Marrakesh?

Anyone been? Any recommendations on food or things to do etc?

Thinking about going for about 3 days is that enough?

Still need answers to this?

I would love to get there.

I posted about my trip here:

Thanks for the update. I think I enjoyed Nomad more than you did. Also Terrace d’Epices, Amal, and our riad/hotel. But overall it was not a culinary trip. (We went in 2019.)

Agreed kind of disappointing from a culinary stand point but I was not expecting that much

Just returned from a trip to Morocco on a 2-week whirlwind tour across the country. Contributing here with some of the food highlights.

Generally we found Moroccan food to be on the hearty side, highlighted by a main dish: tangine, which is clay pot slow cooking with various main ingredients (beef/lamb/chicken/vegetables). Tangine is everywhere, every Moroccan restaurant had it in one form or another. Couscous and pastilla/bastilla are other main Moroccan dishes that are found most everywhere, as well as meat skewers. Khobz bread also seem to be served everywhere. In terms of drinks, Morocco is known for mint tea.

We largely stayed away from street food for fear of eating the wrong thing because, as our guides tell us, we don’t have the “bacteria” like the locals to properly process the food. Same goes for the drinking water which is safe for the locals to drink but is a YMMV for tourists. It was good that every hotel we went to offered bottled water (or equivalent) free of charge.

Our first 10 days or so we stuck to Moroccan restaurants but after eating our umpteenth tangine dish, it got repetitive and we started veering towards restaurants of other cuisines. Here are a few samples of those we found were decent/good:

• Casablanca: Le Cabestan Served both Moroccan and European dishes. Great Ocean view.
• Chefchaouen: @restaurant in Dar Jasmine hotel in this picturesque town about 2.5hrs from Tangier that’s painted blue. If you stay/eat here, they allow BYOW to the restaurant. There’s a nice view of the city since the hotel is high up in the mountains. Warning: you have to walk ~145 steps to get to it! Get the hotel to bring your luggage.
• Fes: Eden at Palais Amani du Palais Faraj Another hotel restaurant serving Moroccan dishes.
• Fes: Restaurant MB A European restaurant that was one of the better ones in town.
• Marrakech Toro Toro Restaurant Serving South American food (we were craving for anything but Moroccan food by the time we hit Marrakech). Good reviews but overrated IMO.
• Marrakech: +61 Restaurant Owners are Australian which explains the “+61” as it represents Australia’s country code. Western style food from pasta to schnitzel. Good, not great. Odd that there was only one Aussie wine on their wine list.
• Marrakech: Sesamo (at Royal Mansour) This is a very high end Italian restaurant (by Morocco standards) at Royal Mansour owned by the King of Morocco. Beautiful place! You enter by a guarded gate to get there. We ordered the 1500 MAD tasting menu and it was good, probably one of the best in Morocco.

Just finished 14 days in Morocco via OAT. Rabat, Fes, Sahara, ouarzazate, Marrakech, Casablanca.

Some recommendations to break our 14 days of straight Tagine, Cous cous, skewers.

Rabat - Dinarjat - Moroccan food

Fes - Restaurant L’Amandier Au Palais - French - Morroccan food

Marrakech - PEPE NERO - Really good Italian

Casablanca - Au Four A Bois - Very good Italian

The tagine we had was at a guest house in the mountain outpost of Imlil and a Sahara desert tent!

If you want more details see:

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What are the blue and the purple piles? Surely not for cooking. But maybe these are not spices and if not, what are they???

I’ve put off a return to Morocco after reading so many times that restaurant food is not great…I’m guessing that I might be wrong about this nowadays..

Did you feel as if you got great food at the places you ate?

Did you go to Djemaa el Fnaa? If so, would you mind commenting on the food and the atmosphere around the square? Is it a total tourist scene now? (I’ve not been to Morocco in more than 30 years but keep thinking about a return and stopped by the idea that the food I can access will not be great…and totally geared toward tourists…

My favorite dish in Morocco was the mechoui, which I thought meant baked underground, hence the lack of sauce. I’m sad that your restaurant cooked it too dry because this dish, done well, reminded me of the great lechazo (roast sucking lamb) of the Castilla region of Spain. If you love lamb, a visit to that area is a “must!”

Thanks for the report; I enjoyed your blog as well, especially the zoo-restaurant in China!!

Do you both think that I’d be ok as a single (senior) female traveling alone but using drivers from place to place and maybe a few guides in cities? Was there a lot of bother from the local boys wanting to be your “guide??” I do remember that from previous trips..