Moroccan Food Guide: What to Eat in Marrakech and Where to Find It

How a Moroccan meal works

Meals are social and generous. Dishes are placed in the middle of the table, and people share from them. Bread is the main utensil, torn into pieces and used to pick up food. In many homes, the right hand is used for eating, and the left is not.

A typical lunch, the main meal of the day, starts with a series of small salads, then a tagine or a dish with meat or fish, then fruit. In restaurants, you will usually see this in the same order. Dinner is often lighter, with soup, grilled meat or leftovers from lunch. Tea comes at the end of the meal and at any time of the day.

The dishes you should try

Tagine

The most famous dish, named after the conical clay pot in which it is cooked. Meat, poultry, fish or vegetables are cooked slowly with spices, olives, preserved lemon, dried fruit or nuts. Variations include chicken with preserved lemon and olives, lamb with prunes and almonds, beef with vegetables, and kefta, meatballs in a tomato sauce with eggs.

Couscous

Steamed semolina served with vegetables and meat. Traditionally, couscous is the Friday meal in Morocco. A good couscous is light and fluffy, with a rich broth on the side. Restaurants often offer it on Fridays only, which is a sign that it is cooked in the traditional way.

Pastilla

A pie made of thin pastry with a filling of pigeon or chicken, almonds, eggs and spices, dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar. The mix of sweet and savoury surprises many visitors, and usually delights them. Seafood versions exist, too.

Harira

A thick soup of tomato, lentils, chickpeas, herbs and sometimes meat, eaten especially in the evening during Ramadan, but available throughout the year. It is often served with dates and a sweet pastry called chebakia.

Tanjia

A speciality of Marrakech, where meat, usually beef or lamb, is slow cooked in a clay urn with preserved lemon, garlic and spices, traditionally buried in the embers of a hammam furnace. It is rich and tender, and usually served in a simple setting.

Mechoui

Lamb slow roasted until it falls off the bone, served with salt and cumin. It is often served in special places that specialise in this dish, and in celebrations.

Salads and zaalouk

Small plates of cooked vegetables are an important part of a meal. Zaalouk is a smoky mix of aubergine and tomato. Other classics are carrots with cumin, beetroot, peppers and lentil salad. For vegetarians, these small salads can make a full meal.

Bread and msemen

Round loaves are baked in community ovens. For breakfast, try msemen, a flaky square pancake, and baghrir, a thousand-hole pancake, with honey, butter or cheese.

Street food in Jemaa el-Fna and the medina

At night, the square becomes one of the largest open-air restaurants in the world. Dozens of stalls, numbered and lit, serve grilled meats, sausages, brochettes, fried fish, salads, soups, snails and sheep's head. It is loud, smoky and fun.

• Choose a stall that is busy and has many local customers.
• Ask for the price before you sit down, and check the menu board.
• Do not accept dishes you have not ordered.
• Pay when you are served, if the stall asks, and keep small notes.
• Try the grilled brochettes and the harira soup, and finish with orange juice.

In the daytime, look for sellers of fresh orange juice for a few dirhams, dates, nuts, dried fruit, and sandwiches filled with kefta or chicken in the souks.

Tea and other drinks

Mint tea is more than a drink. It is a gesture of welcome. Gunpowder green tea is brewed with fresh mint and plenty of sugar, then poured from a height into small glasses to make foam. Accepting a tea is polite, and it is normal to take at least two or three glasses.

Fresh orange juice is available everywhere. In summer, try pomegranate and avocado juices, and the thick avocado and almond milk shakes made in juice bars. Coffee is usually strong, often with milk, and served in small glasses or cups.

Alcohol is not widely available in traditional places, and many restaurants in the medina do not serve it. You will find it in hotels, in some riads and in licensed bars and restaurants, mostly in the new town. Check before you order, and be discreet in public.

