Jenna El Fna

A foodie paradise? That was my perception of the square before visiting; unfortunately it falls rather short of the mark. The square is the central point of activity in Marrakesh and is something everyone needs to visit at least once but for food it did let me down a little. Each of the hundreds of stalls are essentially exact copies of one another and the majority of them specialize in takeaway classics such as mixed kebabs alongside Moroccan specialties like cous cous with vegetables. The food is decent don’t get me wrong; it just wasn't quite I’m going to eat this then quit uni and get a job hustling on the square so I can eat this every day good (I hate uni).

We ate here after arriving on our first night and didn't really enjoy it, in all fairness we had been travelling since 5AM the same morning so this may be a bit biased.  In my experience the best way to enjoy the square is after a couple of bottles of wine, I understand that’s an extremely chavy uncultured view to have but if it wasn't for the alcohol I probably wouldn't have sat down on a bench and started chowing down on the brains and tongue of a boiled sheep’s head, which was actually not that bad.

Surrounding the square is an abundance of restaurants/cafes many of which I was reluctant to eat at due to me viewing them as a bit too touristy. However if you are going to eat at the square a safe bet is ‘Toubkal’. Whilst this cafe isn't as grandiose as the mountain peak it is named after it does do an excellent chicken tagine with preserved lemons and olives that will cost you less than 3 quid, that’s right, less than three English pounds sterling (depending on your conversion rate).  With the chicken tagine being so good I’m going to go as far as saying you could probably order any tagine from here and it’d be good; If it’s not who cares, it’s less than three quid you can’t even get a meal from maccies for that. The couscous is also good but you’re probably best avoiding the rest of the menu, I tried the lamb ribs and instantly felt sorry that such a cute animal has been wasted. Also you should sit downstairs, service will be quicker and upstairs is quitter and grubbier despite providing a reasonable view of the square.

Another place we tried was ‘Le Premices’, cosmetically this is a bit more upmarket than many of the other places on the square and whilst more expensive than ‘Toubkal’ it’s still cheap. Whilst it looks a bit posh in reality the sanitary conditions and service don’t set it apart from anywhere else. I wasn't particularly happy to eat here but the lamb tagine and cous cous were actually pretty good, wouldn't go back in a hurry though.

Le Riad Monceau is a hotel that doubles up as restaurant and is relatively easy to find, about 5 minutes from the main square down one of the quitter souks. The first thing that needs to be said about the place is that it is the nicest restaurant I’ve ever eaten in my life, the only negative of this was that I felt highly unqualified to be there. I’m more used to shoving a dirty burger in my mouth and then proceeding to wash it down with some form of beer that I’ll undoubtedly spill everywhere in the process of doing so. At this place the waiters were filling up my wine glass literally as soon as it was empty, luckily I took it easy and didn’t make too much of a fool of myself but I felt like they were going to wipe my mouth between each fork full of food then bring over some really well groomed pug for me to stroke (I can dream). Jokes aside the service was excellent which I was most welcoming about as generally the service in Marrakesh is terrible. We picked a main from a set menu which featured delicious starters that I ate having very little idea what they were. I went for the ginger chicken tagine for my main which was really good but was a little too fancy to be the best tagine I've had in my time. I’d highly recommend this place but it doesn't exactly come cheap as I’m sure we paid around £100 for the two of us including drinks and tips.

On our final night we did the unthinkable and sought out a restaurant that we actually wanted to go to. Amia restaurant is located in Marrakesh's ‘New Town’ and is rated at number 6 on tripadvisor. It’s good but I’m pretty surprised it’s rated so high. The interior is really nice and transports you out of Morocco for the time you’re sat in there. The menu does the same thing; I had to double take when I started seeing things like steak and burgers popping up and whilst it had a reasonable variety of choices I stayed loyal to the tagine. It was good, no complaints; additionally I tried the monk fish which had a tomato, olive and caper dressing and was also really good. Amia gets a thumbs up from me over all, good menu, good food, very reasonably priced and they serve alcohol (Hallelujah). The only downfalls were the atmosphere as we were the only people in there, which I can’t really understand for such a highly rated restaurant. The service was also slow which was pretty ridiculous considering.

We also went to a place called Kosybar, nice views, expensive drinks and terrible food; wouldn't recommend it.

I don’t know whether this has come across negative or not but regardless I love Marrakesh and everyone needs to go there.