Morocco
We enjoyed a delicious lunch here on the patio under the shade of wonderful lush banana trees! Service was friendly and efficient. Lovely fresh juices and so peaceful and calm.
www.lejardin.ma
32, Souk El Jeld, Sidi Abdelaziz, Marrakech Medina
+212 524 378 295
We ate here three times and each time it was relaxing and inviting and the service very professional. Both the Moroccan and Italian menus were extraordinary.
The restaurant is in a gorgeous Moroccan building with a very romantic atmosphere that contributed to making our wedding anniversary so memorable. I very much recommend this restaurant.
www.pepenero-marrakech.com
17 derb Cherkaoui, Marrakech
+212 (0)524 389067
The food stalls in the square of the Jemaa el Fna or La Place, as the French call it, where Marakshis have come for centuries for dinner and a show are a place everyone should visit at least once in their lives we agreed with the German couple sitting next to us tucking into snails and camel heel while discussing their daughters’ Northern Soul thesis and watching the snake charmers and storytellers work their magic. I preferred their taste in music to their taste in food but the myriad of food stalls here also serve fish and chips or tagines for the more faint hearted. This isn’t a big place but that only seems to make you so much more aware of just how diverse and colourful the world is as you break bread with people from all corners of the world.
Google map: bit.ly/ydKNEH
PEPE NERO restaurant ,
( www.pepenero-marrakech.com )VERY GOOD RESTAURANT with very professional team: They noticed that we were very interested in Italian menu and they tell us all about the dishes and wines. My wife wanted to know some details about a recipe and they guided us through the really spotless kitchen and introduced us to the cooking staff. The young Chef was very kind explaining how he was working hard for achieving the maximum level of excellence in his work starting from the ingredients’ quality: He owns a farm few Km far from Marrakech to produce bio ingredients and go personally everyday to the markets to select the rest. His words revealed the enthusiasm that is beyond his successful work.
Concerning the food, we had Moroccan food for our entire trip so wanted to change, we preferred the Bel Paese menu, that includes a selection of their best Italian dishes. I had as starter the Chef’s salad and my wife the salmon’s carpaccio: Both exquisite and well presented. We continued with courgettes’ ravioli and saffran risotto: Really delicious!!! The roasted lamb en croute d’epices and the sea bass’s pave were the yummy end. No space left for the dessert..
We will try them next time.. we will be back by sure!!
www.pepenero-marrakech.com
17, derb Cherkaoui - Douar Graoua
Marrakech
phone : 00212 524 389067
Sure, you get the awful designer copies and culture shock when you first enter the souks but it's full of the most delicate, pretty and (very) cheap products you could possibly want. For those looking for a slightly more colourful or cultured home, I highly recommend this part of the world - but I'd only go for a day or so. It can get overwhelming, but so long as you know what you're doing, you'll be fine. I plan on heading back within the next couple of years so I can properly kit out my home.
Central Marrakech - Morocco
Google map: bit.ly/mbyDKc
A beautiful tucked away riad in a central location, amazing hospitality, incredible food and the best service I have encountered. Peter (the owner) was a wonderful host along with Hassan who is adorable. Kabira (chef) is absolutely incredible, her food is to die for. This Riad is really worth a visit - if you are planning a trip to Marrakech you must stay here - we were 3 ladies travelling together and we were so well looked after - would definately re-visit.
Dar Zaman
29 Derb Bouelilou
Sidi Ben Slimane
40000 Marrakech Medina
tel: + 212 (0) 24 37 66 12
We stayed here for three nights. Riad Lorsya is beautifully renovated and very well located, just a few minutes walk from the main square.
There are two suites and two rooms, well-decorated. The dinner offered on the first evening was the best one we had in Marrakech.
61, Derb El Hammam, Quartier Mouassine, Marrakech Medina
riad-lorsya.com
+212 661 24 84 32
Google map: tinyurl.com/zbm74l
Nice riad, welcoming hosts, good location five minutes' walk from the main square, good value for money.
I will recommend it to all my friends
61, Derb El hammam, Mouassine, Marrakech.
riad-lorsya.com, + 212 661 24 84 32
Google map: tinyurl.com/zbm74l
Dar Najat is a fabulous riad in the medina. Comfortable, relaxing with the finest staff I have encountered. They and the owner Olivier Behar are a "family" - so much so that we kept wanting to get back to our home-from- home. As we ate our delicious dinners under the stars we counted our blessings. Look at the website and be convinced - it's hospitality at its best. Prices from €83.
This restaurant is run by a women's cooperative and we were quite curious to try it. Not a cheap restaurant and located out of the Medina so with a supplementary cost of the taxi, but it deserves the visit. We had dinner with a reservation and the food quality was excellent. The menu is a la carte - a thing unusual for a Moroccan restaurant in Marrakech, so you can choose how much you want to eat. The dishes are beautifully prepared and distinctive. The pastilla of pigeon was wonderful and the lamb tagine was excellent too.
www.alfassia.com/
55, Boulevard Zerktouni, Guéliz - 40000 - Marrakesh - MOROCCO
Tel. 00212 5 24 43 40 60
Google map: tinyurl.com/ylo5tw3
This restaurant send a guide to your riad or hotel to walk you round there. You would never be able to find it otherwise.
The inside of the building is astonishing with huge high ceilings in very ornate mosaic style. All the waiters wear traditional costume and when we were there there was a large open log fire burning.
All in all an environment never to be forgotten.
The food was very good and was beautifully served.
