L'Avenue Restaurant Marrakech

You know when a restaurant is hot, trendy and hip the minute you walk through the door and take a look at who is in. One glance at L’Avenue’s glamorously chic and well heeled citizens and I thought I might be a little understated in the fashion department. Fortunately my companion more than made for what I lacked so there was no walk of shame and I strode to the table with my head held high. L’Avenue Restaurant Marrakech is a glorious example of how this iconic city has reinvented its Gueliz new town neighbourhood into the perfect haven for the souk-free set; light years away from the old city medina, well perhaps just 15 minutes, this is where Marrakech’s monied crowd flocks for upscale shopping and cool nightlife hang outs.

Mood and food is the mantra at L’Avenue and blessedly, the collars matched the cuffs in every department. I’ll even go as far as saying it was, without question, the best food experience I had in Marrakech. You won’t find a tagine in sight here, just outstanding French fine dining and impeccable service and little later some relevant music to match your mood.

The stand out starter for me was Carpaccio Royale Dorado with lime and pimento dressing (£13.50) a beautiful creation that simply melted in the mouth but the supporting starter cast was almost as good, in particular the mozzarella with tomato and balsamic (£10.60) and the grilled calamari with tomato shallot sauce.

The Veal Magnifique chop (£18.50) was indeed tres magnifique in both size and taste coming with a creamy mash and béarnaise sauce, whilst my Tournedos filet with mash (£15) was perfect. We even had a cheeky pasta dish too, some simply beautifully prepared scallops on al dente pasta tubes with was a steal at £19.50.

Dessert didn’t disappoint either, well we were on a roll now and a chocolate fondue with ice cream was delicious but simply overwhelmed by a feast of a fresh fruit platter with little ice cream balls, both dishes superb value at just £4.60.

This was a faultless dinner, and even more impressive, good Moroccan wines were supported along with French ones proving the point Morocco knows a thing or two about vine growing for sure.

As the evening wore on, and one beautiful couple followed another, I found myself thinking this was definitely the place to see and be seen in, although I suspect I will be remembered more perhaps for my lack of dress sense. That said, L’Avenue, is a restaurant that manages to pull off fine dining in a delightfully informal way right in the hub of the Gueliz new town scene. No surprise really as the owners also have a clutch of other very hip properties including Nikki Beach, Le Tanjia, Le Salama and the beautiful medina riad, Dar Fakir recently featured in Made in Chelsea.