We have selected 15 restaurants, which we have divided into five categories: Gourmet, Business, Trendy, Budget and Personal Recommendations. The restaurants are listed alphabetically within these different categories, which serve as guidelines rather than absolute definitions of the establishments.
Restaurant prices are subject to 19% VAT (Value Added Tax). In the up-market restaurants service charges of 10-15% are added to the restaurant, if not a tip of this amount is expected.
$$$$ (over 350dh with wine, unless stated otherwise)
$$$ (250dh to 350dh with wine, unless stated
otherwise)
$$ (100dh to 250dh with wine if stated)
$ (under 100dh: the cheaper restaurants don’t serve alcohol)
Gourmet
El Fassia Outside the medina,
El Fassia specializes in dishes from Fez - Morocco’s culinary capital. It is run by a women’s cooperative and all the staff are female. The menu is a la carte and the décor traditional Moroccan. A wide selection of mainly meat dishes, tagines and couscous are on offer, but there are a few veggie options. They don’t serve alcohol.
232 avenue Mohammed V, between the medina and Guéliz
Tel: (044) 434 060.
Price: $$$$
Le Marrakchi Set on a corner of the
Jemaa-
el-
Fna, this traditional Moroccan restaurant is set on two floors with views over the square. It offers a selection of Moroccan dishes a la carte as well as a set menu, and it is very popular, mainly with tourists, both for its location and the quality of food. The restaurant also offers a selection of local wines. It is advisable to book.
52, rue des Banques, Medina
Tel: (044) 443 377.
Website:
www.lemarrakchi.com Price: $$$
Riad Tamsna With a first-rate Moroccan-Mediterranean menu and a selection of wines served in a white courtyard to a soundtrack of jazz, this is a classy restaurant set in the heart of the exclusive Palmeraie.
23 Derb Zanka Daika, Palmeraie
Tel: (044) 385 272.
Website:
www.tamsna.com Price: $$$$
Business
Casa Lalla
Sitting on the rooftop of the
Riad Zitoune, this is a charming new restaurant that offers an ever-changing menu of French, Moroccan and Asian cooking - the creation of English chef Richard Neat. The view over the medina adds to the dining experience - reservations are advisable as this has quickly become established as a popular dining place.
16, Derb Jemaa, Medina
Tel: (44) 429 757.
Price: $$$$
Jardin des Arts A five-minute taxi ride from Guéliz, this is a bit out of the way for the majority of visitors to Marrakech, but well worth the effort. Serving French food, including pork dishes (not generally served in Islamic countries) and a selection of seafood,
Jardin des Arts also has a decent wine list. The restaurant itself is in a modern villa, elegantly decorated in muted pinks and yellows. It leads onto the garden where there is also dining.
6-7 rue Sakia el Hamra, Semlalia
Tel: (044) 446 634.
Price: $$$
Pavilion A little further along the road from
La Maison Arabe and a little harder to find, but worth the effort.
Pavilion offers high quality French cuisine with a setting to match. Tables are shaded by the boughs of a huge tree in the courtyard of this elegant old house. Additional tables are inside in small alcoves, for more intimate dining. Serves alcohol.
Derb Zaouia, Bab Doukkala
Tel: (044) 387 040.
Price: $$$
Trendy
Café de France Something of an institution and one of the most famous cafés in Marrakech. The street-level terrace is good for watching the comings and goings in the square, while the roof terraces have superb views. The menu is the standard fare of pastas and salads at a reasonable price, although you pay for the location and the fact that it is on most tourists’ lists.
Café de France is also popular with locals and used as a meeting place for those with business in the medina.
Jemaa-el-Fna
Tel: None.
Price: $
Le Comptoir
Although it has been around for a few years, this is still the place to be seen, and the favorite hang-out for Marrakech’s beautiful people. Both cocktail bar and gourmet restaurant,
Le Comptoir is probably the hippest place in town. The menu is French/ Moroccan but it is the setting as much as the menu that pulls in the crowds. Decorated in a lavish, east meets west-style with a constant party atmosphere and a troupe of belly dancers as a finale at weekends.
Avenue Echouada, Hivernage
Tel: (044) 437 702.
Price: $$$$
Palais Jad Mahal Located just outside the old city, with an entrance that leads to a charming courtyard, this is another trendy restaurant, popular with hip young Marrakechis. There are two dining rooms that are a colorful blend of Indian and Moroccan, and an international menu. There is also a lime-green chandeliered lounge and a downstairs club.
