If you’re looking for great bang for your buck, Riad Le J delivers on all fronts. Tucked down a winding derb behind the Mouassine mosque, it has a great location, and offers super stylish Art Deco design and a wonderful personal atmosphere at an incredibly good price.
You can’t really get more central than this. Riad Le J is buried in the heart of the old city behind the Mouassine mosque in a great neighbourhood. Finding it may be a bit of an adventure, but owner Antonio kindly shows guests the way and once you get the hang of it, you’ll see just how central you are. The Djemaa el-Fna and some of the best old city restaurants and shops are all within five minutes’ walk. Taxis are available at the Djemaa.
Bijou Riad Le J may be small but it is perfectly formed. Italian owners Antonio and Stefania have a background in furniture design and their aesthetic sensibility shines through. During the renovations, they lavished great care on restoring original features to the house: beautiful painted ceilings, an intricately carved balcony and lattice-work moucharabieh windows. Instead of the ubiquitous patio plunge pool, they have retained a classic wall fountain, which means the patio serves as an outdoor extension to the two large salons, one of which features a great 1930s dining table and chairs and the other which is comfortably furnished as a living room, with a shared television. It feels very much like the home it once was, and offers a great experience of living in the heart of the old city.
This riad is run very personally by Antonio and Stefania, both of whom are delightful hosts. Antonio is a fount of information about Marrakech and Moroccan culture while Stefania greets guests like long-lost friends and oversees every detail of with an eagle eye. Hisham, the house manager, ably assists orchestrating cookery lessons, helping organise excursions and even accompanying novice tourists to dinner bookings down old city alleys.
Whichever room you choose from the four themed options – Mint, Saffron, Pepper and Cinnamon – you can lie back and gaze at ancient painted ceilings. They were rescued from the Bab el Khemis market and restored so their careful geometry appears like colourful starbursts above deliciously comfortable beds. Correspondingly spicy colour palettes are offset by the zing of bright, antique embroideries and the sculptural shapes of contemporaryist chairs and crystal Deco mirrors rescued from Mamounia auctions.
Given that this is a very classic old city house, bathrooms are small and come with showers only. That said, they are finished to a high standard in polished tadelakt and finished with high quality linens and pretty vases of fresh flowers.
Breakfast in the main salon consists of fresh, stoneground bread, fluffy pancakes, wild-flower mountain honey and litres of adrenalin-fuelling Italian coffee. As Stefania drifts in and out dinner options are discussed: Hisham has a delicious cardamom-infused tanjia recipe, while subtleer meals might consist of trid, a puff pastry stuffed with lentils, chicken and spices, or fish pastilla. If other guests are in the house, a communal meal is often proposed and makes for a convivial house-party atmosphere.
Not suitable.
As a whole house rental this riad would work well for families with older kids, but for those with toddlers the stairs and space constraints may be problematic.
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