Hotel Taddart - Midelt, Morocco

Midelt is located in a "V" shaped valley situated between the Middle Atlas Mountains and the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. We were in a car driven by a hired guide who was driving us from Fez to Merzouga, in the Sahara Desert, and we'd just passed through the Middle Atlas Mountains.  

Midelt is in a high plane at an elevation of 4,948 feet. There was a stiff wind and it was quite chilly. Our guide pulled in to the Hotel Taddart, a large building standing nearly alone on the outskirts of town with only a few cars in the parking lot. 

Only a few cars in front of this wide and spacious building.

Sign above the entrance.

We learned through sad experience that our guides took us to the most touristy, high priced eateries in Morocco. They would go to some hidden location with their other guide buddies and eat a free meal while we got quite ordinary food for an extraordinarily high price. 

The Hotel Taddart dining room was cavernous and there were only a couple of other tour groups eating there. 

Part of the dining room. 

The High Atlas Mountains visible through the window, streaked with snow. 

First we were brought some "apple juice" which was apple in milk, a very strange combination. I drank it, but I was not particularly fond of it. 

I was missing eating salad on our trip and was intrigued by a side-salad, so I ordered a salad with an interesting combination of banana, pineapple, orange, cheese (not something we saw much of in Morocco), olives, beets, tuna fish, corn, turkey ham (the Moroccans are Muslim and don't eat pork), a few leaves of lettuce and some salad dressing. It was actually kind of a nice change of pace.

We also shared a bowl of soup with rice and vegetables. Pretty thick and not particularly spicy, but not bad on a cool day. 

I got a tagine of beef as a main course, cooked with prunes. The prunes and the gravy were good, but the beef was kind of stringy. We had lots of tagine meals in Morocco and this one was middle-of-the-road. 

Judy got some kabobs with chicken and beef along with rice and vegetables. 

For dessert we shared some flan and it was the best part of the meal. I associate flan with Mexico, so this was a little bit of a cultural adjustment for me. 

We could certainly have done worse, and did worse on our trip, but it was not the real, authentic Moroccan restaurant experience I was hoping for. It would take another guide and another day to get that.