Fontaine de la Mamounia, Bab Jdid
Tel: (044) 435 591.
Price: $$$
Budget
Chez Chegrouni
A better option than the
Jemaa-
el-
Fna for delicate stomachs and vegetarians, but still within the square, this is a hugely popular restaurant with tourists and locals alike. It offers all the usual dishes and has a small terrace at the front. Unlike many of the budget restaurants, it does not use meat stock for non-meat dishes, so vegetarian dishes are just that. Although it is small and basic, it is very clean and well-run and a justifiable favorite.
Jemaa-el-Fna
Tel: (065) 474 615.
Price: $
Jemaa-el-Fna For the most authentic Moroccan dining experience, join the crowds and head for the
Jemaa-
el-
Fna. As twilight falls, over 100 food stalls are set up and clouds of smoke drift over the square as the evening wears on. Wander around until you see something you like, then squeeze onto one of the benches. Bread is used instead of cutlery and orange juice is brought from one of the many juice stalls. A word of warning - although the food is well cooked, the plates are dunked in the same bucket of cold water all night for washing. Best to ask for food to be served on paper.
Jemaa-el-Fna
Price: $
Pizzeria Venezia Good selection of pizzas, pastas and salads, all made with the freshest ingredients, but the real draw is the view from the roof terrace. From here you can see the sun setting over the Koutoubia mosque and watch the cars, bikes and pedestrians jostle along the busy avenue. Cool breezes on hot summer evenings make the experience even more pleasant.
279 avenue Mohammed V
Tel: (044) 440 081.
Price: $
Personal Recommendations
Dragon d’Or If you tire of tagines and couscous and want something as different as you can get from Moroccan cuisine, this is the place to go. The oriental décor starts at the red and gold dragon gate and continues inside with the red and black lacquered surfaces and Chinese lanterns. The menu offers a range of good quality food with Vietnamese dishes a specialty and beer and wine as accompaniment.
10 boulevard Mohammed Zerktouni
Tel: (044) 430 617.
Price: $$
La Maison Arabe
The restaurant of the famed hotel offers a good selection of traditional Moroccan dishes, including a few vegetarian options. Good for lunch as well as dinner, the restaurant is inside but looking over the prettily decorated courtyard where some of the tables spill out. Serves alcohol.
1 Derb Assehbe, Bab Doukkala, Medina
Tel: (044) 387 010 9777.
Website:
www.lamaisonarabe.com Price: $$$$
Les Terrasses de l’Alhambra
One of the many restaurants that ring the
Jemaa-
el-
Fna, but one of the best for both the views, food, and relaxed atmosphere. Set over two floors, the middle is for dining, the top terrace and ground floor for (non-alcoholic) drinks. The menu is basic (pastas, salads and ice-cream) but good and the view over the square makes it an ideal place to watch the spectacle play out below.
Jemaa-el-Fna
Tel: None.
Price: $
Nightlife:Although Morocco is an Islamic country, there is a laid-back attitude towards alcohol, which is widely available, with bars in most tourist areas staying open late. Locally produced wines, beers and mineral waters are both excellent and good value, but imported drinks tend to be expensive.
By Moroccan standards, Marrakech has something of a reputation for its nightlife, which covers modern discos to belly-dancing. The medina provides traditional evening entertainment in the form of cafés, food stalls and street entertainment, with everything revolving around
Jemaa-
el-
Fna. Several of the hotels have rooftop cafés overlooking the square, while a number of
riads (historic merchants’ houses) have been converted into upmarket restaurants offering a full Moroccan experience, including a vast feast, music and dancing. Note, however, that it is not a common custom to drink alcohol outside. In bars that sell alcoholic beverages, drinkers consume beer inside and glasses of coffee on the terrace.
For modern evening entertainment, head for Guéliz. Clustered along avenue Mohammed V, particularly around place Abdel Moumen ben Ali, are most of the city’s bars, as well as a wide variety of restaurants, bistros and pavement cafés. It is in this part of the city that the nightclubs and discos are also located. Many of the hotels have discos that attract both tourists and Moroccans. Although the hotel bars can be very insular they are often preferable to those outside, which tend to be a male preserve and occasionally intimidating. Clubs and bars stay open until late and the dress code is casual. For nightclubs, expect to pay a hefty (by Moroccan standards) admission fee.
