The back story
Marrakech at the table: tagines, terraces and the night market
Le Marocain at La Mamounia, Al Fassia’s kitchen of women, the roof terraces of Nomad, L’mida and Le Foundouk, the brasserie of Gueliz and the smoke of Jemaa el-Fna at night: how Marrakech eats.
Marrakech eats at three heights. On the ground, at dusk, the food stalls of Jemaa el-Fna light up for an evening that UNESCO describes as a concentration of popular Moroccan culture. Up on the roofs of the medina, restaurants such as Nomad, L’mida and Le Foundouk serve tagines and modern Moroccan cooking within sight of the Koutoubia. And behind palace walls, Le Marocain at La Mamounia and the tables of the Royal Mansour keep the grand tradition. There is no MICHELIN selection for Morocco (checked November 2026), and we quote no ratings: these are places we would send a friend.
The grand tables
At La Mamounia, Le Marocain serves traditional Moroccan dishes by chef Rachid Agouray, beside Italian food by Simone Zanoni and Asian specialities by Jean-Georges Vongerichten (the hotel’s site). At the Royal Mansour, La Grande Table and Le Jardin are among the hotel’s restaurants; at Selman, Jean-François Piège has directed the kitchens since 2024.
On the roofs of the medina
Nomad, on Derb Aarjane above the spice square, cooks “modern Moroccan” with local, seasonal ingredients. L’mida, created by two friends, Omar and Simo, in a two-storey Marrakchi house designed by Noon Interior Studio, has a bar on its green roof terrace. Le Foundouk, in a restored caravanserai, has been a restaurant and bar since 2002.
Women in the kitchen
Al Fassia opened in Gueliz in 1987 with a kitchen and dining room run by women; Sahbi Sahbi celebrates the dadas, the women who hand recipes down the generations; and Amal, a non-profit, has trained women in its Marrakech kitchens since 2012.
Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © YoTuT from United States · CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia CommonsGueliz and the new town
Le Grand Café de la Poste, a brasserie of the 1920s at the corner of Boulevard El Mansour Eddahbi and Avenue Imam Malik, is a witness to the history of the Ville Nouvelle; +61 brings Australian ease to Gueliz.
Book the roof terraces for sunset; in the medina, ask the restaurant to send someone to meet you.
Our advice: eat at Jemaa el-Fna once, early in the evening, at a busy stall where the food is cooked in front of you.
Why it's on our list
- The grand tables
- On the roofs of the medina
- Women in the kitchen
- Gueliz and the new town
Location
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More in depth
The back storyMoroccan FoodThe tagine, Friday couscous, pastilla, the tanjia of Marrakech, harira and the ceremony of mint tea: what to eat in Marrakech.
The back storyWhere Marrakech sleeps: palaces, riads and the gardens beyond the wallsLa Mamounia and the Royal Mansour inside the walls, riads such as El Fenn and La Maison Arabe in the lanes of the medina, and the garden resorts of the Palmeraie and the Atlas road: where to stay in Marrakech.
The back storyThe red city: reading Marrakech’s great sightsThe Koutoubia’s minaret, the open-air theatre of Jemaa el-Fna, the Saadian Tombs, the ruins of El Badi and the courtyards of the Bahia and Ben Youssef: how to read the medina UNESCO listed in 1985.