Chez Lamine Hadj Mustapha

Chez Lamine Hadj Mustapha Review

English TV chef, Jamie Oliver, chose this spit-and-sawdust street restaurant in a filming trip for a gutsy example of Moroccan roast lamb speciality, mechoui—and it's not every day you walk past a whole lamb being cooked. Follow a tiny street that leads off the Djemâa el Fna (to the left of Les Terrasses de l'Alhambra) and you'll see exactly that. Although the row of upstanding severed lambs' heads set upon tagines may not be everyone's idea of culinary heaven, Marrakshis love Chez Lamine Hadj Mustapha, and you'd be missing out not to try it. Ask to see the oven—a hole in the ground where the entire animal is cooked over hot wood ash. The meat is then hauled up and cut in front of you, served with bread for a cheap 20 DH sandwich, or for larger amounts at 140 DH per kilogram. If you're nervous, ask for a small taste first. However much you have, sprinkle the meat with a delicious cumin-and-salt spice mix and wash it all down with mint tea. Get there before noon.