First, most restaurants in Morocco have at least 3 levels: street level, one story off the ground, and then a rooftop terrace. If there is space on the rooftop, I highly recommend eating up there! also the views are beautiful and it’s just so novel eating on a roof.
Second, Morocco uses the dirham. 9.5 dirhams are equal to one USD – we found it most convenient to just estimate 10 dirham = 1 dollar.
Third, tipping: 10% is standard, but double check the receipt first – sometimes the tip is included in the bill.
All right, let’s get started by talking about what different traditional Moroccan food to eat in Morocco, and then go into the best restaurants in Marrakech, Fes, and other places around the country!
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Traditional Moroccan Foods to Try
1. Tagine
A tagine cookware is an earthenware dish used to cook meals. It has a shallow base and a cone-shaped top that creates a very hot, moist cooking environment.
The term “tagine” is also used to refer to the meal cooked inside of the tagine dish. A tagine meal will generally include a meat (such as chicken, beef meatballs (aka kefta), or lamb), vegetables (such as carrots, onions, or zucchini), and a variety of spices.
You will often see dishes like “chicken tagine with apricots” or “lamb tagine with prunes.” These variations with the dried fruit are also fantastic!
Tagine is the most common and well-known of traditional Moroccan food – you will eat tagine many times on your trip!
A tagine dish is a very practical and fun souvenir from Morocco to bring home with you. You can buy a medium to large dish for around 30 dirham! ($3). Read more about what souvenirs from Morocco to buy here!
2. Couscous
At restaurants, a tagine dish is also often used to cook and serve couscous. Couscous usually comes as either chicken couscous or vegetarian couscous.
While Moroccans usually eat couscous on Friday (their holy day), you can order it in restaurants any day of the week.
3. Briouats
Briouats are flaky Moroccan pastries, filled with savory fillings, and served as a starter. Usually an order comes with 6 briouats: 2 are filled with ground beef, 2 are filled with grated carrots, and 2 are filled with cream cheese (my favorites!)
4. Brochettes
Brochettes are Moroccan kebabs! They are served with rice and veggies on the side, and are delicious and flavorful.
5. Pastilla
Pastilla is a fun dish that is similar to chicken pot pie. A spiced meat mixture is put in the center of phyllo dough, which is then wrapped around the meat. It’s baked, turning nice and crispy, and then sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon.
6. Chicken Sandwiches
You can frequently find meat-filled sandwiches on menus, which are reminiscent of shawarma. Pulled, seasoned meat is stuffed into a crusty bread, with limited other accompaniments. Here, the sandwiches had tomatoes, but honestly the chicken and the bread is so good that it really doesn’t need anything else!
7. Rfissa
Rfissa is a dish of stewed chicken, lentils, and onions, served on a bed of shredded pastry.
8. Harira
The Harira soup on right!
It is a popular tomato-based spiced Moroccan soup, with lentils and chickpeas mixed in. It’s warm and comforting soup!
9. Khobz Flatbread
A tray of flatbread is served with every meal in Morocco, even at breakfast! This flatbread – known as khobz – is crusty and a little bit puffier than, say, naan. We really loved this bread and were not mad to eat it all the time. You can also buy it from little stands on the street for 1 dirham (10 cents USD).
10. Cucumber salad
The only time we had the pleasure of eating this was during our cooking class (more on that below!) and while “cucumber salad” might not seem like a standout dish, it was really delicious!
11. Moroccan salad
This chopped salad was reminiscent of pico de gallo, in that it featured fresh diced tomatoes, onions, and peppers, plus herbs and a vinaigrette.
12. Zaalouk
Zaalouk is a cooked Moroccan salad made with eggplant, tomatoes, garlic, oil, and spices. It can be served warm or cold, and is often offered as a small, complimentary starter at restaurants.
13. Olives
A little dish of olives is often set out at meals, with a variety of marinated olives inside. You can also find olive stands in the souks. They are definitely a Moroccan staple!
14. Dates
Date trees are found all over the country, and a bowl of dates is often put out at breakfast time. I’ll admit, I would never usually gravitate towards a plain date, but in Morocco, you simply must sample!
15. Chebakia
This dessert is made by shaping long, skinny strips of dough into a flower, frying it, and then brushed with honey and orange water and sprinkled with sesame seeds. It’s a tasty and unique treat!
16. Ghoriba Cookies
These cookies are typically sold by a man carrying a tray through the markets of Marrakech. They are crackly on the outside and chewy on the inside, and were actually really delicious! A fair price is 1 dirham per cookie.
17. Oranges with Cinnamon
Truly just sliced oranges sprinkled with cinnamon, this Moroccan dessert was nonetheless a refreshing end to a meal.
18. Gazelle Horns
This dessert is a cookie, made with flour, almond paste, and orange blossom water, and shaped into a crescent. These weren’t our favorite treats, but maybe you’ll disagree! They were very popular among the locals.
Drinks
19. Mint Tea
The quintessential Moroccan drink, mint tea is offered when you arrive at your riad or guesthouse, and is also offered as part of every meal. It is made with green tea leaves and fresh mint.
When the tea is brought to your table, your server will pour the first cup for you, raising the teapot high to create an arc of tea down into the cup. And the teacups are not an English style teacup – they resemble shot glasses.
You can add sugar cubes to sweeten the tea to your liking – Moroccans like it sweet!
We actually are not green tea drinkers, but still wanted to participate in the mint tea tradition. The people in Morocco were always very accommodating when we asked them if they could make us a herbal mint tea (just the mint steeped in water), which was actually pretty good too!
20. Orange Juice
The orange juice in Morocco was fresh-squeezed and full of flavor, and we got it at almost every meal. Expect OJ to cost anywhere from 10-20 dirhams at a restaurant.
21. Mint Lemonade
The mint lemonade was hands-down my favorite drink in Morocco. Fresh mint is blended into lemonade, and it just tastes so, well, fresh.
22. Water
Bottled water is cheap and refreshing in Morocco. It is extremely inexpensive to buy bottled water from the ubiquitous stands on the street (expect around 2-5 dirhams for a bottle), but more like 10-20 dirham for a water bottle at a restaurant.
While it would definitely be more environmentally friendly to use a reusable, filtered water bottle, the problem is that there aren’t really places to fill up your water bottle on the street, and we went through SO MUCH water. We were constantly buying water around town, as, even in October, it was mid-90’s F (35 C) and very dry.
23. Pomegranate Juice
We only saw stands selling pomegranate juice a few times, but if you run into one, definitely stop for a drink! They pressed the pomegranates right in front of us, so we were given a cup with 100% pure, straight from the fruit pomegranate juice. And it was delicious. It was also expensive, at 30 dirhams for a cup, but worth it!
24. Other Juices and Smoothies
You can find a variety of other fruit juices and smoothies at restaurants and on street carts around cities, especially in Marrakech. In Jemaa el-Fna, the main square, there is a whole line of carts selling smoothies and juices and you can pick from a wide variety of flavors.
Alcohol
Morocco is an incredibly dry country – do not expect to see alcoholic beverages on the menu, and bars are practically non-existent. Plan to go sober during your time here!
A Note about French Foods
A French food section? Absolutely. Morocco has a lot of French influence and boulangeries were fairly common, especially in Marrakesh. The breads and pastries were high quality but so much cheaper than France – andwe had an absolutely divine baguette in Chefchaouen that cost 10 cents. Morocco has embraced this food style and made it their own!
ms was literally one of the most delicious drinks that has ever crossed my lips. I miss that drink!
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