Jemaa el-Fnaa, Marrakech-Safi, Morocco

4lou181818 5:00 PM Nov 29, 2022

Must visit
I'd read the reviews so had an expectation but this really is something to experience; to hear the snake charmers'trumpets and the drummers, to smell the spices and fresh mint stalls and see the chaos so unlike we are used to, like bikes zooming around, tourists and locals going about their ways, etc. It seems odd the stalls are duplicates selling the same thing, eg fruit juices and argan oil. Sellers proactively try to get you interested in their goods. Evening food stalls were worse than daytime as we just wanted to browse but they all wanted us to buy food so we kept telling them we'd eaten. It wasn't aggressive, usually quite humourous.

3The London Lad 5:00 PM Jan 14, 2023

Beware of scam restaurants!!
This square is a fantastic place to be in the evenings with a lively night market and lots of locals and tourists from around the globe enjoying the atmosphere and entertainment. However, the night market is home to a number of scam 'restaurants' (really just street stalls) aimed at tourists that all appear to have the same owners. They all look similar to the attached picture with a big array of meat at the rear and tables in the front. These places all have very aggressive touts trying to get unsuspecting tourists to sit down (even lying to them and saying adjacent stalls they may be looking at are 'the same'), but beware. Once you are sat down, you'll be given a menu. After you tell the waiter what you want, before the actual food you've ordered arrives you'll be brought a number of tapas style 'starter' dishes you didn't order with the impression that they are complimentary. They are not and will end up costing more than your actual meal!! The total bill for us for 2 people at one of these scam restaurants was over 500 MAK as a result (£40 or US$80) before a tip, which is insane for Morocco. We ate at a very nice rooftop restaurant overlooking the square the next night and it cost less than what we spent at this dodgy stall. One other way to identify these scam restaurants is the fact that every 5 minutes or so, the staff will randomly break out into singing 'That's the Way I Like It' followed by Shakira. Each one of these restaurants (there's several in the night market run by the same people) does it for whatever reason. Was funny the first two times but does get a bit tiresome. Basically, if you see a restaurant stall with aggressive touts, a meat platter on ice at the rear and bad renditions of Shakira, walk away.