Cafe Clock — Restaurant in Marrakesh Prefecture

Sometimes, the rarest and most precious of gems are located in the far less obvious and unexpected places. No gem exemplifies this commonly held wisdom any better than Café Clock in Marrakech does. Located near Bab Ksiba, it is very removed from the nucleus of the action in Marrakech’s Medina. Hence, it is unlikely to be a place that a traveler stumbles on to organically. That does not take away from its importance and value to any trip to Marrakech. In fact, I would plan my trip around Café Clock’s evening event schedule – since they are a LOT more than a restaurant. They are a fantastic community space that facilitates cooking classes, immersion classes on Moroccan culture for the relatively uninitiated, live music played on a casual environment etc. Furthermore, their correspondence over e-mail for any questions/inquiries is impeccably prompt (thanks Khaled!). I undoubtedly had high expectations after entering the restaurant (after a 30-minute walk from Koutoubia mosque after giving up on the Number 6 Alsa bus!) and my expectations were FAR exceeded. I had the privilege, that evening, of being attended on by the incredibly charming, classy, and gracious Maroua. Between nudging me towards the right food options and indulging me in engaging banter, she went the extra mile to make me want to return (sadly I couldn’t but would have loved to!). She also left the door open for any follow-up questions that I had about the food and the institution that is Café Clock! The food was fantastic. It was my first time eating a Vegetarian Pastilla (what am onslaught of flavor!). Needless to say, it was love at first taste! It is worth noting that as a vegetarian, being catered to with local cuisine (especially one that is NOT traditionally vegetarian), is a sure-fire way of winning my long-term patronage. I also had an assortment of Moroccan sweets at the end of that meal (that Maroua was more than glad to give me an overview of). The evening’s entertainment was by the talented Imed. He did fantastic Oud-driven (Oud is a local musical instrument) acoustic renditions of hit pop classics such as “Aicha” by Cheb Khaled, “Habibi nour e lain” by Amr Diab, and “Tamally Maak” by Amr Diab (although I am convinced he took some liberties with the lyrics of the last song!). It was just him sitting on a couch playing for the dinner guests. The casual nature of the performance accentuated its intimacy and it really worked! I would have loved to return to this place (sadly, time was a limited commodity during this visit but I will undoubtedly return as part of a future trip). Café Clock – you guys are a cultural institution (and NOT just a restaurant) and I wish you the best for the next milestone in...

On October 4, 2022, we three friends booked a cooking class for the next day with CafeClock. We arrived at 9:45am for class and was met by a friendly staff member. He asked us what we wanted to drink, before taking us to the rooftop deck. We didn't see any other 'cooking class students', which seemed odd because we booked knowing there would be 10-11 other people attending the class. When he brought our drinks he explained 'there's a problem, but we've fixed it'. Unbeknownst to us, CafeClock has a Fez and a Chefchaouen location. We'd inadvertently booked for the Fez cooking class, that was 8 hours away (from Marrakesh) and we definitely we're going to be able to attend THAT class! Staff and management confirmed their Fez location had a record of our reservation. Staff and management had already made plans to remedy our predicament: we were told their head chef had been called, he was on his way and he would give us our very own cooking class. WOW. We were both chagrined and excited at this turn of events. Ah to be a tourist. 20 minutes later Mohammed E arrived and our cooking class experience began.

He gave us the cooking class menu, asked us to pick a 'starter, main & dessert', then we went shopping. We picked up all the local ingredients and spices then headed back to CC's class kitchen.

Over the course of the next three hours we three had a blast with Mohammed. He was the chef and we three where his assistants. We scraped, peeled and doled out 'measured amounts' of spices. We laughed and learned our way through to the finished products, which he served us on a sunny afternoon on CafeClock's roof top deck. The dinner choices were fabulous: Zaalouk ( Smokey aubergine salad ), Harira soup, Couscous Boohahaloo with lamb and M'hanncha (date filo pastry)...what a feast.

After our feast, we paid Mohmmed for our 'private lesson', he said: 'no, we are charging you for the 'group lesson' you signed up for"...needless to say, that gesture was unexpected, appreciated and worth repeating here. This group of hospitality professionals take their jobs seriously. They know how to treat clients, even if they are tourists from a far flung place like Edmonton, Alberta, people they're likely to never see again:)

When I mentioned our great gastronomic experience and our billing experience to our riad proprietors, they were also impressed and said, "CafeClock is exactly the type of business we want to recommend to our guests'.

A few pounds heavier, a few Dirhams richer...this was a wonderful part of our trip to Marrakesh and is a fav memory of our trip to Morrocco, thank you CafeClock...

We came here for their Saturday night music after having a couple good brunch experiences at their cafe in Chefchaouen, sadly though this night didn’t meet our expectations. The music was brilliant and it was so nice to see people dancing to it and having a great time, I would recommend this. The ticket should have been 50DH with a drink included but we sat down to eat and were told as we are eating it would be 30DH, brilliant. We checked with our waitress what drinks were included and she said any up to the value of 20DH so my partner asked if we could make the difference up if our drink cost more to which she said no problem. So we ordered our food and drink my partner really enjoyed his fried chicken, sadly neither my food or drink was great. My drink was personal preference it was too bitter for me and caused me heartburn however I felt my vegetable pastilla lacked flavour and overall care. My partner went to pay when I went to the toilet but as I came out I was greeted by him having a dispute with a member of staff who’s tone of voice and body language was not pleasant. I asked what was going on and found out that she was trying to charge us for the tickets as well as full price for the drinks. We explained what we had been told and that it didn’t seem fair to pay full price why couldn’t we just pay the extra but she was not happy with this and was taking it out on us although she was admitting that the staff member was probably new and it was her fault. Myself and my partner both work in hospitality so we stayed clam however her attitude was really disappointing, this whole night was a treat for us as it’s a lot more expensive than what we normally pay so for the food and the customer service to both be disappointing it was a real shame. I asked the staff member if we could step aside to talk as it was very loud, from the music, to which she pulled a face again this was disappointing. I did address her manner by saying it feels like you are taking this all out on us to which she lightened up a bit too, which we appreciate. She did show us a ticket on which it says only coke or orange juice included but I explained that the waitress didn’t give us this ticket. It is frustrating because it was a problem on their behalf with lack of communication/training with staff but it was taken out on us and I was really disappointed with this - it’s not nice to be made to feel like you’ve done...