Every dish has a memory behind it, a Berber village, a grandmother's insistence, eight hours in the hammam embers. Slow-cooked tagines, hand-rolled couscous, tanjia, pastilla. Prices in Moroccan Dirham.
The seven dishes we cook most often, the ones guests return for. Most have been on this menu since 1946; one we added later because regulars asked.
Layers of paper-thin warqa, saffron chicken, almonds, a dusting of cinnamon sugar.
Hand-torn msemen bathed in fenugreek broth with lentils and free-range chicken.
Slow-cooked lamb shoulder, candied prunes, toasted almonds, cinnamon stick. A feast-day dish, every day.
Hand-minced lamb and beef, ras-el-hanout, coriander, charcoal-grilled on iron skewers.
Seasoned only with salt, cumin, and fire. The simplest dish. The hardest.
Layers of warm warqa, almond cream, orange-blossom milk. A jewel to end the meal.
Seven vegetables, lamb shank, and the broth that took all morning.
Marrakech's signature clay urn, sealed at the top and slow-cooked for eight hours in the embers of the hammam ovens. A dish the city's bachelors invented; three generations of this family have perfected it.
Preserved lemon, Atlas olives, and saffron. Lighter, cleaner, still unmistakably Marrakech.
The Medina classic. Meltingly tender lamb, deeply spiced with cumin and slow-cooked to perfection.
A leaner cousin, slow-cooked with cumin, garlic, and aged Moroccan smen.
The conical clay pot is Morocco's oldest oven, steam falls back into the dish for hours and the meat surrenders. Savoury with preserved lemon and olives; sweet with prunes, honey and almond.
Seasonal market vegetables, ras-el-hanout, and preserved lemon, simmered in traditional clay.
Free-range chicken, Atlas olives, preserved lemon, and saffron.
Slow-cooked lamb, sweet prunes, toasted almonds, and a cinnamon stick. A timeless Moroccan combination.
Slow-braised over embers with green olives and tangy preserved lemon.
Candied pears, cinnamon, orange-blossom.
Prunes, honey, toasted almonds.
Hand-rolled semolina, seven vegetables, broth that took all morning. In Marrakech we eat couscous on Fridays, on our rooftop, every day is Friday.
Seven seasonal vegetables and spiced broth over hand-rolled semolina.
Free-range chicken, tender chickpeas, and saffron-infused broth.
The Friday classic in Marrakech. Built slowly, eaten slowly, shared with family.
Deep, spiced, and warming. A hearty taste of Moroccan tradition.
Small plates to open the meal, cooked salads, slow soups, a fish pastilla with its own following. Order three or four for the table and pass them around.
Vermicelli, glass noodles, delicate seafood, cinnamon dust.
Crisp outside, herbed and soft within.
A platter of small cooked salads, carrot, beetroot, and seasonal market vegetables, dressed with cumin and olive oil.
Hand-cut, twice-fried.
Smoked aubergine, tomato, garlic, cumin. Cooked low until silky.
Roasted peppers, tomato, garlic. A cooked Moroccan salad, served at room temperature.
A grandmother's soup. Nothing more.
Tomato, lentils, chickpeas, lamb. The Ramadan classic.
Two cool plates for warm afternoons, made from market produce delivered the same morning.
Grilled chicken, crisp romaine, shaved grana.
Fresh burrata, tomato, basil, olive oil.
Italy via Bab Doukkala. Three sauces over your choice of tagliatelle, penne or spaghetti, for the guest who wants a quiet plate alongside the Moroccan classics.
House beef ragù, simmered low.
Cream, garlic, thyme, mountain mushrooms.
San Marzano tomato, basil, olive oil.
Charcoal grill, ras-el-hanout marinade, served with warm khobz bread and a small bowl of harissa on the side.
Marinated in ras-el-hanout, charcoal-grilled.
Charcoal-grilled breast, lemon-cumin marinade, served with warm khobz and harissa.
Three ways to end a Moroccan meal: cold, fragrant, unhurried. Always followed by the mint tea ritual, poured from height.
Cold-pressed, orange-blossom water, cinnamon dust.
Gazelle horns, briouats, chebakia.
Seasonal, honey-lime syrup.
Savoury or sweet, golden-edged, folded at the pass. The children's favourite, and, quietly, everyone else's too.
Savoury, golden, crisp-edged.
Savoury, with béchamel and herbs.
Classic, warm, indulgent.
The upgrade.
House-made salted caramel.
Mountain honey, orange blossom.
Smaller plates the kitchen makes when the youngest guests are at the table. Available all day.
Toasted ham, cheese, egg on top.
Classic toasted ham and cheese.
Chicken, bacon, lettuce, tomato, house fries.
Two ways to begin a Marrakech morning, fresh bread, slow honey, mint tea poured from height.
Mint tea, fresh khobz, msemen, beghrir, butter, honey, amlou, olives, eggs, fruit, fresh juice.
A northern-Moroccan plate, rghaif, herbel, bissara, fresh khobz, mint tea, seasonal fruit.
Pressed at the bar each morning. The mint tea is poured from height into a small glass, three times, Moroccan ritual.
Fresh mint, lime, sugar, soda.
Cold-brewed, lemon, mint.
Cold-pressed at the bar each morning.
Cold-pressed.
Cold-pressed, served chilled.
Avocado, milk, sugar, almonds.
Cold-pressed.
Cold-pressed, in season.
Crisp, served cold.
Chilled.
Chilled.
Chilled.
Chilled.
The Moroccan fruit soda.
Pulp-rich, chilled.
Short espresso.
Lengthened with hot water.
Espresso, steamed milk.
Cold, with ice.
Saffron threads steeped in fresh mint.
Poured from height, three times. Moroccan ritual.
Black tea, cinnamon, cardamom, clove.
Lemon verbena from the Atlas.
Desert-style, sweetened.