Riad Abjaou

The Riad Abjaou is judged the other way round from the others. Where most quarter houses put forward their basin, their spa or their decor, this one has none of that, and what it does best does not photograph: a kitchen travellers rave about and walls that hold the silence. It is a small riad of about five rooms, at the end of a pedestrian derb of Berrima, the fringe joining the Mellah and the Kasbah, three hundred metres from the El Badi palace. You sleep in calm here, with the great monuments of the south medina down the street.

The real subject here is what goes on at table. Travellers speak of it ahead of the rooms: the house’s Moroccan cooking, the dinners, sometimes theme evenings, praised with a regularity that does not lie. Breakfast, generous and different every day, is included. On an address set back from the bustle, this table changes everything: you do not eat here by default, you stay by choice, and on arrival evening, it is a real comfort not having to go back out.

The other good surprise is rarer still, because it takes the opposite of the most common riad flaw. The complaint you hear everywhere, noise passing from one room to another through the patio, does not come back here: several travellers on the contrary stress walls that insulate. In a house open on its court, that is almost a feat, and worth flagging to anyone with a light sleep hesitating to book a riad for that reason.

You need to know what to expect, in return. This is a genuine house, not a boutique hotel: the lowest scores fall on Wi-Fi and equipment, which reflects not an upkeep flaw but an owned simplicity, without the extras. There is no pool, the hammam is not clearly documented, and the house books only through platforms, without its own site or phone. Nothing dealbreaking, provided you come for what it offers and not for what it lacks.

The Riad Abjaou is worth more than its photos: the calm at the door of El Badi, an evening table, a night without noise, at a reasonable medina price. You still have to come for that, and not for the swim or the full spa, which it has not. Here, you pay for the welcome and the cooking, not for the equipment.