Azar Restaurant

Azar Restaurant occupies a building on Rue de Yougoslavie, and from the outside it gives almost nothing away. Step through the entrance and you land inside what can only be described as an oriental jewel box: mirrored columns, extravagant fringed lampshades, quilted velvet walls, and red-tinged lighting that wraps the room in a perpetual warm glow. The space spans a ground floor and a mezzanine, designed with the kind of unapologetic maximalism that feels entirely at home in Gueliz. Azar blends Moroccan and international cooking into a menu built around generous mezze spreads, charcoal-grilled meats, and tagines, with everything prepared in-house from seasonal local produce. The kitchen treats tradition seriously while the room around it leans into spectacle. Each evening, belly dancers weave between tables and perform on the oval counter at the centre of the dining floor; from Thursday to Saturday, a live oriental orchestra raises the energy further, strings threading through conversation and laughter. Cocktails and shisha round out the atmosphere. This is not a place for a quiet meal. It is a place where the food, the room, and the performance are all part of one seamless, theatrically charged night out.