Imlil Restaurants

When we came back to Imlil from Toubkal, after deducting money for a hotel and transport to Marrakech on the following day, we just had about enough for a small meal. It was now Thursday night and we hadn’t had a proper hot meal since Tuesday lunchtime in Asni.

We decided to go to Hotel Café Soleil for food as, firstly, we had to drop the crampons off there anyway, and secondly their food was supposed to be nice. The restaurants was fairly full and we nodded hello to some of the Spaniards we had seen in the Toubkal refuge.

Ruth was still feeling sick so she only had the harira (Moroccan soup) while I chose a chicken tagine. This was delicious and just what I needed. The restaurant also has a good value 60 Dirham menu with harira followed by tagine or couscous and then dessert. Our meal came to 70 Dirham in total.

On our first night in Imlil we had a picnic in our room. We had only 1150 Dirhams between us for 4 days and 3 nights until we returned to Marrakech (as there are no banks in Imlil) and we figured it was better to eat cheaply initially and make sure we didn't run out of money somewhere in the mountains.

Imlil has plenty of shops so it's easy for self caterers. We picked up lovely bread from the Boulangerie which was a steal at 1.20 Dirham a roll. We also bought tomatoes, oranges, olives, dates, crisps, nuts, water and yoghurts. The only cheese we could find was the "Le Vache qui Rit" or "Laughing Cow" which I hadn't had for about 15 years. All this made for a delicious, cheap meal!

Breakfast was included at Auberge la Vallee and we enjoyed both our meals here. They kept offering to make us more coffees and teas which was perfect for us as we wanted as much nourishment as possible before the climb to the Toubkal refuge. Breakfast was coffee or tea, freshly made orange juice, and lots of Berber bread with butter and jam. Simple but delicious. You can have breakfast upstairs in the living room or if it’s warm enough outside in the garden.

We stopped for lunch at the Kasbah du Toubkal, an inn and restaurant perched on a hilltop with a view of the mountains. The Kasbah is a great place for a day trip from Marrakesh, or to start or end your Atlas hiking experience. In addition to the rooftop restaurant, there are gardens and guest rooms.

Favorite Dish: The food was superb, huge tagines filled with lamb-and-fig stew as well as couscous, Moroccan flat bread, herbed olives...and on and on. The perfect way to refuel after several hours of walking!