Nobu Hotel Marrakech is the first hotel Nobu opened in Africa: a round, rose-coloured building on the corner of Avenue Echouhada and Rue du Temple in Hivernage, the garden quarter just west of the Medina walls. It opened in January 2023 in what had been The Pearl Marrakech, a 2012 building that began as the Delano, reworked by its owner, the Hivernage Collection, with MC Hotels and Nobu Hospitality, the hotel company built around the chef Nobu Matsuhisa. Inside, Moroccan tilework, carved plaster and pillars meet Japanese restraint, and a towering bonsai stands in the lobby.
All 71 keys are suites. The entry Junior Suite has a sitting corner and a king or twin beds, with dark wood, patterned tiles and ruby and plum fabrics. Most suites look to the Atlas Mountains or the Koutoubia minaret, and some face the street, so ask for a mountain or Koutoubia side. The Deluxe Junior Suite is 60 m², with a lounge behind floor-to-ceiling windows. The Deluxe One Bedroom Suite, from 80 m², adds a separate living room, a veranda and a marble bathroom with a freestanding tub; the Studio Suite, 110 m², has a veranda facing the Medina walls and the Atlas. Family suites join two suites for four, and the Nobu Riad, a six-suite house in the Medina, is let whole.
The reason to book is the table. Nobu Marrakech, on the ground floor, serves the dishes the name is known for, black cod miso, rock shrimp tempura and yellowtail sashimi, alongside plates built on Moroccan flavours, every evening from 7pm, with the Nobu Bar beside it for a cocktail first. Upstairs, the circular roof becomes a 360-degree terrace over the city, with the Atlas on the southern skyline on a clear day: a round pool open all year, cabanas, a sushi bar through the afternoon, a Mediterranean and Moroccan restaurant from noon, and DJ sets after dark. Below ground, The Pearl Spa covers more than 2,000 m², with a heated mosaic pool and a hammam. The from rate includes breakfast, and the hotel serves alcohol throughout.
The trade is calm. This is a lively hotel: the rooftop bar runs until 1am, and 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, and guests in the upper suites mention the music. The Medina is close but not at the door: 13 minutes on foot to the Koutoubia, 20 to Jemaa el-Fna, or about five minutes by petit taxi. And it is a splurge, from about €735 a night for a Junior Suite in spring. Book it for a winter-sun break built around dinner and the roof, with the souks a short ride away; skip it if you want silence at midnight or a riad's courtyard.
