Going to L’Étoile d’Orient

L’Étoile d’Orient is a small unassuming restaurant that I would have walked by if I had not been looking for it. It did not help that on the day I went the front door, which is open in this picture, was closed with a sign to go around to the side door. It was very cold the day I went, so when I got to the restaurant, all I wanted to do was go inside and warm up, but the door was locked. There was a sign saying to go around, but that seemed weird. Also, there was nobody around, it just felt weird to me, so I almost left. However, I did not do that; I stayed and had lunch.

Inside the restaurant, it did not feel like France. The restaurant is decorated to look like Morocco, with different colored tiles that make oriental patterns. The layout of the restaurant was also interesting because there was a doorway to another room, so the restaurant was bigger than I realize. I stayed in the room I came in, it was small, and the tables oversized. I sat at a two-person table, but it was round so it took up a lot more space than it needed to. The waitress was perfectly nice, she let me struggle through ordering in French, but I was disappointed in the food. I ordered tajine and I expected it to be moist and perfectly cooked. Sadly, it was not, the lamb was dry, overcooked, and a bit expensive. So, I would not recommend going here.

I really liked the decoration. I have not been to a lot of Moroccan restaurants, but the ones I have been to all seem to have the same sort of feel inside of them. This is good because it means that the design and look of these restaurants was authentic, not just someone coming up with an idea of what a Moroccan restaurant might look like. When immigrants go to a country, they bring their culture with them, but over the years their decedents will lose that culture. Or sometimes, people within a country will try to bring the culture of another country to them by imagining what a restaurant would look like. When I want to Taiwan, I ate in what was supposed to be an American restaurant. It had a lot of American sports paraphernalia decorating the walls, but it was so overdone that it did not feel American at all.

Anyways, back to the original topic, L’Étoile d’Orient is a Moroccan restaurant in France, and I think it is authentic. However other than the fact that somebody left Morocco and came to France, I am not sure how much this restaurant says about how Morocco fits into French culture and history. It is interesting to think about how someone left her home for a country that once brutally terrorized her home. The fact that this restaurant feels different from other French restaurants, could be a sign that Moroccan immigrants are not fully accepted in France, but I don’t think so. Any good restaurant will try to transport you, through food and ambiance to another place. While the food was not that great here, I did enjoy the atmosphere, and that’s something.