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 upmarket restaurants service charges of 10-15% are added to the bill; if not a tip of this amount is expected. Price ranges indicated below represent a three-course meal; wine is not available in many Marrakech eateries.
$$$$ (over Dh350)
$$$ (Dh250 to Dh350)
$$ (Dh100 to Dh250)
$ (under Dh100)
GourmetAl Fassia Al Fassia has become a local legend for hearty yet elegant dishes from the Middle Atlas and Fez, Morocco’s culinary capital. The restaurant is run by a group of sisters who recreate their own family recipes with top-notch ingredients and a sharp all-female staff. The menu is à la carte and the décor plush modern Moroccan. A wide selection of savoury meat dishes, tagines and couscous are on offer, but the array of nine salads alone is enough to satisfy a vegetarian. Alcohol is served.
55 Boulevard Zerktouni (at end of pedestrian passage), Guéliz
Tel: (024) 434 060.
Price: $$
Dar Moha
The culinary star of Marrakech has set new standards for Moroccan fusion cuisine, with combinations dreamed up daily from the souks and the imagination of Chef Mohammed Fedal. The menu is à la carte for dinner, but lunchtime means great value for sumptuous fix-priced feasts. The best seats in this former family home are around the petal-strewn pool in the garden, where musicians play in the evenings and a grill house emits tantalising aromas by day. But take what you can get; reservations are necessary, especially at dinner. Alcohol is served.
81 Rue Dar el-Bacha
Tel: (024) 386 4000.
Website:
www.darmoha.maPrice: $$$
Jnane TamsnaWith an inspired Moroccan-Mediterranean menu created daily with ingredients grown in the organic gardens of this villa estate, a fine selection of wines and meals served in the archway-lined courtyard or luxurious dining room, this guest house offers a delectable dining experience set in the heart of the exclusive Palmeraie.
Douar Abiad, Palmeraie
Tel: (024) 329 423.
Website:
www.tamsna.com Price: $$$$
TrendyLe Comptoir
No longer the newest hotspot in town but still the place to be seen and the favorite hang-out for Marrakech’s beautiful people. Both cocktail bar and restaurant, Le Comptoir segues from mellow dining downstairs to outbursts of belly-dancing and carousing by the upstairs bar as the night wears on. The Franco-Moroccan menu works well in this sumptuous, east-meets-west setting where diplomats, supermodels, and minor royalty rub shoulders.
Avenue Echouada, Hivernage
Tel: (024) 437 702.
Website:
www.comptoirdarna.comPrice: $$$$
Le Grand Café de la PosteOnce a sorting office and colonial hotel, this deco
Casablanca-style eatery is where Mediterranean flair meets top-notch Moroccan ingredients on the inventive seasonal à la carte menu. Among the potted palms in the dining room, ordinary mortals mingle with movie stars on a break from filming desert scenes. With ample vegetarian options, salads, and dishes light on the sauces, it’s easy to justify dessert.
Boulevard El Mansour Eddahbi
Tel: (024) 433 038.
Website:
www.grandcafedelaposte.comPrice: $$$
Le MarrakchiSet on a corner of the Jemaa el Fna, this atmospheric Moroccan restaurant is a place you’ll want to settle in among the cushions and stay awhile, taking in superb views of the square. It offers a selection of Moroccan dishes à la carte as well as a set menu, and though the food can be bland, it’s still popular with couples for its romantic candlelit setting and splendid mosaics from Fez. The restaurant also offers a selection of local wines.
52 Rue des Banques, Medina
Tel: (024) 443 377.
Website:
www.lemarrakchi.comPrice: $$$
BudgetChez Chegrouni
A better option for delicate stomachs and vegetarians than the food stalls in the Jemaa el Fna but still within the square, this is a hugely popular restaurant with tourists and locals alike. It offers all the usual dishes and has a small terrace at the front to watch the nightly antics. Unlike many of the budget restaurants, it does not use meat stock for non-meat dishes, so vegetarian dishes are just that. Although it’s small and basic, it’s very clean and well-run and a justifiable favorite.
Jemaa el-Fna
Tel: (065) 474 615.
Price: $
Jemaa el FnaFor the most authentic Moroccan dining experience, join the crowds and eat within the Jemaa el Fna itself. As twilight falls, over 100 food stalls are set up and clouds of smoke drift over the square as all manner of meats are grilled and served with cooked vegetable salads as sides. Wander around until you see ingredients that look the freshest, then squeeze onto one of the benches. Bread is used instead of cutlery and orange juice is brought from one of the many juice stalls. A word of warning - although the food is well cooked, ask for food to be served on paper instead of hastily rinsed plates, and drink OJ from your water bottle instead of reused cups.
