Atlas Chicken

[BFG]

No review of Rabat would be complete without a review of Atlas Chicken, remember in my review of the Sessions I talked about a fast food place with a layer of grease everyzhere? This is it, Rabat's very own Greasy Joe, unique, hopefully, to Rabat.

 

Context:

It's located 3 minutes from the hotel along one of the main streets (oddly enough the tsreet is called Atlas St). During the first couple of weeks we were basically walking around looking for busy places, thinking they'd be the best places to try for good food (HA) and this place is always busy. When we actually went it was pouring with rain, enough that we didn't want to walk the extra minute to the Chinese, 2 to the tapas or 5 to the Fench.

 

Decor:

Plastic.

 

That is to say plastic seats and tables, prints on the wall, generic posters (I can't actually remember what they were of, probably chickens, actually probably not chickens) that shone with a layer of grease, as did the tables, and chairs. There's a counter to the side as you walk in; maybe 10 tables that seat up to 4 people, although add a bit more grease and you could probably fit 6 people or more around the table. There's a TV in the corner, actually looked grease free, showing football (soccer for the americans), football is big in Morocco, which is why they were so pissed at being excluded from the African Cup (they were due to host it over the Winter, but asked if it could be delayed until their was a better grip on the Ebola Crisis...). Physically getting into the restaurant is challenging as you have to navigate the steps up from the street (there are 8, and they're all really slippy, especially when wet). Once in you have to navigate to a table, at least the steps had hand rails, even sitting is tricky, since as soon as your weight isn't centred directly above your feet you're slipping (read falling over, fortunately into the seat you're trying to sit in). What makes it worse is that literally nobody else seems to even notice it, it's like there's a grease cloud that followed us about but left the others alone.

 

However it's always REALLY busy, probably more people visiting that the Sessions, although not many people actually eat in, perhaps suffice to say that we were the only Europeans in the place.

 

 

Food:

Oddly enough chicken is on the menu, you could have chicken wings (fried), a quarter chicken (fried), a half chicken (fried) or a whole chicken (fried), we ordered a half chicken each, which comes with French Fries (none of that rubbish protest freedom fries here (former french colony)) (also fried) and a bit of salad (I wouldn't eat it if I were you) (probably fried). The place isn't licensed, so it's soft drinks only, the orange juice was surprisingly good and looked to be freshly squeezed, but I think that's more standard in Morocco in general). The portions are huge, although you'll have your work cut out for you, chiselling through the skin of the chicken. It's so hard you feel like you need safety goggles in case of fragments flying at you. There's no option for desert.

 

Price:

Cheap, but not as cheap as you (I) think it should be, it was maybe 80dirham per person, so about $8, but I feel like in general that fast food is priced expensively compared to the price of good food. Obviously $8 for a meal and drink is cheap, but when you can get something really, really good (including wine) for $20 it feels like a lot.

 

To be honest, for the price you can go further down the road where there's another fast food restaurant for half the price with nicer food, although the portions are smaller.

 

(1/5) It's cheap, functional food, that clogs up the arteries just walking past the place. It's treacherous to navigate especially when wet, but is the sort of place you HAVE to go to, just to see if it's as awful as it seems, there's another one close by called FaceBurger that we're working up the courage to go try.

[F Horn of Valere]

Sounds delicious... is chicken their only entree option, or just the main entree option?

[BFG]

I think the quarter chicken is their starter, it's not really that sort of place

[F Horn of Valere]

I mean, suppose you are in a group of 10 and one crazy person doesn't like chicken. Do they have any non-chicken alternatives, or are you stuck choosing between an unhappy person vs. someplace else?

[BFG]

I mean, suppose you are in a group of 10 and one crazy person doesn't like chicken. Do they have any non-chicken alternatives, or are you stuck choosing between an unhappy person vs. someplace else?

The latter, seriously.

 

Think McDonald's with real meat, where you can eat what you want; so long as you want to eat fried chicken. I literally posted the menu in the OP :)

[Davrick]

How was it spiced?  Here in the states people like to add a variety of spices in the breading.

[BFG]

It's not breaded it's just fried.

[BridMorgan]

BFG - 2

Horn - 1

Dav - 1