before I died, it would be Mecca Bah’s lamb tagine. Absolutely to die for.
I fell in love with Mecca Bah in Melbourne years ago, and rediscovered it in Brisbane last year. Everytime I visit I receive absolutely spot on service, with lovely staff and meals coming out super quick!
As I said, the lamb tagine is absolutely to die for. They have two different types of lamb tagine on the menu, but the one with olives is my favourite. It’s awesome if you get some Turkish bread as a side and you can scoop up all the saucy goodness with it.
Also check out the cocktails! Surprisingly awesome for somewhere that doesn’t have a featured cocktail bar.

Just had dinner with my wife. All in all very good. Staff were very friendly and responsive to all requests. Had booked for 7pm and We we’re given the choice of inside or outside on arrival. We ordered a few things to share and the waitress was very good at organizing an order (eg entrée to main) based on their cooking time. Foodwise the entrée’ and desserts were particular highlights. The kataifi and bastilla (pastries with cheese/​chicken) were melt in your mouth. The chicken pastries had a sprinkling of powdered sugar that gave an extra dimension of flavor that I wasn’t expecting but was delicious. Also the chocolate and Turkish delight brownie was amazing. Slight let down, the lamb pizza, although definitely edible and more then ample didn’t have the stand out flavors that I was expecting based on our entrees and price tag of $ 25. Over all for just shy of $ 120 for 2 people for 3 courses and bottle of wine, good value. Another slight down side, a little bit hard to get to and parking can be hard to come by especially in peak time. Worth the effort though.

We went here before a show at the Twelfth Night theatre. Arriving just before six o’clock to an empty restaurant we expected to be in and out before our show. It took close to forty minutes for our food to arrive. Who knows how long it would take if it was full.
The food that came out was a bit bland. I know middle eastern cuisine is full of flavour and this sadly didn’t. Being in the emporium complex I would expecting better.
Atmosphere was lovely sitting outside next to a fire piece.

Never in my life have I experienced a banquet style meal where seven people have to share two (2) chicken kebabs. The ‘pizzas’ were uncut and with all the plates on the table it was hard to do it ourselves. The three pieces of calamari which had been charcoal grilled at some point were cold and chewy.
The food was pretty unimpressive aside from the tiny sweet potato felafel.

I have been here a couple of times 2 years ago and loved it! This time we came back for a birthday dinner on a Sunday night. First disappointment was that they ran out of lamb. Service was slow and unmotivated and if this wouldn’t have been enough the food was just not right (after waiting more than 50 minutes for it). We had the Fattoush, which was nice but nothing special. Then I had the Spicy Turkish lamb kofte with yoghurt & mint sauce and they were actually quite nice. As a main I had the Moroccan spiced Calamari with turkish bean salad and it was awful. The beans not cooked enough and too salty. But the main reason I will not come back here, was, that my calamari were not cooked enough. They were chewy and tasted bland. I had a couple of bites. Another friend of mine had the same dish. After heading to another place we both felt sick. I had serious stomach pains. My friend didn’t feel good either but it was not as bad as mine. Sorry Mecca Bah, I really don’t know what happened here, but I won’t be back.

My girlfriends booked us a table and I was really looking forward to trying something new in Brisbane.
I shared the turkish pizza with spiced chicken, eggplant, rocket, and tahini sauce. It wasn’t exciting as I had hoped as people were telling me how they love to tear off the pieces of the bread with their pizza. The pizza is quite long but just really lacked flavor. I didn’t think the chicken was spiced at all and I could have had more tahini sauce.
The lamb soup was filled to the brim with chickpeas so that was slightly disappointing as well.
I think that I need to order the chicken pie next time so hopefully my order choice will be better next time. My gals love this place so I definitely think we’ll be back and I hope I will like my dish better.
You can’t split the bill here and if you’re lucky, you may even get some card tricks performed at your table. :)

Okay, I have been here a bunch of times over the years and it has been quite hit and miss. However, the most recent time it was great so I am a recency bias for the rating.
For some reason, my extended family love it and insist on all special events being hosted here. I must say, they have always done a good job catering to the drunken rowdy needs of our late family. I like the banquet option because there will always be something delicious to eat amd it allows you to find what you loke on their menu for next time.