Jemaa-el-Fna
Price: $
Personal RecommendationsCasa Lalla
Every night the candlelit patio of the refined Riad Casa Lalla is transformed into a gastronomic getaway, where the French chef serves a menu invented that day with the freshest, most succulent ingredients in the marketplace. The intimate setting among fellow foodies adds to the dining experience, but special tables can be arranged for couples. Reservations are required.
16 Derb Jemaa, Medina
Tel: (24) 429 757.
Price: $$$$
CatanzaroGenerous steaks and thin-crust wood-fired pizzas are served up on red-checked tablecloths in an oddly Alpine interior. The nonstop throngs of locals and visitors testify to the efficient, friendly service. Wine is available, along with a respectable tiramisu.
11 Rue Tarik ibn Ziyad
Tel: (024) 433 731.
Price: $$
La Maison Arabe
The restaurant of the famed hotel offers a selection of traditional Moroccan dishes and local specialties, including a few vegetarian options. The restaurant has a plush interior with hand-painted woodwork and some tables spill over into the pretty, shaded courtyard. Good for lunch as well as dinner, but dinner is accompanied by excellent Arab-Andalusian music. Serves alcohol.
1 Derb Assehbe, Bab Doukkala, Medina
Tel: (024) 386 4000.
Website:
www.lamaisonarabe.comPrice: $$$$
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. In the medina, law and etiquette dictate that alcohol should be not be consumed openly within view of a mosque, so drink discreetly indoors or on roof terraces.
Marrakech has something of a reputation for its nightlife, which covers groovy Ibiza-style discos to belly-dancing. The medina provides traditional evening entertainment in the form of cafes, food stalls and street entertainment, with everything revolving around Jemaa el Fna. Several hotels have rooftop cafes overlooking the square, while a number of riads have been converted into upmarket restaurants offering the full Moroccan experience, including a vast feast, music and entertainment.
For happening bars and clubs, head for Guéliz and Hivernage. 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 sidewalk cafes. The city’s best nightclubs and discos are located in Hivernage hotels or in venues just outside town, where the neighbors won’t be disturbed. Although 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. Expect to pay a hefty admission fee at nightclubs at weekends. During the week and especially before 2200, you may be lured with free admission and happy hour specials to nearly empty venues.
Bars: In the medina, the choice is somewhat limited. The
Hôtel Tazi, on the corner of Rue Bab Agnaou and Avenue Houman el Fetouaki, 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, has the requisite pianist who gamely plays requests, and provides the perfect place to sip cocktails by the pool. Guéliz has a much greater range of bars, though there’s a fine line between characterful and outright seedy.
Chesterfield Pub, in the Hotel Nassil, 115 Avenue Mohammed V, pulls a respectable pint and offers bar snacks including olives and popcorn. The
Café-Bar de l’Escale, Rue Mauretania, off Avenue Mohammed V, is the rare relaxed place where beers can be taken out to the pavement tables, and
Gali Galou, off Mohammed V at Rue Oum Errabia (near the Diamant Noir Hotel), offers a happy hour that extends until 2300.
The
Palais des Congrès, Avenue de France, is a huge ritzy complex that boasts four cafe-bars. All the big hotels also have bars. The most glamorous in the city is undoubtedly
Le Churchill, the bar of the Hôtel La Mamounia (see
Hotels), 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. Trendy
Le Comptoir (see
Restaurants) on Avenue Echouada, Hivernage, doubles as a cocktail bar and gourmet restaurant, and around the corner is
Palais Jad Mahal, another restaurant/ bar that gets going around 2400. Visitors are welcome to drink alongside the mostly French residents in the interior and rooftop bar of
Hôtel le Marrakech, Place de la Liberté, Guéliz.
Clubs: Although Marrakech has a reputation within Morocco for nightlife, clubs are an expensive extravagance where behavior doesn’t conform to strictest Moroccan codes of propriety. Going under the name of
discothèques, music tends to be a mixture of Western pop music, Moroccan hits, and funky DJ mashups. Some of the local girls working the room do it professionally, so tread carefully before you end up paying for your date.
Pacha Marrakech, Boulevard Mohammed VI (website:
www.pachamarrakech.com), is the nightclub with the magnetic pull to attract DJs away from New York and Amsterdam and playboys and partiers from Casablanca and Ibiza, so on the right night you won’t begrudge the taxi ride from town. The place has a capacity for thousands but during the week it echoes. At weekends you’ll be lucky to squeeze in, even in your best club attire.
Téatrô, in the grounds of Hotel es-Saadi, Avenue Qadissia, Hivernage (website:
www.theatromarrakech.com), packs in the crowds for its famous ’white night’ Saturdays, where the clothes may be cool and monochromatic but the scene stays hot and colorful until dawn. The slightly camp
Diamant Noir, inside Hôtel le Marrakech, Place de la Liberté, along Avenue Mohammed V, has an easy-going party atmosphere and a dance floor where straight and gay mix easily.
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 week in July in open-air locations throughout the city 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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