Sweets and pastries

• Chebakia: sesame and honey pastry, fried and shaped like a flower, popular during Ramadan.
• Gazelle horns: almond paste in a thin, crescent-shaped pastry.
• Sellou or sfouf: a mix of roasted flour, almonds, sesame and honey.
• Dates, figs and dried fruits, sold in the souks by weight.
• Pastilla au lait: a milk-based pastry with orange blossom water.

Pastries are usually sold by weight in pastry shops. Ask for a mix, and try different ones. They go very well with mint tea.

Where to eat in Marrakech

In a riad or a restaurant courtyard

For a calm dinner in a beautiful place, choose a restaurant in a restored riad. Many serve a fixed menu with traditional dishes in a lovely setting, with live music. Reserve ahead in high season.

In a local café

For lunch, find a simple restaurant in the medina where workers and families eat. A plate of tagine, bread and a drink will cost less than in a tourist restaurant, and the food is often better.

On a food tour or with a family

If you want to understand Moroccan food, a guided food walk or a cooking class is a good option. You learn how spices are used, visit the market, and cook a meal yourself. Ask for a class in a family home or a small riad, not in a large commercial setting.

In the Agafay desert and the mountains

Eating in the desert at sunset, with a candlelit table and music, is a memorable experience. In the Atlas, lunch in a Berber village, with tagine, bread baked in the home oven, and mint tea, is the best way to taste local cooking. Both are part of our tours.

Dietary needs: vegetarian, vegan and allergies

Morocco is easier than many visitors expect for vegetarians. Vegetable tagines, couscous with seven vegetables, salads, soups, omelettes, bread and olives are available in almost every restaurant. Vegans must ask about butter, eggs and broth, which are often used in cooking.

For allergies, tell your guide and the restaurant clearly. Nuts, especially almonds, are very common in pastries and sauces, and sesame is used in breads and sweets. If an allergy is severe, carry your medication, and consider writing the allergy in French or Arabic on a card.

On our tours, tell us your dietary needs in the booking email, and we will pass them on to the host or restaurant in advance.

Spices and flavours: what is in the dish

The flavours of Moroccan food come from a short list of spices used with care. Knowing them helps you to taste the difference between dishes.

• Cumin: earthy and warm, found in salads, grilled meat and many stews.
• Ginger and turmeric: the base of many tagines and soups, giving colour and warmth.
• Cinnamon: used in sweet and savoury dishes, from pastilla to tagines with fruit.
• Paprika and chilli: for colour and gentle heat. Harissa, the chilli paste, is served on the side.
• Saffron: expensive and aromatic, used in special dishes. Most of Morocco's saffron comes from Taliouine.
• Ras el hanout: a blend of many spices, whose name means head of the shop, meaning the best the seller has.
• Preserved lemons, olives, fresh coriander and parsley: the fresh and sour notes that balance the spices.

A visit to a spice shop in the souk is a good way to learn. Ask the seller to explain, smell the blends, and buy small quantities, because spices lose their strength over time.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner like a local

Breakfast

A simple breakfast is bread or flaky pancakes with olive oil, honey, jam, soft cheese, olives and mint tea or coffee. Fresh orange juice is common. In cafés, you will also find eggs, and croissants from the French tradition.

Lunch

The main meal of the day, eaten late and slowly. Salads first, then a tagine or couscous, then fruit. Friday lunch is traditionally couscous. On other days, families choose different stews, and the food is shared from a central dish.

Dinner

Often lighter, with soup, leftovers or grilled meat. In restaurants for visitors, dinner is the big meal, with several courses and music.

Snacks

Roasted nuts, dried fruit, olives, sunflower seeds, sandwiches, small pastries, and fruit from street stalls are common in the afternoon.

Learning to cook Moroccan food

A cooking class is one of the most rewarding activities in Marrakech. Most classes begin with a visit to the market to choose vegetables, herbs and spices. Then you cook two or three dishes, such as a tagine, a salad and a dessert, and eat together at the end.