My wife and I stayed at Riad Al Moussika hotel for four nights in early January, and it was definitely one of the highlights of our journey to Morocco! Our choice of the hotel was made completely on the suggestion of Daniel Jacobs on The Observer, Sunday December 21 2008, and on Trip Advisor reviews: Before arriving, we were wondering if we have made the good choice, but the minute we walked in, we realized that Riyad Al Moussika was beyond all our expectations. We got an amazing room (the green one) with a private terrace and a beautiful loggia in front that overlooked the mature trees garden and the nice swimming pool, and all the Riad was done in very capturing style. The service of the boys was impeccable and the food served by the Chef Cordon bleu, to die for. The Riad itself is very beautiful and authentically Moroccan and we felt very much like home.
The Hotel Riyad Al Moussika, where I spent with friends a long weekend at the beginning of our journey to the south of Morocco in early January, is a place that has stopped time, where the magical atmosphere, relives Morocco of Pasha of 1800, but with all the comfort of our century. Everything is perfect, authentic, calm, serene.
I recommend strongly this hotel for its central location, even for the excellent and very professional service provided by the young boys of the staff, always smiling and present without being intrusive.
The chef and owner, Khalid, a nice and helpful big boy, who speaks I do not know how many languages, but among them an excellent Italian that has enabled me to know a world of things about authentic Marrakech, thing impossible otherwise, due to my language limitations, and, most important, who cooks in divine way.
I conclude that the value for money is very good considering that the copious breakfast and the courses haute cuisine lunch, (by far the best of all restaurants in Marrakech and Morocco, where we ate), are included in rate.
Only one regret: Have stayed there for four nights only!
www.riyad-al-moussika.com
Riyad Al Moussika s.a.r.l.
62,derb Boutouil - Kennaria
Marrakech - Morocco
contact@riyad-al-moussika.ma
Phone 00212 (0) 24 389067
Fax: 00212 (0) 24 377653
Stylish restaurant with a great mix of Moroccan and European design. A friend of mine booked it for us and we ate on the roof terrace which has great views over Marrakech. There are two menus: one typically Moroccan and the other more fusion International/Moroccan. I had a Moroccan tajine which was extremely tasty.
Reservation is recommended. It's not cheap but it's a romantic place and is also good for small groups.
55 Souk Hal Fassi
Marrakech
Tel: +212 (0)24 378190
www.foundouk.com
This is an amazing place, a bus trip out of the city, where you can see great waterfalls, go for a hike, swim and then get a great meal at the cafe. While you wait for your food, sip endless glasses of mint tea, and take in the views and then tuck in! I had a lamb tagine (amazing) cooked in an earthenware pot in the ground. Super cheap too!
Just outside Marrakech
This great little patisserie and juice shop is on Rue Dabachi about 50 metres west of Chez Chegrouni (the NW corner of Djemma el-Fna) - the sign is in Arabic only but you'll know it's the one because it's just at the corner of Route Kennaria D. It is open all day but particularly humming with life at about 10-11pm. Join the locals in choosing what to have in your freshly made smoothie/milkshake. Try milk and almonds (lait et amandes), or peach and plum (peche et prune), or a mix (panache - pronounced panashee). Ask for it without sugar if you prefer (sans sucre). The fruit is wonderful. They also do pastries, yoghurts with fruit etc. And they'll make up boxes of Moroccan mini-pastries for you to take home for your friends - a big box holds up to 500g (the cost is very reasonable - think it was 60 dirhams per half kilo). Smoothies and milkshakes are around 9 dirhams each - excellent value even by Moroccan standards. And the staff were very friendly - we became evening regulars and were quite sad to leave. Why doesn't someone set one of these up in London?
Patisserie Al Jawda, Rue Dabachi 16-18, Marrakech, tel 024 38 73 05
One of the few restaurants in the medina that serves alcohol. The food was nice but to be honest the food in many of the places surrounding Djemma El Fna was equally nice and cheaper.
14 Derb J'did near Place Des Ferblantiers in Mellah area in the south of the medina.
For a totally different view of Marrakech not too far from the medina walls - this is a cafe serving coffee, tea, soft drinks and light snacks. As with most places within Marrakech this place does not serve alcohol.
The Hivernage is a neighbourhood of nice villas and five-star hotels so Café Extrablatt is an interesting contrast to the relative poverty of the medina. Watch as the customers pull up in their 4x4s dressed in their western fashions. Still not expensive from a western point of view but interesting to people-watch.
in the district of Hivernage at corner of Avenue Echouhada & Avenue El Qadissia. Not too far from Sofitel hotel just outside medina walls.
Pleasant spot in souks area for a refreshing soft drink or light snack (sorry no alcohol as with most places within the medina!). You can sit on the roof terrace watching over the spice souk. Young and friendly staff.
75 Rahba Kedima off Rue Samarine (one of main roues into souk)
8am - 8pm daily
Tigmi was a complete nightmare. We arrived there after a sublime stay at the Kasbah de Toubkal and what a comedown it was. Service was appalling in every respect. The so-called spa offered only a handful of the treatments on the menu. The room was freezing and three heaters had to be hauled in before they could get one to work. They used cold water for the pedicure. But worse was yet to come... the heater in my niece's room burst into flames in the middle of the night and no-one came to help despite us all screaming and yelling. There were no fire extinguishers in the rooms. The owner's response? The heater was made in China. In my room, there was a leakage of water overnight flooding the whole room and staining my leather luggage. The owner's response? I must have left a tap on. They were quite defensive and accusatory. No discount was offered nor any apology. We were supposed to just shrug it off apparently - just as they did. The French manager is so arrogant it beggars belief. The only saving grace? The food was good and the beds were comfortable. A ghastly place stuck in the middle of an extremely poor village. Don't waste your time going there... and don't believe the brochure.
Search Been there