Dar Fez - Boo in Marrakesh

We asked the lovely owners of our riad, Riad Clementine, to recommend a nearby place to eat on the second evening of our stay. They did offer food where we were staying but guests need to inform the kitchen of their dining intentions during the day in order for the chef to purchase sufficient ingredients. We'd neglected to do this so sampled the delights of the nearby Dar Fez.

We were told we would be greeted by one of the waiters as the place is located off the main street down a little alleyway (pictured top). As is the case with most venues in Marrakesh but we thought this was a very nice touch. The sight that met us upon entering the dining room was awesome, a massive tree is situated in the middle of the space with branches tangling all the way up the length of the walls making for pretty spectacular surroundings.


We both went for a set menu option of a selection of salads to start, tagine for main and some melon and traditional biscuits served with mint tea for afters.


The 'salads' for me were the highlight of the meal, more of a Moroccan meze selection really with a variety of dishes including aubergine, courgettes, olives, lettuce (dressed with rosewater), spicy tomatoes, lentils, red cabbage all served with the obligatory flatbreads. I love this type of eating.


This time I opted for the lamb tagine with prunes. I didn't really notice a huge difference from venue to venue, and having tried multiple versions over our 4 day trip I would conclude that I prefer the red meat tagines, the chicken we tried tended to be fairly on the dry side despite being served on the bone whereas the beef and lamb are typically cut into smaller chunks to ensure they are moist and tender. Dar Fez's take on the dish was very heavy on the prunes though, I left many of them. They were very generous portion sizes.


Next up was a plate of melon. Water, galia and cantelope this was good and a nice light alternative to dessert. We also had mint tea and this came with 3 types of traditional Moroccan biscuits, served on a tiered serving dish there were loads of them, far too many for the 2 of us to get through.

We'd opted for the 4 course menu, there were additional menus which added a pastilla course and/or a cous cous but we found this to be more than enough food. We paid about £30 each and had a bottle of rose, very reasonable. We were the only diners throughout the evening though, I always find that slightly unnerving.

Dar Fez
8 Rue Bousoouni
Bab Doukalla