12 of the Best Restaurants in Marrakech, Morocco

When I think of destinations with the most interesting food, Morocco is one of the first places that comes to mind. It’s a fascinating blend of Berber, Mediterranean, and Andalusian cuisines with hints of European and sub-Saharan influences. Thanks to emblematic dishes like tagine and couscous, I’m like Pavlov’s dog – I can’t think about Moroccan food without salivating.

The food is incredible everywhere in Morocco but especially in the tourist capital of Marrakech. In fact, we took a cooking class in Marrakech and one of our instructors told us that she moved to this city specifically for its food!

Spend a couple of days exploring the many colorful souks in the medina and you’ll find dozens of Moroccan restaurants luring you in with their aromatic tagines, exotic spices, and bubbling hot pots of mint tea. With limited time and only a few meals to enjoy in Marrakesh, how do you find the best places to eat?

We travel for food so we spent a month in Marrakesh looking for the best restaurants to find standout Moroccan dishes like lamb tagine, royal couscous, briouat, and mechoui. We visited over two dozen restaurants but these twelve are our favorites.

MUST-VISIT RESTAURANTS FOR TRADITIONAL MOROCCAN CUISINE IN MARRAKECH

1. Cafe des Epices

When I was doing research for the best restaurants in Marrakech, this cafe was on almost every list. I usually shy away from those places but everyone was waxing poetic about this cafe’s rooftop views so we went. As it turns out, everyone was right.

Cafe des Epices is a lovely cafe overlooking Place des Epices (spice square). They serve traditional Moroccan breakfast, sandwiches, salads, tajines, and dessert.

Pictured below is my delicious Moroccan breakfast consisting of an omelette, fruit salad, a basket of Moroccan bread, fresh orange juice, and either coffee or mint tea.

Morocco is known for many types of bread and you can try a few of them in this breakfast set. In this basket are msemen (Moroccan crepe), khobz, harcha, amlou, and barley bread. They come with four different types of dips and spreads – olive oil, honey, strawberry jam, and some type of peanut-based sauce.

We enjoyed this cafe so much that we wound up eating here twice, once for breakfast and another time for mint tea and dessert. Mint tea is an important part of Moroccan culture and something you’ll probably have often in Marrakesh.

When you see a dish or dessert with the restaurant’s name on it, then chances are, it’s going to be good. This is the Cafe des Epices cake made with Arabica coffee, Atlas walnuts, and noss noss icing. “Noss noss” refers to a Moroccan coffee drink made with equal parts coffee and milk.

As described, Cafe des Epices is located right next to the Place des Epices spice market.

This is the view from the second floor. The third-floor view looks pretty similar to this.

A good majority of restaurants in Marrakech offer rooftop seating. However, aside from the restaurants immediately surrounding Jemaa el-Fnaa, most don’t offer great views. This cafe does.

Here we are sitting on the rooftop. Marrakesh can get brutally hot so there are parasols to keep you shaded and a misting system to keep you nice and cool.

Cafe des Epices

Address: 75 Derb Rahba Lakdima, Marrakech 40000, Morocco
Operating Hours: 9AM-11PM, daily
What to Order: Moroccan breakfast, sandwiches, traditional dishes

2. Henna Cafe

We wanted to visit Henna Art Cafe but we found this restaurant’s menu to be more interesting so we went here instead. As its name suggests, they offer henna tattoos but we were here strictly for the food.

Instead of serving a full Moroccan menu of traditional food, Henna Cafe offers just a handful of dishes that you can order in small or large plates. It’s like having a Spanish-inspired Moroccan tapas meal right here in Marrakesh!

We ordered all six dishes on their menu but they started us off with some khobz, olives, harissa (Moroccan chili paste), and yogurt sauce.

We’ve had falafel a few times in Morocco but the version at Hena Cafe was one of the most delicious. Served with a side salad of fresh tomatoes and onions, they had a slightly bouncy texture that reminded me a little bit of chewy bread like Colombian pandebono.

Pictured below is a plate of loubia or warm butter beans cooked in a spicy tomato sauce.

What you’re looking at here is the Henna Cafe house salad made with fresh shredded cabbage, sliced apples, and raisins.

I love hummus but this was easily my least favorite dish from today’s meal.

This veggie tortilla, on the other hand, was delicious. It’s basically Henna Cafe’s take on tortilla de patata, one of my favorite Spanish tapas.

