Marrakesh is famous for its ancient medina: an astounding maze of shrines, artisan shops, and souks – all enclosed within red walls of stone. There’s a modern world of Ville Nouvelle located just outside of the medina. It is built by the French with stylish boutiques, cafes, and gardens.

A fascinating cacophony and sensorial masterpiece of color, sounds and smells, the amazing Marrakech is a gem polished by hospitality and history instilled with everlasting tradition, cutting-edge couture, contemporary luxury, and Moroccan aura.

Souks, squares, sunsets, snakes, spices, sultans, sumptuous palaces – known as the ‘red’ or ‘ochre’ city thanks to its reddish 12th-century walls, the dynamic Marrakech emits exciting exoticism. This thousand-year-old trading post harbors a rich and turbulent history filled with magnificent architecture, merging its prominent past and heritage treasures with the omnipresent modern vivacity of living cultures against a soundtrack of the Muslim’s call to prayer. Teeming with life, encompassing a strong mix of old and new, African and European, it’s a pristine city of surprise; although there’s a (man-made) beach situated far from the coast.

Surrounded by a thousand-year-old garden of palm and snow-and-desert-tipped Atlas mountain setting, you can even ski there. It is a scenery so dramatic that not even Aladdin’s lamp would be able to conjure it up. Fantastic and classy hotels, amazing cuisine, thriving boutique/designer scene, the multicultural Marrakech definitely wowed the Sex & The City girls while they were filming here. Follow in the fab four’s footsteps!

Our insider is Simo Benbachir – the one and only Moroccan TV reporter who is famous for covering some of the biggest events of Hollywood, including the Grammys and the Oscars. He interviews popular celebrities and delivers the most exclusive opinions as well as fresh points of view to his Arabic audience. He knows Marrakesh and all it’s hotspots pretty well. Recently, he told us his favorite hot spot in Marrakesh (Asian Restaurant Lounge).

Situated in one of the most energetic areas of Marrakesh, Guéliz, and administered by the well-known restaurants Loft and Mamma mia, L’ASIAN welcomes you. Led expertly by the former executive chief of the Amanjena hotel’s restaurant, the gastronomy aims to be traditional, but is also sophisticated and inventive.

The menu offers a wide range of classic Asian recipes or signatures, with delicately spicy flavors, for an average price of $30, excluding drinks. L’ASIAN team welcomes you every evening from 7 pm to 02 am with a deep hospitality, and offers you a friendly, irreproachable service. Additionally, the restaurant is an air-conditioned, non-smoking space, and is reachable to people with reduced mobility.

In the room with smart yet comfy atmosphere, Rozi Créa’s interior designers gave the decoration a contemporary design touch, equipped with larger-than-life objects from the Far East, and a nine meters long bar.

Upstairs, a neat garden offers a Zen like touch to the lounge atmosphere of this space, ideal for eating Asian “finger food”, accompanied by delightful cocktails prepared by the barman, and the sounds of the resident DJ’s mixes.

ASIAN Restaurant Lounge also offers exclusive menus by the chef and his crew for every special occasion, including Halloween, Ramadan, the Chinese New Year, St Valentin, Christmas or New Year’s Eve. And for your exclusive event, the team offers you 400-m2 of the place, so that your special occasion can become an unforgettable memory.

Simo BB recommends that you take the perfect night out in Marrakesh – the most popular Moroccan city worldwide.