I've always spied the little terrace above Stauntons Wine Bar and thought it looked rather appealing as I travelled up and down the escalator. Finally, with the weather becoming rather more suitable for al fresco dining, a Friday night with the girls seemed like a good opportunity to try it out.
The terrace is pretty much it in terms of the dining space of this Moroccan restaurant but, rather luckily given the propensity for the heavens above HK to open, the canopy is fully extendable so the few droplets of rain on Friday night didn't worry us. Nor did the noise from Stauntons below, which we simply didn't hear (although that may have had more to do with the level of noise we were making!)
I have to admit that I was expecting it to be rather over-priced and of somewhat dubious quality given its prime location in SoHo. I was pleasantly surprised 
by the quality of the cooking, both in terms of the tapas-style smaller dishes and the larger mains. I have to emphasise the word 'larger' at this point because the portions were pretty tiny, especially in relation to the main dishes. Although the prices on the menu were average, a main course on its own was not going to sustain you so you really did need to do a tapas starter and then a main course. Of the tapas-style smaller dishes we ordered as a starter, the Cheramoula Prawns were the hands down favourite although the special of sherry and garlic beef, while not exactly innovative, was tasty and flavoursome. I wasn't that excited by the hummus with smoked paprika but the olives were good, as was the kofta meatballs with cucumber labneh (which apparently, according to Wiki, is strained yoghurt, somewhat akin to Greek yoghurt).
As a main, I chose the Marrakech-style lamb kebabs with spiced chickpeas, feta and coriander. The kebabs themselves were full of flavour but what made them stand out was the ingredient-focused, simple, fresh coriander and feta salad on the side. It was a great combination. The other main courses seemed to go down well too with A. enjoying her seafood hot-pot and B. her risotto.
The only slightly annoying aspect to the meal was that half the wine list was unavailable, supposedly because of planned changes to the wine list contents. 
This would have been fine but the main absences were the cheaper bottles and they couldn't provide any similarly priced alternatives - despite being part of the same group as Stauntons Wine Bar downstairs. To their credit, they did knock some money off one of the bottles we ordered but to be honest it was more a point of principle thing (terrible thing being half-Scots, half-Yorkshire, gives you all these principles that everyone else calls being tight!).
Scirocco is in a lovely location with a great atmosphere and given the quality of the food we had on Friday, I would definitely return. It's not great value for money by any stretch of the imagination but what would you expect from prime location SoHo.
Scirocco
10-12 Staunton Street
Tel: 2973 6605
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