People who like eating meat need to order this dish. It’s lamb kefta meatballs slow-cooked with egg and onions.

Unlike most cafes and restaurants in Marrakech that serve just one type of mint tea, Henna Cafe offers about seven different types of Amazigh tea. Aside from classic Moroccan spearmint, they make them with different ingredients like wormwood, wild thyme, and geranium leaves.

Henna Art Cafe is more popular but I’m happy to recommend Henna Cafe as well. The tapas concept was fun and not something we saw at any other restaurant in Marrakesh.

As described, we were here strictly for the food but every other table at the time was getting henna tattoos. Getting a plate of Moroccan tapas and tea is a great way to while away the time while getting your tattoo done.

Henna Cafe

Address: 144 Arset Aouzal Rd, Marrakesh 40000, Morocco
Operating Hours: 11AM-7PM, daily
What to Order: Moroccan tapas

3. Mazel Cafe

Bahia Palace is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Marrakesh. The perfect time to go is early in the morning when there are fewer people, and a great place to have lunch after your visit is Mazel Cafe.

Located in Tinsmiths Square, about a 5-minute walk from Bahia Palace, Mazel Cafe offers elevated street food in a lovely cafe setting. They don’t advertise themselves as a healthy restaurant but you do get that sense from the dishes they offer and the fresh food they serve.

Pictured below is their Super Bowl made with falafel, hummus, red and white cabbage, cucumber, lentils, carrots, and tahini sauce. They serve food that tastes clean and not too heavy-handed on the seasoning.

Mazel Cafe serves a few pita sandwiches. Called pitanjia, this one was made with lamb shank slow-cooked with eggplant and onion and then served with a refreshing pea mint sauce.

This pita sandwich is called the pita kefta. It’s made with meatballs served with Moroccan tomato sauce, onions, tomatoes, fresh cheese, and eggplant.

French fries aren’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of healthy eating but these were delicious. They were light and crisp without being oily or too salty.

Mazel Cafe is located in Tinsmiths Square, a lively square with lots of outdoor restaurants. Mazel is an excellent choice but there are many other restaurants here that you can check out after a visit to Bahia Palace.

Mazel Cafe

Address: 8 Place des Ferblontiers, Marrakesh 40000, Morocco
Operating Hours: 10AM-8:30PM, daily
What to Order: Healthier Moroccan food

4. Snack Adam

You’ll find many of these Moroccan comfort food restaurants with the word “Snack” in the name. For lack of a better term, they’re basically casual restaurants that serve comfort food like sandwiches, hamburgers, pizza, and the Moroccan version of “tacos”. More on that later.

These snack restaurants were some of our favorite places to eat in Marrakesh. We went to many throughout the city but in the medina, our favorite was Snack Adam.

Pictured below is their version of salade Marocaine (Moroccan salad). Recipes vary but it’s a type of fresh salad made with diced tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and other ingredients dressed in a light vinaigrette.

If you love comfort food like I do, then you need to try these Moroccan tacos. I know they look nothing like American or Mexican tacos but they’re absolutely delicious and something I couldn’t get enough of in Marrakesh.

A taco in Morocco is basically a burrito or wrap filled with different types of meat, poultry, cubed potatoes or french fries, cheese, and some type of sauce like bechamel or a mixture of ketchup (or harissa), mayo, and mustard. The fillings are neatly wrapped in a tortilla before being lightly grilled and served with a side of fries.

I don’t know why they’re called “tacos” but the origin of this popular Moroccan fast food dish seems to point to a shop called Tacos de Lyon in southeastern France. Owned and operated by a pair of Moroccan siblings, they introduced the dish in the mid-2000s before moving their shop to Casablanca in 2011. Today, you’ll find a snack shop serving Moroccan tacos on nearly every block in Marrakesh.

Tacos aren’t the healthiest Moroccan dish but they’re absolutely delicious and something you need to try at least once in Marrakech.

Another interesting dish you may want to try in Marrakech is the pastilla. Also known as bastilla or b’stilla, it refers to a savory pie made with crispy warqa dough typically filled with either poultry or seafood.

What makes pastilla interesting is that the baked pie is usually dusted with powdered sugar and cinnamon before serving. Crunchy in texture thanks to the warqa dough, it’s sweet on the outside but savory on the inside which leads to quite a memorable taste experience.

