Sahbi Sahbi — Restaurant in Marrakesh Prefecture

The gist: if spending $50 on a meal is not a big deal for you then do it, it will be a pleasant experience; if you expect the meal to be memorable or great at this price point then definitely skip. Context: I am not an expert in moroccan cuisine, this is my first visit to the country, but I love food and eating at the restaurants and I am a pretty good amateur cook. I have paid $54 for a dinner that included: 2 glasses of moroccan red wine (pretty good), water, beef tanjia with white beans and shared starters - four salads. The salads are tiny and are similar to turkish meze plates, however, much more bland than at any mediocre turkish meyhane. The beef tanjia is bland beef meat with okay texture and some bone marrow (nice) and beans on the side (tiny bowl, bland). Cannot compare this tanjia with anything since I have not tried this dish before. A friend had lamb tajine and said the one she had at Cafe Des Epices here in Marrakech was better. The one here they do cook with fruits so the meat has fruit flavor, at Cafe Des Epices they def just put the fruits on top of the meat after it is cooked but the texture of the lamb meat is mush more tender. Again, I am not an expert in morrocan cuisine and maybe my palette is not used to local flavors but I agree with other reviewers here that the taste of everything was utterly bland. For every dish with every bite I had a voice screaming in my head: “I know how to make it better!” - a bit of olive oil, a pinch of salt, a bit of lemon… I definitely had much more exciting and memorable meals at the same and lower price points at numerous places in Mexico City, in Turkey or Italy. A sandwich with chicken and onions (both fried on a hot plate after you order) I got from a street vendor here in Marrakech medina for 15 dirhams was much more flavorful and memorable given the price you pay for it being freshly prepared in front of you. The interior of the restaurant and lighting are nice, the serving dishes are beautiful. The stuff is friendly. My seat was one of those around the open kitchen, but this is not actually that much of a kitchen. This is where the stuff is putting the premade starters into the plates to serve to the guests and watching tajines and tanjias being finished on the cook top. So no actual cutting and mixing and frying of the real kitchen. Again, this review I hope will be helpful for this specific group of people who, like myself, love to eat and can splurge on a meal to a certain extent but expect it to be memorable at a $50 price point (sky-high price point for Marrakech by the way). I advise this group to better skip it. The ambience is high end but the food is,...

This restaurant was truly a disappointment hidden under a facade of some warm lighting and luxury. Me and my 4 other friends arrived and ordered one bottle of wine. Getting into the meal, I poured some refills for my friends. Out of nowhere, as I am pouring my friend a glass, the waitress comes over and snatches it from my hand. She says “let me do it, and then proceeds to spill wine on the table”. Then while serving the entree, she carelessly knocks over my friend’s FULL glass of wine and spills all over his area. Immediately, the waitress walked away and did not bother to clean it up, or tell a co worker. It took nearly 40 minutes to clean it up, while my friend sat next to broken glass and red wine. Then, she brings another bottle (different wine), and proceeds to pour in it in the SAME glasses from the first wine. That is a heinous move, any wine drinker knows. Absolutely pathetic, this place. We asked for some tequila to help boost the morale. They took 15 minutes to understand what a tequila shot is, when they clearly have them. Then without asking us for the brand, they pour the most expensive shots on the menu. Oh I guess I should mention the food now. Bland, uninspired, and way overpriced. Appetizers were decent but the rest of courses were not impressive. After all the aforementioned events, they had the audacity to charge a FULL price (not including an extra service tip). This might be the worst wait staff I’ve ever encountered in my 20 years of eating out at fine restaurants. Inattentive, can’t even comprehend English properly, and just plain rude. Poorly run establishment and if you want to spend a rather high amount of money for some dry food, then take your business elsewhere. I see all the hype on websites calling this one of the highlights of Marrakech. Completely BS. For this price, you should expect perfection,...

PLEASE CHECK OUT THE REST OF THE ONE STAR REVIEWS!!! I honestly can't explain what is going on with that place. The manager and the host seem genuinely deranged. You show up for dinner with your 5-star hotel confirmed booking to be rudely told the booking is not found, (twice! and that's despite the concierge giving me the name of the lady who took the reservation, who was the rude host saying there was none and then saying "everyone knows my name, it means nothing that the concierge gave it to you, the hotels all lie"!!!), which seems to have happened to many others. Then even more rudely told to move on, "we have other guests." Checking and complaining to the concierge, livid after the second time it happens, I am then shown a WhatsApp conversation the next morning between our concierge and those of the Mandarin, Oberoi, and other 5-stars all confirming that the restaurant does this all the time, the behaviour is inexplicable and rude and the concierges have now agreed to warn their clients off this place and not make bookings there any more. Even worse--we dive into the Google reviews and find several (including one the night before our disastrous second visit) saying they got food poisoning! So I guess we dodged a bullet. The vibe was so off anyway--the staff all seem miserable and snooty, the opposite of Moroccan warmth we experienced everywhere else, it feels like a place where people go because of hype (as we tried!). Literally everywhere else we went in one week in Marrakech was lovely with incredible service, mood, food (Plus61, Farmers, Petanque Social Club, and the incomparable Dar Yacout--all outstanding!) This place is to be avoided. They have absolutely no idea what...