Morocco’s most intoxicating city is best savoured in the winter, when the mercury rests at a very pleasant 20C.
The tight, winding streets of the medina may be confusing at ground level but climb to one of Marrakech’s many rooftops for a hot mint tea and see the city spread out like a terracotta carpet.
Here are our picks for the best five rooftop restaurants.
Le Trou au Mur
A type of fresh Moroccan pasta called berkoukesh is just one of the more unusual dishes on the menu at Le Trou au Mur. The focus here is traditional dishes passed down through the generations of home cooks, often not found in restaurants, as well as the speciality meshoui roast meats. Follow the tiny staircase and the terrace above the dining room reveals views to savour over the rooftops of the Kaat Bennahid quarter and the Atlas Mountains beyond.
Le Jardin Secret
The café atop the Hbiqa Pavillion of Le Jardin Secret gives sweeping views of one of the medina’s largest and most ancient riads, which recently opened to visitors following a restoration. With its stunning Arab-Muslim gardens hidden behind sturdy doors in the heart of the busy Moussaine district, the café, serving salads, panini and drinks, is the ideal place to survey the spellbinding scene of geometric paths, water features, grasses, herbs and palm and fruit trees, reimagined by English garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith.
Nomad
With its Instagrammable rooftop festooned with fairy lights, and its thick, wool capes for al fresco diners on chillier evenings, Nomad still reigns as one of the medina’s most-booked restaurants. Come for more modern riffs on traditional Moroccan dishes using local ingredients — such as roast chicken with chermoula and harissa, sardine tart and the Nomad spiced lamb burger — as well as to soak up the atmosphere as night falls over the Rose City.
Max & Jan
This is one of the newest of an ever-increasing number of concept stores opening in the medina, and is owned by Swiss/Belgian duo Jan Pauwels and Maximilian Scharl.
As well as its Moroccan-made clothes and homewares, what sets it apart is the all-day rooftop restaurant, adorned with straw and jauntily hued umbrellas, perfect for an afternoon’s lounging. The self-styled Soul Food menu is a mash-up of Moroccan and European tastes in collaboration with local caterers Food & Friends.
Café Arabe
An enduring favourite and one of the few places in the medina that serves alcohol, this is the place to come and sit with a mojito or glass of Champagne while watching the sun sink. With a Moroccan and Italian-slanted menu, it’s also a good time to order a plate of pasta when tagine fatigue sets in.
