Restaurants in Marrakesh
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a El-Fna Food Stalls
Around sunset, donkeys descend on the Djemaa hauling gas canisters by the cartload and all the makings of 100 small restaurants. Within the hour, the restaurants are up and running, with chefs urging passers-by to note the cleanliness of their grills, the freshness of their meat, produce and cooking oil, and their aromatic spice mixes.
The grilled meats and cooked salads are cheap and often tasty, and despite alarmist warnings your stomach should be fine if you use your bread instead of rinsed utensils and stick to bottled water. Adventurous foodies will want to try Marrakesh specialities such as steaming snail soup, sheep's brain, and skewered hearts - always go for the …
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Tangia
Can a standard chicken tagine with olives and preserved lemons really be worth almost three times what you'd pay in the Djemaa? Tangia will quell any such doubt with aromatic herbed olives, caramelised sauce with a lemony tang but no bitterness, and plump chicken very different from the anorexic variety served elsewhere - and at the next table over, the editors of American and French Vogue also seemed to approve.
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Al Fassia
Thank goodness Al Fassia is a la carte, if only to save gourmets from our own gluttony. The array of nine starters alone is a proper feast, with orange-flower water and wild herbs raising even the lowly carrot to a crowning achievement. But there's no resisting the legendary mains, cooked Middle Atlas style by an all-women team who present the dishes with a heartfelt b'saha to your health.
The generous helpings seem impossible to finish, but look around and you'll see glassy-eyed diners valiantly gripping morsels of bread, scraping the last savoury caramelized onion from what was once a Berber pumpkin and lamb tagine. The seasonal menu offers enough delights for two lifet…
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Le Pavillon
Just when you think you've taken a wrong turn, a lantern-bearer appears to guide you down the long alley to this lovely riad and its fig tree-filled garden of Gallic delights with Moroccan touches. The duck breast with peaches is especially tender and juicy, and the fish is flaky and delicately scented with local herbs.
The downside is the wine selection: the house wine by the glass we tried was tannic with a vague aftertaste of tyres, so you'll have to spring for the overpriced wines by the bottle.
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Patisserie Al-Jawda
Care for a sweet, or perhaps 200 different ones? Hakima Alami can set you up with sweet and savoury delicacies featuring figs, orange-flower water, desert honey and other local, seasonal ingredients. Around the corner at 84 Ave Mohammed V, Hakima's savvy son has set up a tea salon featuring his mother's treats plus additional savoury items such as briouats (stuffed pastry 'cigars') and khlii, the seasoned dried Berber beef that's a very acquired taste.
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Dar Es-Salam
This restaurant was featured in Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, and it still specialises in surprise endings. The unexpected twist comes around 21:00, when a woman in a spangled unitard emerges bearing a tray of lit candles on her head and proceeds to perform callisthenic dance manoeuvres like a pyromaniac Romanian gymnast. But the night's not over until the Berber band breaks into a rousing bar-mitzvah chorus of 'Hava Nagila'.
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Ksar Essaoussan
For seasonal fixed-price feasts and good values in an 18th-century riad, follow the lantern-carrier here from Rue Ksour. Meals start at around DH350, including an aperitif, wine and mint tea. Enjoy your aperitif by the rooftop fountain, almost eye-level with muezzins at neighbouring mosques. On weekdays you may have this romantic spot to yourself, but on Saturdays (reservations recommended) you'll get to know neighbouring tables intimately.
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Le Grand Café de la Poste
Once a French colonial hotel and favourite café of the dread Pasha Glaoui, this place has recently been restored to its flapper-era, potted-palm glory. Mediterranean chef Cyril Lignac and Moroccan Sana Gamas create a seamless blend of cuisines in signature dishes: roast chicken with wild Berber thyme and olives, and a stellar salad with local goat cheese and citrus-herb vinaigrette that will have you smacking your lips for days after.
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Ben Youssef Food Stall Qissaria
Just around the corner from the Koubba Ba'adiyn is a labyrinth of qissarias lined with stalls serving tagines, steaming snails, and the occasional stewed sheep's head hot off the Buddha gas burner. Tourists at food stalls in the Djemaa el-Fna may think they're being adventurous, but the qissarias are where the real action is. Eat whatever looks fresh and tasty, even if you have to wait for a free stool.
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Lolo Quoi
Step into a deep-red inner sanctum with gilded poetry shimmering on the walls and mood lighting in tin buckets. Of all the restaurants where you're paying for the ambience in Marrakesh, Lolo Quoi delivers - but the food holds up its end of the bargain too. Now under the same ownership as Le Grand Café de la Poste, this place is jumping with a new alcohol license and a more daring seasonal menu.