New resolutions;
1. Eat something other than Italian or Vietnamese Phở — Check
2. Try something super exotic — Check
3. Eat more salty food — Check
4. Eat more healthy and delicious food — Check
All of the above at one place!!! Woohoo!
Great friendly service in a very cute and cozy environment.
It’s «Middle Eastern Food»… it’s exotic!
I tried Mecca Bah. It was interesting but was tasteful
Chickpea battered mussels, almond skordalia, couldn’t stop eating them
Silverbeet rolls filled with chickpeas, rice & herbs, lacking flavour, would have been best served hot.
Vine leaf wrapped fish fillets char grilled with parsley, artichoke & olive salad, fish was very juicy and melts in your mouth. Salad was fresh but my diet was soaked in olive oil (I mean soaked)!
Mussels with Harissa, tomatoes & preserved lemon, excellent tagine dish
Spit roasted lamb, rocket, yoghurt & sumac, tender meat well cooked.
Basbousa with Orange syrup… not gonna lie… i ordered it because of the name and Orange syrup, it was delish ;-P
All pretty adventurous food.
Plenty of parking. Affordable. Attentive & cordial staff.
Yes… I’m a regular :-)

So today I just wanted a casual late lunch with the mother and I’m so glad I was enticed to eat at Mecca Bah.
To be honest I really didn’t feel in the mood for middle eastern but my Mum couldn’t go past a good tagine on a cold rainy day so I agreed to hit it up. Luckily for me there’s more then just one or two vegetarian options with multiple pizzas, a soup and tagine as well as some of the best falafel around. What I love to see in a restaurant are vegetarian options which aren’t simply a dish which has no meat but a meal which needs no meat because its a creation unto itself and Mecca Bah delivers.
I opted for the eggplant, haloumi and spiced tomato pizza while Mum went for a spiced lamb tagine I believe. Despite the over generous portion size we both had to finish these delicious meals off and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend for others to come try it out.
I’ve also been here for dinner with large and smaller groups of friends and no matter the occasion Mecca Bah has really been able to provide good service, great cocktails but most importantly fantastic food at a reasonably enough price!

OK. I’ll get it out there. I’ve always wanted to use the word «nincompoop» in a Unilocal review. Here we go.
Food is OK but I think varied a lot depending on what you ordered. Some of the Pides (turkish pizzas) looked really good, in particular the eggplant-​ish one and the lamb one with fresh green stuff (I think it was spinach or parsley??) on top. I had the Pastirma pizza and while I was expecting a bit of a Sucuklu pizza (turkish sausage and egg), it came out a bit cold, not fluffy enough bread wise and generally a bit dodgy. I definitely wouldn’t order that again.
But the killer. Service. Not that great to be honest. We had a table of 16 and one nincompoop (woohoo!!!) server dude who had a bit of an attitude. He was tool (pun intended) cool for skool and when it takes ten minutes just to get his attention to order a beer it’s getting a bit ridiculous. Trying to grab another waiter/​waitress from another table proved fruitless as they seemed to dump food on other tables, heads down then ran back to the kitchen. Yes, maybe they were too busy, yes maybe they only server roof, maybe definitely Mecca should be hiring more staff to work the floor.
Next time I will go to the dodgy Turkish pizza place with the fat chef with the Borat moustache. :P
In short: food only OK, nothing fab, service to be desired.

I was so surprised when I recently found out Mecca Bah is actually a chain store with more than ten locations across NSW and Queensland. The Emporium Mecca Bah has always felt so… so original. The food doesn’t have that generic quality of mass production and the staff treats you like an individual.
Well, now that I’ve found out they are a chain store, I’m even more impressed with their high standard of food. The last time I came here with friends, we ordered the chicken and tomato tagine with couscous. Someone bought me a tagine pot last Christmas and though I’ve tried a couple of tagine recipes, my version didn’t taste anything like the aromatic, slow-​stewed chicken served up at the Mecca Bah. (see photo)
We also had the Turkish bread with dips, steamed fish wrapped in vine leaves and lamb pide. D’lish!
Unlike a lot of restaurants in the Emporium which cater purely for the cool and cooler, the Mecca Bah environment is suited to a wide range of people.
Fridays and Saturday nights are popular for drinks and dinner for groups of friends. Week nights are more family friendly and also best suited for romantic dinners for two. Lunch times draw a work crowd with their lunch time specials. Mecca Bah — anywhere, anytime, anyone.