Here’s what the filling of our pastilla looks like. It’s commonly made with chicken that’s first browned in butter and then simmered with onions, parsley, and a mix of spices.

Snack Adam serves some of the best tacos we had in Marrakech so I recommend trying it here.

Snack Adam

Address: Riad Zitoun kedim n 197, 50 m of, Avenue Jamaa El Fna، Marrakech 40000, Morocco
Operating Hours: 10AM-11PM, daily
What to Order: Moroccan comfort food

5. Snack Grand Atlas

Snack Grand Atlas is another “snack-type” restaurant that we enjoyed in the medina. But instead of serving tacos, pizzas, and the usual Moroccan snack fare, they specialize in seafood which isn’t as common at Marrakesh restaurants.

Before we get into our seafood feast, they started us off with a basket of khobz and these delicious little plates of stewed lentils.

As previously mentioned, whenever we see the name of the restaurant on a dish, then we usually order it. What you’re looking at below is the Salad Grand Atlas. It’s a cold starter made with shrimp, squid, tuna, hard-boiled egg, vegetables, fruits, and cheese.

You can get different types of fried seafood or whole grilled fish at this restaurant but today, we felt like trying their fish tagine.

Here’s a closer look at those succulent chunks of fish swimming under all that tasty tomato sauce. This was delicious and a great tagine to try if you want something different from the usual lamb or chicken tagine.

These grilled fish kebabs were equally delicious. So moist and tender!

These were some of the best fish brochettes we’ve had in Morocco thus far, and that includes restaurants in coastal cities like Tangier, Casablanca, and Essaouira. We’re definitely getting these again on our next trip back to Marrakech!

Snack Grand Atlas is conveniently located just a few minutes walk from Jemaa el-Fna so it shouldn’t be hard to find.

Snack Grand Atlas

Address: Rue ibn marine, Marrakesh 40000, Morocco
Operating Hours: 9:15AM-10:30PM, daily
What to Order: Seafood dishes, Moroccan comfort food

6. Dabachi Chez Cherif

Dabachi Chez Cherif is a gem, especially if you’re traveling on a budget. They serve a full Moroccan menu of traditional dishes but we were here specifically for their set menus. At the time of our visit in May 2022, you can get one of two set menus for just MAD 60.

I ordered the chicken brochette set menu which started with this bowl of soup de legumes or vegetable soup.

How beautiful does this look? Both set menus come with salade mixte and olives so the spread you see below is good for two people. It was comprised of different types of Moroccan salads and side dishes, all of which were delicious.

These were my tasty chicken brochettes. To rehash, this set menu came with vegetable soup, Moroccan salads and side dishes, grilled chicken skewers, olives, bread, and a drink of your choice. All for just MAD 60!

My better half went with this equally delicious tajine kefta. It had all the same inclusions as the chicken brochette set menu except the bowl of vegetable soup.

We ate at many restaurants in Marrakech and these set menus at Dabachi Chez Cherif were among the best deals we could find. Don’t miss it!

Dabachi Chez Cherif is located in the heart of the medina. You can refer to the location map at the bottom of this article for its exact location.

Dabachi Chez Cherif

Address: Derb Dabachi Medina, Marrakech 40000 Morocco
Operating Hours: 10AM-11:30PM, Sat-Thurs (closed Fridays)
What to Order: Set menus

7. Amal Women’s Training Center

This place is interesting. Not only will you enjoy a delicious Moroccan meal for lunch, but you’ll be supporting a good cause as well.

Amal Women’s Training Center is a non-profit organization that uplifts disadvantaged women by giving them the necessary skills to find employment in the restaurant industry. Around 30-40 women are trained for 4-6 months every year to prepare Moroccan and international cuisine which you can enjoy at the center’s restaurant in Gueliz.

From what I understand, the menu at Amal changes daily. We went on a Friday so we had a good feeling what would be on the menu – couscous. Couscous dishes are traditionally eaten only on Fridays in Morocco. Friday is a holy Muslim day and is equivalent to Sundays in Christian cultures.

Couscous is the country’s national dish so there’s no better way to experience Moroccan flavors than with this dish. It’s served with seven different vegetables and some type of meat, in this case chicken and lamb.