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Pâtisserie Adamo
Chocolate éclairs with élan and light custard pastries studded with berries: is that rumbling your stomach, or the sound of Parisian patisseries' thunder being stolen by this Marrakshi success? Thank the seven saints of Marrakesh that chef Bruno Maulion saw fit to leave his Paris patisserie business, relocate to Marrakesh and raise the Marrakshi bar for croissants to the heavens.
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Ice Legend
Your saving grace on scorching afternoons: fresh, locally made ice cream in modern facilities. Go with the tantalizing (if alarmingly bright) fruity varieties - the lemon sorbet here is legendary. To compensate for the male dominance of cafés, women have the run of ice-cream parlours in Morocco, so men should be prepared to surrender their seats gallantly or suffer icy stares.
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La Table du Marché
Chef Christophe Leroy remakes his St Tropez market menu Marrakesh-style: succulent filet mignon crowned with a slab of seared foie gras and Coquille St Jacques slipping into a silky pear fondue. The outdoor villa setting is convivial, the plush seats comfy and the music groovy. When the surprisingly modest cheque arrives, you'll be quite pleased with yourself.
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Alizia
Al fresco dining that's sort of French, sort of Italian, and quintessentially Marrakshi. Good food and even better people-watching: in one corner of the garden, local internet daters attempt to impress one another, while in another chic Moroccan girlfriends out of a long-lost Marrakesh episode of Sex in the City dish over dinner and drinks.
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Niagara
When Catanzaro is packed to the rafters, do what the locals do: head to the north end of town for wood-fired pizzas at an even better price than Catanzaro. Marrakshi families crowd in during the day and early evening, and hipsters flock like homing pigeons to the covered roof terrace as the evening wears on - reservations are a good idea here too.
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Kechmara
If you can tear yourself away from the white and chrome décor, eye-candy waiters, and fashionable locals discussing affairs in Saarinen chairs, you might find the menu of interest. Respectable sandwiches and salads can be had for under around DH100, not to mention excellent cappuccino and aperitifs upstairs on the roof terrace.
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Les Terrasses de L’Alhambra
Shaded balconies offer a prime view over the storytellers and potion-sellers and respectable Italian espresso besides. The pizza is flimsy and under-seasoned, but a serviceable carbo-load for your next lap of the souqs.
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Bougainvillea
Recharge for your next lap of the souqs in this centrally located, arty fuschia riad with fresh-squeezed juices and serviceable sandwiches near the wall-o-water zellij fountain.
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Villa Flore
Dine in an art-deco-fabulous black-and-white riad on reinvented Moroccan salads and aromatic, meltingly tender lamb and duck, all presented in neat circles by stylishly suited waiters. Pull up a sofa near the French doors or sit in the sunny courtyard and unwind with a glass of wine, right in the heart of the souqs.
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Tobsil
In this intimate riad, 50 guests max indulge in button-popping five-course menus with aperitifs and wine pairings, as Gnawa musicians play in the courtyard. No excess glitz or bellydancers distract from upstanding mezze (salads), bastilla, tajines (yes, that’s plural) and couscous, capped with mint tea, fresh fruit and Moroccan pastries.
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Plats Haj Boujemaa
A reliable option where you can grab a stool under a sidewalk umbrella and trust the Haj to cook the meat of your choice to perfection. But be advised that even when properly cooked until golden, sheep’s testicles have a floury texture that’s hard to get over, not to mention stringy bits that stick in your teeth. That said, the chips are fantastic.
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Oliveri
Thermometers aren’t necessary in Marrakesh; all you need to gauge the heat are the lines at Oliveri. Ice creams have been made on these parlour premises for 50 years, and while the seasonal fresh fruit varieties are admirable, it’s the pistachio that inspires repeat pilgrimages.
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Nid’Cigogne
Get up close and personal with the storks across the way at the Saadian Tombs in this rooftop eatery. The grilled kefta (meatball) sandwiches, light salads and tajines are passable, but the view is memorable and service pleasant considering those steep stairs.
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Narwama
Opposites attract at Narwama, true to its name (fire and water) with unconventional combinations: Thai green curries and almond-and-cream bastilla (pastry), a DJ spinning Brazilian/Italian/Arabic tunes, and the best Moroccan mint mojito in town, all in a 19th-century riad with 21st-century Zen decor. Alcohol is served here.
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Mechoui Alley
Just before noon, the vendors at this row of stalls start carving up steaming sides of mechoui (slow-roasted lamb), as though expecting King Henry VIII for lunch. Point to the best-looking cut of meat, and ask for a ‘nuss’ (half) or ‘rubb’ (quarter) kilo. Some haggling might ensue, but should procure a baggie of falling-off-the-bone delicious lamb with fresh-baked bread, cumin, salt and olives (though you’re better off picking out your own across the souq).
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