Sahbi Sahbi

The most interesting room in Marrakech’s Guéliz district may be the one traditionally kept out of sight: the kitchen. In Moroccan homes, the dada is a custodian of recipes passed down like jewellery. Sahbi Sahbi was built, deliberately, to put her on stage.

The pedigree is unusually personal. Héléna Paraboschi and Pierre Pirajean, the restaurateurs behind Grand Café de la Poste and Bô Zin, opened it in late 2022 with Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty of Studio KO as partners. For the architects of Marrakech’s Yves Saint Laurent museum, it meant sitting on both sides of the table: designing the room and having a stake in what happened inside it.

That room arranges itself around an open kitchen like a theatre around a stage. Wood, zellige and leather bring warmth; paper lanterns soften the light. A team of women cooks in full view, with bread emerging from the wood-fired oven. Ask for the kitchen counter and the evening acquires its own quiet choreography, mostly of tagines refusing to hurry.

The food follows the same logic. Begin with a spread of cooked Moroccan salads, then move into the deeper repertoire: beef-shank tanjia, pigeon pastilla beneath flaky pastry, or a tagine whose sweet and savoury balance makes perfect sense by the second mouthful. The published menu includes charmoula prawns and lamb with sweet aubergines and sesame, though dishes can change. Save room for the orange-blossom French toast. Some traditions deserve an encore.

This is an evening to arrange in advance. Reserve early, particularly if you want the counter, and expect prices above those of a neighbourhood canteen. The pleasure is as much in the room and the people working at its centre as in the plate.

Friday brings the week’s other ritual: couscous. Friday lunch has long been part of the restaurant’s rhythm. A restaurant that lets the recipe book shape the calendar is telling you something: tradition here is not the theme, it is the management.