I believe the drinks served at Amal change daily as well. If I remember correctly, the one in the foreground was made with watermelon while the one behind it was made with cucumber and lime.

The Amal Centre is only open for lunch from Monday till Saturday.

We didn’t make reservations but it may be a good idea to do so. We were the first people there so we were lucky to get the only table available.

Amal Women’s Training Center

Address: Rue Allal Ben Ahmed, Marrakesh 40000, Morocco
Operating Hours: 12NN-3:30PM, Mon-Sat (closed Sundays)
What to Order: Daily Moroccan menu

8. Dar L’hssira

If you’d rather not wait till Friday to eat couscous, then you can go to one of the many great restaurants in the medina like Dar L’hssira. This highly-regarded restaurant offers a good selection of traditional dishes like tagine, tanjia, brochette, and couscous.

Before we get to the mains, we started with this delicious bowl of harira. It’s a traditional Moroccan soup made with lentils, chickpeas, tomatoes, herbs, spices, and other ingredients.

If you like Indian samosas, then you need to order this Moroccan appetizer called briouat. Made with the same warqa dough used to make pastilla, they’re fried triangular pastries stuffed with a variety of different ingredients like meat, onions, vermicelli noodles, cheese, herbs, and spices.

Here’s an inside look at the briouat’s stuffing. These are a popular street food in Marrakech and available at many food stalls throughout the medina.

You can get many different types of couscous dishes in Marrakech but the one couscous that rules them all is rightfully named royal couscous.

Unlike ordinary couscous dishes that contain just one type of meat, royal couscous is made with a combination of different proteins like lamb, beef, chicken, and sausages.

Dar L’hssira is located about a 5-minute walk from the House of Photography museum in the medina.

Cute dining room right? I just love the interiors of these Marrakesh restaurants.

Dar L’hssira

Address: 15-12 Rue Tachenbacht, Marrakech 40000, Morocco
Operating Hours: 11AM-5PM, 6-11PM, Wed-Mon (closed Tuesdays)
What to Order: Traditional Moroccan dishes

9. Fine Mama

If you’d rather not get lost in the labyrinth of souks in the medina, then a good restaurant to go to is Fine Mama. It’s located just a short walk south of Jemaa el-Fna and offers a wide range of traditional dishes, mezzes, sandwiches, and Moroccan pastries.

What you’re looking at below is a mrouzia sandwich. Mrouzia is a savory-sweet lamb tagine made with raisins, almonds, honey, ras el hanout (spice mix), saffron, and other spices. It isn’t something you find at every Moroccan restaurant and Fine Mama was the only place we went to that served it in sandwich form.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure about Fine Mama at first. It seemed to be one of those touristy restaurants we tend to avoid but what drew us to it were their specials – like the mrouzia sandwich – and these mezze platters. The term mezze refers to a selection of starters commonly found in Turkey, the Levant, the Balkans, Greece, Egypt, the Caucasus, and the Middle East.

Fine Mama offers different types of mezze platters but we went with the mezze Marocain which came with briouates, zalouk (tomato eggplant dip), lentils, chickpeas, olives, beans, kefta and chicken skewers, and Moroccan salad. If you’d like to try many Moroccan specialties all at once, then this is a good platter to go for.

Fine Mama is located in a popular part of the medina with many shops and restaurants so it shouldn’t be hard to find.

We sat outside but they have a lovely dining room as well.

Here’s what their rooftop seating looks like. Like I said, nearly every restaurant in the medina will have something like this.

Fine Mama

Address: 89 Pass. Prince Moulay Rachid, Marrakech 40000, Morocco
Operating Hours: 9:30AM-12MN, daily
What to Order: Traditional Moroccan cuisine, mezze platters

10. Dar Chef

Dar Chef is another great restaurant in the medina that offers a few less common dishes. They started us off with some olives and khobz before serving us our tangia and tagine.

Are you a fan of Turkish testi kebab from Cappadocia? If you are, then you’re probably going to enjoy tanjia as well. It refers to both the slow-cooked meat dish and the clay urn-like pot used to cook it.

Here’s our lamb tangia after it’s been transferred to a shallow clay pot. Tangia is cooked for several hours at a public oven so the meat is always fall-off-the-bone tender.

Tangia is a communal dish that’s traditionally associated with working Moroccan men.

