Le Comptoir Darna

Le Comptoir Darna doesn't apologize. Not for the belly dancers who set the restaurant ablaze at 10 PM. Not for the music that cranks up a notch every hour. Not for the 150-dirham cocktails served in glasses as large as vases. For over twenty years on Avenue Echouhada, Le Comptoir has owned its status as the temple of Marrakech nightlife — and the formula still works.

The decor is maximalist: imposing chandeliers, red drapes, carved woodwork, stacked carpets. You eat on the ground floor in a room that resembles a supersized Arabian Nights palace. The tagines are decent without being exceptional — let's be honest, that's not why you come here. It's for the atmosphere, for the show, for the moment when the tables are pushed aside and the evening truly begins.

Around 11 PM, the restaurant transforms. Gnaoua musicians take over, then the DJs. The floor fills with an unlikely mix: Casablanca businessmen in open-collared shirts, French tourists in groups, Marrakchis celebrating a birthday, models passing through. The energy is contagious, even if you're not the dancing type.

Insider tip: book a table on the mezzanine for dinner. You overlook the room, the show unfolds below you, and you have space. Avoid Friday if you don't like crowds — that's when all of Marrakech comes out. Thursday is the sweet spot: lively enough, not yet saturated.

Le Comptoir divides opinion: some find it too much, others come back every week. But nobody denies that it invented a genre — the Marrakech-style restaurant-show-club — and that nobody has dethroned it yet. It's that legacy that earns its place.