Hunting down decent Middle Eastern food in Brisbane which doesn’t feature the likes of oily kebabs is equally as challenging as a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca (probably…I haven’t exactly embarked on the latter). Fortunately I have traversed the former, and have happily discovered a tasty gem in the dining precinct of the Emporium.
Mecca Bah, originating in Melbourne, solidifying itself as a mainstay in Canberra, and finally expanding into Brisbane, delivers on three key dining elements: it offers a unique menu, wonderful ambiance and stacks of flavour. The menu reflects a mix of the old Ottoman Empire — combining Turkish (hello pumpkin, feta and pomegranate open pide pizza), Moroccan (chicken, lamb and fish tagines with accompanying cous-​cous) and Lebanese (fattoush and open [grease-​free] kebabs).
There is an amazing depth of flavour in every dish, whereby the main ingredient is lifted with the additions of warm, earthy spices (the harissa marinated olives become wonderfully fiery). An iced Madagascan Apple Tea beautifully complements the spices whilst a serve of gooey Turkish Delight decadently caps off a flavour-​fest of a meal.
Definitely worth checking out if you tire easily of greasy kebabs.

These guys must be doing something right: they don’t take bookings and punters are warned that they will probably have to wait to get a seat at this in demand venue. And wait they do. But it’s good that you can get a drink at their bar to while away your delay…
During one such occasion I tried one of their cocktails — the ‘Red Devil’ — a kind of modified Bloody Mary with red wine and Harissa spices added, the perfect prelude to some good Middle-​Eastern fare (and the celery garnish helped stave off my hunger).
As for the food my favourite mezze of theirs is the chickpea-​battered mussels with an almond skordalia. Skordalia is a sauce made from potatoes, garlic, lemon, parsley, vinegar and sometimes nuts (in this case obviously almonds). It perfectly complemented its seafood accompaniment.
For mains I tried their ‘Harissa spiced tomato, haloumi, parsley & roast eggplant’ wood-​fired Turkish pizza. It comes on a pide base and lives up to the hype. At over $ 20 it isn’t cheap. They do a lunch special where you get a drink and a pizza for an even $ 20, so head in from 11am-​4pm Monday-​Friday for a bit of a value add.

I had a great time last time I was at Mecca Bah. It’s halal, so it suited one of my friends perfectly; it has great eastern food, so all our palates were pleased and it has very good cocktails, so we were pretty happy about that too. The décor’s great with lots of colourful ceramic tiles, Turkish designs and carved wood, with cycads and palms surrounding the outdoor area adding to the atmosphere.
We had several starters and salads, which are around the $ 11 mark: the Kataifi pastry filled with Middle Eastern cheeses were delish, as was the rocket and beetroot salad with yoghurt.
At main meal time, we shared giant Turkish pizzas and tagines at around $ 20 each. They were generous in size and beautifully seasoned with those sweet and spicy flavours that make you want to rock the kasbah.

If you’ve never tried Turkish food Mecca Bah is a great place to take your maiden voyage. Here they serve quality Turkish cuisine at reasonable prices. This bustling restaurant is a popular spot, although thanks to the large number of tables and fast service, you never have to wait too long to be seated. If you do have to wait there’s a cosy little corner of couches, so you can avoid awkwardly standing around, tapping your feet and suspiciously wondering why that table of people must eat at a snail’s pace.
After enjoying the waiting area, my friends and I were shown to our seats and quickly decided what to eat, thanks mainly to the fact that one of them was a seasoned expert and told us what to order. Lucky she was there; the menu is a bit difficult to interpret, with different subcategories that are not explained in great detail. We ordered the bread and dips as an entrée, which were mostly hummus-​type concoctions. That was tasty but it was nothing compared to the main meal. Two of us ordered the lamb, rocket, yoghurt and simac Turkish pizza to share. It was superb and enough to feed both of us, making it a surprisingly cheap outing. Although, I am sure it won’t be so wallet-​friendly next time; now that I know just how good it is I would hesitate to share with my firstborn.

I keep telling my friends about the chicken pie here… the chicken pie I said… it’s savoury but it’s sweet! Served piping hot… you either like it or don’t like it… in my case I love it. I think the actual name on the menu is ‘Bastilla, Moroccan Chicken Pastries’, it will always be chicken pie to me.
My friends in Melbourne raved about this place, it was THE place to eat the yummiest food! So when it came to Brisbane, I had to go. My first experience here with the turkish pizzas can be summarised as ‘wholly cow, that is one big pizza!’ the flavours were not the greatest, but then again my virgin turkish taste buds didn’t have anything to compare it to. The second and third and fourth and fifth times I visited this place, I had the chicken pastry… the chicken pie! I loved it. I also had my first tagine experience here which was magnificent… love the rice and grills too.
So if you want to try something a little bit exotic, a little bit tasty and a little bit of alright… definetely check this place out. It’s in the swanky fortitude valley emporium you can’t miss it… and try the chicken pie!