• Choose a small class with a local cook, instead of a big group.
• Ask whether the market visit and recipes are included.
• Tell the school about dietary needs, such as vegetarian, vegan or allergies.
• Wear closed shoes and clothes that you do not mind marking with spices.
• Take notes. The best parts are small tricks, such as how to layer the vegetables in the tagine and when to add the preserved lemon.

A class can be a half day, usually including a meal. If you have a kitchen at home, it is a skill you can use for years.

Eating safely and comfortably

• Choose places that are busy, especially at the time of local meals.
• Eat food that is hot and freshly cooked. Be careful with salads that may have been washed in tap water if you have a sensitive stomach.
• Drink bottled or filtered water, and check that bottles are sealed.
• Wash or sanitise your hands before eating, especially after the souks.
• Carry basic medicines for upset stomach, and rehydration salts.
• If you feel unwell for more than a day or two, or have a fever, see a doctor. Pharmacies are common, and pharmacists can give first advice.

Most visitors eat widely and happily with no problems. Giving your stomach a day or two to adjust, with simple food, helps you to enjoy the rest of the trip.

Customs at the table

• Wash your hands before the meal. Some hosts bring a basin and a jug of water.
• Eat with the right hand, and use bread to take food from the dish in front of you.
• In a shared dish, eat from your own section. The host may place a good piece in front of you, as a gesture of care.
• Say bismillah before eating, if you want to follow the custom, or simply thank your host afterwards.
• Refusing food completely can seem rude. Taste a little of everything, and say that it is very good.
• If invited into a home, bring a small gift, such as pastries, fruit or sugar.

Hospitality is a core value in Morocco, and a meal in a home, even a simple one, is a gift. Receive it with warmth.

Regional specialities beyond Marrakech

• Fes: pastilla, rfissa and refined sweets, as the city is known for its cooking.
• Essaouira and the coast: grilled fish, seafood tagines and sardines.
• The Atlas and the south: lamb with almonds, dates, argan oil, amlou made from almonds, argan oil and honey, and bread baked in village ovens.
• The north: dishes influenced by Spanish and Mediterranean cooking, with fish, olives and fresh herbs.
• The desert oases: dates, bread baked in the sand, and the sweet dish known as madfouna, a kind of Berber pizza filled with meat and spices.

If you travel beyond Marrakech, ask locals what they eat at home. You will often be pointed to a modest place with excellent food.

Pastries, bread and the bakery habit

Bakeries are a part of daily life. Many families prepare dough at home and take it to the communal oven to be baked, and children carry round boards of loaves through the streets. Bread is fresh every day, and is eaten with almost every meal. If you see a bakery with a line in the morning, join it.

Pastry shops sell trays of almond and honey sweets, which are packed in boxes and given as gifts. Visit one near the end of your trip to buy a mixed box for friends and family at home. Choose the ones with a firm, fresh look, and ask for a taste if you can.

Tea, step by step

1. Rinse the green tea leaves with a little hot water and discard it, to remove the bitterness.
2. Add fresh mint, sugar and more hot water to the pot.
3. Brew for a few minutes on a low heat.
4. Pour into a glass and back into the pot a few times to mix.
5. Pour from a height into small glasses, to make a foam on top.
6. Serve to guests, and repeat. Three glasses is a traditional number, each a little different in strength.

A tea set and a bag of tea make a good souvenir, and you can recreate the ritual at home.

A simple eating plan for three days

1. Day one: orange juice and msemen for breakfast, a light salad lunch, and grilled brochettes and harira in Jemaa el-Fna in the evening.
2. Day two: chicken tagine with preserved lemon for lunch, and a fixed menu dinner in a riad, with pastilla to start.
3. Day three: a mountain or desert day with a Berber lunch or a sunset dinner, and mint tea with pastries to finish.

Eat slowly, share dishes, and say yes to a tea. It is the best way to see the country through its food.

Frequently asked questions