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The fairytale and magical atmosphere can be felt everywhere in Marrakech even in its 1000 restaurants; it is not difficult to find places to eat well and at the same time look around and feel immersed in the scenography of an ancient fairy tale.
Even in the most desolate streets, behind a hidden door you can find unexpected chic and secret… it almost seems that it is enough to say “Open sesamus” to have access to a world made of artfully carved wood and tiles painted in the brightest colors.
So here are what for us are the most beautiful restaurants in Marrakech:
The Arab Maison
One of marrakech’s best-known restaurants/riads, a place with a refined and opulent atmosphere.
Apparently the current owner of maison Arabe is Italian, perhaps for this reason the menu mixes traditional Moroccan cuisine with refined French and Mediterranean flavors typical of our peninsula. The atmosphere is elegant but sober in all its environments.
The indoor bar with soft lights, lounge music, and fluffy couches is a great place to start the evening, enjoy alcoholic cocktails, and have a few chats before dinner. The indoor dining room is very stylish, with low, warm lights, but it’s the poolside tables everyone aspires to.
In January there are stoves to warm up the very cold nights of Marrakech: the temperature is perfect, so much so that we forget to be outside. Low lights, lantern-lit tables, and soft, relaxing local music. You can breathe refinement and elegance to which is added the impeccable service and the goodness of the dishes. We recommend some of the dishes proposed by maison Arabe that we have tasted:
Appetizers:
- The squid pastilla (the best we ate in Marrakech)
- Fillo pasta with rice, meat, vegetables and cheese
Both typical appetizers of Moroccan cuisine
First courses:
Duck and mushroom risotto: a very tasty Italian recipe.
Very well creamy, the smoky taste of duck, was very well combined with that delicate and almost creamy taste of rice.
Second Courses:
Chateaubriand with mashed potatoes and mushrooms.
A very tender cut and medium cooking as requested by us.
Dessert:
Pull me up.
Classic recipe but artfully executed! 10 and praise!
Wine:
In this restaurant they serve alcohol and have a decent wine list. We chose a 2017 Medallion cabernet, very good at a cost of about 35 euros.
We advise you to reserve a table for a special occasion such as a birthday: just warn one of the waiters that at the end of the dinner you will need a semifreddo cake complete with candle, all intoning the classic: “happy birthday” in Arabic and French.
You can book the table at Maison Arabe for 19:00 or 21:30.
A dinner similar to ours will cost you about 50 euros per person, but it will be worth it for the goodness of the dishes and the refinement of the environment.
To fassia
Restaurant that we discovered with the help of our taxi driver and now trusted friend. Behind a large wooden door, the Al Fassia restaurant hides almost like a secret.
The entrance is illuminated by lanterns, the room is chic, with large chandeliers, round tables, velvet sofas, and warm, soft lights. All the staff welcomes us in a smiling way and immediately offers us a typical Moroccan welcome: focaccia, oil and olives. In this dinner, without even realizing it, we choose many dishes and in a moment our table is packed with many different dishes, all really excellent:
- Fillo pasta with rice, meat, vegetables and cheese
- TajineKafta (mashed meatballs with special spices)
- Beef tajine with caramelized onion and fried eggplant, which we asked to accompany with white rice.
- Imperial CousCous, a very abundant portion of both meat and vegetables and couscous.
- Layered phyllo paste, with chopped almonds and vanilla ice cream (or milk, but at the suggestion of the “hostess”, we opted for ice cream).
Again we ordered our Cabernet Medallion.
We particularly enjoyed the cuisine of the restaurant Al Fassia: we found different dishes, always typical of Moroccan cuisine, but that not all the restaurants of Marrakech offer.
Palace Charamane
At this restaurant we stayed for lunch and it was a pleasant find. If you are looking for Palace Charamanne on Tripadvisor, you will often see it labelled as “touristy” and in fact it is: fixed-price menus, typical and well-known dishes of the Moroccan tradition and it seems that at dinner there are also belly players and dancers. Touristy yes, but we were pleasantly impressed.
The restaurant is accessed by a small street even a little hidden and by a door that seems not to promise anything good.
In fact, the interior leaves you breathless: a feast of painted pins, windows with a thousand colors, inlated wood, scenographic chandeliers and round tables with the classic sofas covered by cushions.
- Our menu included:
- vegetable appetizers (zucchini, potatoes, chillies, tomatoes with onion, cucumbers)
- Classic couscous with chicken (very spicy and tasty to be honest)
- Pastrilla with chicken (also with very intense contrasting flavors)
- Mixed fresh fruit
Inevitable mint tea served in the classic glass glasses and with the classic gesture of tradition, keep the teapot high and let the tea down and accompanied by typical sweets, different and delicious!
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