Speaking of dishes that are harder to find, Dar Chef is a great restaurant to visit if you’d like to try mrouzia tagine and other Moroccan specialties like pigeon pastilla and camel tagine. Mrouzia is always readily available but the other two dishes need to be ordered in advance.

If you like lamb and don’t mind some sweetness in your food, then you should definitely try mrouzia.

Dar Chef is a hidden gem tucked away in the medina. It’s easy to miss unless you were looking for it so be sure to check our location map to see exactly where it is.

They weren’t conducting any that day but I believe Dar Chef offers cooking classes as well. That’s another thing you may want to do in Marrakech. We took a cooking class and aside from learning how to make tagine, we learned a lot about Moroccan culture and cuisine as well.

Dar Chef

Address: N°123 Bis Rue Kennaria, Marrakesh 40000, Morocco
Operating Hours: 9AM-11PM, daily
What to Order: Moroccan dishes

11. Chef Lamine Hadi Mustapha

This was the very first restaurant we visited in Marrakech, and there was one reason for that – mechoui. It refers to a whole lamb or sheep that’s spit-roasted in an underground pit. It’s slow-cooked for several hours and results in some of the most meltingly tender meat that you can taste in Morocco. This is seriously delicious.

Mechoui is traditionally eaten by hand with khobz and a salt-cumin mix. If you like lamb, then you absolutely need to try mechoui in Marrakesh.

Of course, we needed fiber to help break down all that meaty mechoui goodness so we paired it with this vegetable tagine.

Chef Lamine Hadi Mustapha is a popular restaurant so it’s best to go early, shortly after they open.

Chef Lamine Hadi Mustapha

Address: Derb Semmarine, Marrakech 40000, Morocco
Operating Hours: 10AM-1AM, daily
What to Order: Meshoui

12. Terrasse Bakchich

In our opinion, this hidden gem is one of the best restaurants in Marrakech. We loved it for its food, affordable prices, excellent service, and charming setting.

Terrasse Bakchich is a Moroccan restaurant that serves the usual dishes like tagine, couscous, brochette, and tangia. They serve different types of tagine but I read that the rabbit tagine is one of their specialties so that’s what we went for.

Cooked with tomatoes and onions and glistening with olive oil, it was absolutely delicious and one of the most enjoyable meals we’ve had in Morocco thus far.

We also tried their lamb tangia which was very good as well.

And like the mechoui from the previous restaurant, we needed some vegetable couscous to pair with all that meltingly tender meat.

Lastly, there’s no better drink to pair with your Moroccan meal than mint tea. I enjoy it so much that I’ve stopped ordering coffee altogether!

Terrasse Bakchich is tucked away in an alley in the medina so be sure to check our map for its location.

This is what the restaurant’s rooftop terrace looks like. It’s small and simple but charming.

Here’s a picture of my better half reading the article from The Guardian describing Terrasse Bakchich as one of the “10 best places to eat in Marrakech, Morocco”.

Terrasse Bakchich

Address: 294 rue Talâa, Marrakesh 40000, Morocco
Operating Hours: 10AM-10PM, daily
What to Order: Rabbit tagine, traditional Moroccan cuisine

LOCATION MAP

To help you navigate to these restaurants in Marrakech, I’ve pinned them all on the map below. Click on the link for a live version of the map.

FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE BEST MARRAKESH RESTAURANTS

There’s much to love about Morocco and Marrakesh but for us, Moroccan food is one of the best reasons to visit this country on the northwestern tip of Africa.

Tagine and couscous are emblematic dishes that you can find pretty much anywhere in the medina. We hope this article helps you narrow down your restaurant choices and leads you to many memorable meals in Marrakech.

Aside from restaurants, Moroccan pastries and street food are delicious as well so I’ll probably write another article on our favorite food stalls in Marrakech. As already advised, cooking classes are a great way to learn about Moroccan cuisine so that’s something you may want to do as well.

Lastly, as enchanting as Marrakech can be, it can also be annoying. By that, I mean you may encounter a fair number of locals trying to scam you. They’ll either try to divert you to a shop or take you to the tanneries (not worth it).

So if someone stops and tells you there’s a mosque up ahead – meaning you supposedly can’t go that way – or offers their guide services, then just politely say no and keep walking.

In any case, thanks for reading this article on the best restaurants in Marrakech. Have a safe and amazing time in Morocco!

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