Bars: In the medina, the choice is somewhat limited with most of the action happening outside in the square. Head to the
Hôtel Tazi on the corner of rue Bab Agnaou and avenue Houman el Fetouaki. The hotel bar is more of a TV lounge, and fairly unatmospheric, but it does have a good selection of imported and local beers. The piano bar at
the Hotel Jardins de la Koutoubia, 26 rue de la Koutoubia in the medina comes complete with piano player and offers the perfect place to sip cocktails by the pool. Guéliz has a much greater range of bars. Some are quite seedy so it is better to stick to the ones listed here.
Le Mirador, the rooftop café-bar above
La Renaissance, Place Abdel Moumen ben Ali, and
Le Petit Poucet, avenue Mohammed V, are both relaxed and fairly classy places. The
Café-
Bar de l’Escale, rue Mauretania, off avenue Mohammed V is a relaxed place to drink and beers can be taken out to the pavement tables, the only other place that allows this is the
Café Atlas, place Abdel Moumen, also off avenue Mohammed V.
The Palais des Congrès, avenue de France, is a huge ritzy complex that boasts four café-bars.
Café Oued el
Had, avenue Casablanca, just outside town, is a smaller complex of three bars, open until 0200. All the big hotels have bars. The most glamorous in the city is undoubtedly
Le Churchill, the bar of the
Hôtel La Mamounia, avenue Bab Jedid, which has a sumptuous Moorish and Art Deco interior, and a strict dress code, turning away shorts, back-packs and trainers, depending who is on the door.
Le Comptoir Marrakech-
Paris, avenue Echouada, Hivernage, both cocktail bar and gourmet restaurant is still one of the hippest places in town but has been joined by
Palais Jad Mahal, another restaurant/ bar but with subterranean nightclub that really gets going after midnight. Visitors are welcome to drink alongside the mostly French residents in the interior and rooftop bar of
Le Marrakech hotel, place de la Liberté, Guéliz.
Casinos: The Mamounia Casino in the
Hôtel La Mamounia, avenue Bab Jedid (tel: (044) 388 600), has a Grand Casino, with roulette, craps and blackjack. A less grand alternative is
Es Saadi Hôtel, avenue Kadissa, Hivernage (tel: (044) 448 811). Entrance for both is free but a jacket and tie are required. Both casinos require fairly high minimum stakes to play, making them not so attractive for the novice gambler.
Clubs: Although Marrakech has a reputation within Morocco for nightlife, do not expect to find much in the style of Western clubs. Morocco is, after all, an Islamic country and nightclubs that exist tend to be geared towards tourists and found mainly in hotels. Going under the name of
discotheques, music tends to be a mixture of Western pop music and Moroccan hits. Some of the local girls who hang out there are prostitutes so tread carefully.
Avenue, in the grounds of hotel
Le Meridien N’Fis, avenue de la Menara, is one of the newest and most buzzing discotheques in town. Although the dance floor is small it has been lavishly decorated and on the right night is a popular place. For glamour head to the
Cotton Club,
Hôtel Tropicana, Lotissement Semlalia, while the slightly camp
Diamant Noir,
Hôtel le Marrakech, place de la Liberté, avenue Mohammed V, although not at all trendy has an easy-going party atmosphere.
Palais Jad Mahal, Fontaine de la Mamounia, Bab Jdid is a restaurant/bar just outside the medina walls and has a young and trendy subterranean nightclub playing a good mix of music. The massively popular
New Feeling, Palmeraie Golf Palace, Circuit de Palmeraie, is still the pick of the bunch although it requires a
petit taxi to get there and it is the most expensive of the clubs listed here.
Live Music: For all types of live music, the place to go is Jemaa-el-Fna. Sometimes you may also find a group playing in the grounds behind the Koutoubia Mosque on Avenue Mohammed V. The
National Festival of Popular Arts (see
Special Events) held over a fortnight each summer in el Badi Palace offers the chance to listen to a variety of Berber tribal music.
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The Columbus World Travel Guide has been published for 26 years and is sold in over 90 countries worldwide.
Word Travels is a comprehensive travel guide covering hundreds of cities and holiday resorts in more than 125 countries.
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