Where to eat at and around Dar Kandi

Within ten minutes on foot

• Henna Café

  1 min walk

  Social café with a terrace, and henna · €

  A minute along the same lane, open since 2011 as the first natural henna café in the city, and run so that its profits go to local projects, from a soup kitchen to classes. The kitchen cooks the Berber dishes of the south, with plenty for vegetarians: lentil salad, hummus, a falafel plate, a kefta tagine, vegetarian couscous and a sandwich of khlii, the slow-cured lamb of Marrakech, then oranges with cinnamon. Berber teas and juices, no alcohol. Open every day for lunch, on a sunny terrace, on the roof or in the salon, and the henna artists work with natural henna if you want a design.

  Walk in93 Arset Aouzal, Bab Doukkala, Medina

• Dar Moha

  3 min walk

  Moroccan fine dining in a riad garden · €€€€

  An 18th-century riad three minutes away, with a garden, a fountain and a zellige pool, and a cooking style that reworks the Moroccan classics. Lunch is the easier way in, with the garden and its pool in daylight. The tasting menu is the full parade: warm small plates such as aubergine cigars with almonds and honey, a run of cold salads (zaalouk, taktouka with argan oil, carrots with orange blossom), a seafood pastilla with bisque cream, then lamb shank tagine or barley couscous with chicken. Open every day, lunch 12:00 to 16:00 and dinner 19:00 to 23:00; book, especially for dinner.

  Book well ahead: tables go weeks out81 Rue Dar El Bacha, Medina

• Bacha Coffee

  3 min walk

  Coffee room in a palace · €€

  The coffee room inside Dar el Bacha, the palace of the old pasha of Marrakech, now the Musée des Confluences, three minutes from the riad. The room is gold and tiled, the coffee is served in silver pots, and there are pastries to go with it. You need a museum ticket to get in, and the queue can run long by late morning, so go when the doors open at 10:00. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00; closed Monday.

  Walk inDar el Bacha, Route Sidi Abdelaziz, Medina

• La Terrasse des Épices

  8 min walk

  Rooftop restaurant and bar over the souks · €€€

  An open-air terrace on top of the Souk Cherifia, eight minutes away, running since 2007, with the Atlas and the Koutoubia on the skyline by day and the stars at night. The cooking mixes Moroccan and Mediterranean: order the tanjia marrakchia, meat slow-cooked in a clay jar, the dish the city is known for, and the chocolate and dried-fruit pastilla to finish. The bar serves Champagne and seasonal cocktails, and there is live music every evening. Open every day, 12:00 to 17:00 and 18:30 to 00:30, last orders 45 minutes before closing. Book for a sunset table.

  Reserve ahead15 Souk Cherifia, Sidi Abdelaziz, Medina

• Café Arabe

  8 min walk

  Moroccan and Italian restaurant with a rooftop bar · €€€

  A riad on Rue Mouassine, eight minutes away, that has served for more than 20 years, with a patio below and a rooftop above that looks over the Medina roofs to the Koutoubia. The kitchen does two cuisines, Moroccan and Italian, so a tagine and a plate of pasta can share the table, and the rooftop bar pours cocktails and a selection of wines. Service runs without a break every day from late morning into the late evening, which makes it useful for a late lunch after the souks or a drink before dinner; breakfast is served too. Book for the roof at sunset.

  Reserve ahead184 Rue Mouassine, Medina

• Le Jardin

  9 min walk

  Garden restaurant in a riad · €€

  A 1960s house off the Souk Sidi Abdelaziz, nine minutes away, with green zellige walls and a courtyard so full of trees and birds that the souks outside disappear. The menu is Moroccan with a few European plates: a seafood or chicken pastilla to start, then lamb mechoui, beef tanjia marrakchia or a fish and seafood tagine, and saffron crème brûlée. No alcohol: the beer is alcohol-free. Open every day from 11:00 to 23:00, with breakfast from 10:00 to 12:00; a 7% service charge is added to the bill. Book for lunch in high season.

  Reserve ahead32 Souk Sidi Abdelaziz, Medina

• Kui-Zin

  9 min walk

  Moroccan home-cooking buffet and rooftop · €€

  Home cooking in the Marrakech way, nine minutes from the riad: tagines that simmer for hours, couscous every day, salads and bread still warm, made by a kitchen of women cooks. The buffet is served at lunch and dinner, €18 a person at lunch and €20 at dinner, €14 for children, with vegetarian dishes and an à la carte menu if you would rather order. In the evening there is live Moroccan music on the roof from 19:00, and tea time, with mint tea and home-made pastries, runs from 10:00 to 22:30. Small-group cooking classes end with lunch.

  Reserve ahead12 Rue Amsefah, Sidi Abdelaziz, Medina

Breakfast