Short answer: The five Moroccan dishes not to miss are a tagine, Friday couscous, pastilla, harira soup and tanjia in Marrakech, all followed by a glass of mint tea. Eat at the food stalls of Jemaa el-Fna in the evening, grilled sardines at the port of Essaouira, and breakfast on bissara, msemen and fresh orange juice in the medinas.
Moroccan cooking brings together Amazigh (Berber) traditions of the mountains and the desert, Arab and Andalusian influences that came with the cities of Fez and Rabat, Jewish home cooking, and a light French touch in cafés and bakeries. The country grows much of what it eats: olives, almonds, dates, citrus, argan and wheat, with sardines and other fish from two long coasts. Spices such as cumin, ginger, saffron, cinnamon and the house blend ras el hanout flavor the food without making it hot. Morocco shares UNESCO’s listing of the Mediterranean diet, and with its neighbors the knowledge and practices of couscous. This guide covers the 15 dishes and drinks we would order first, where each one is best, and how to eat well on any budget. For the bigger picture, start with our Morocco travel guide.
The classics
1. Tagine
Meat, fish or vegetables cooked slowly in a clay pot with a tall cone-shaped lid that sends the steam back down onto the food. Classic versions are chicken with preserved lemon and olives, lamb or beef with prunes and almonds, and kefta (meatball) tagine with tomato and egg. It is served in the pot it was cooked in, and you eat it with bread. Vegetable tagines are on almost every menu.
2. Couscous
Hand-rolled semolina steamed several times over a pot of stew, then piled into a mound and topped with meat and seven vegetables, or sweet caramelized onions and raisins (tfaya). In 2020, UNESCO added the knowledge, know-how and practices of couscous, shared by Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and Tunisia, to its list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Families eat it at lunch on Fridays, and some restaurants serve it only that day.
3. Pastilla (bastilla)
A large, round pie of very thin warqa pastry filled with spiced pigeon or chicken, eggs and almonds, then dusted with powdered sugar and cinnamon. The mix of sweet and savory is the point. It comes from the Andalusian cooking of Fez and is a dish for weddings and celebrations; on the coast, seafood pastilla is a less sweet version.
4. Tanjia
The own dish of Marrakech: beef or lamb packed into a tall clay jar with preserved lemon, garlic, cumin and saffron, then left to cook for hours in the ashes of a hammam’s furnace. The meat comes out very tender and is eaten with bread. Look for it in the small restaurants around the Mechouar and on the edges of Jemaa el-Fna.
5. Mechoui
Whole lamb or shoulder roasted slowly until it falls off the bone, eaten with your fingers and seasoned with salt and cumin from small bowls on the table. It is a dish for feasts and big family meals; in Marrakech, a few stalls near Jemaa el-Fna sell it by weight at lunchtime.
Street food and lighter meals
6. Harira
A tomato soup with lentils, chickpeas, herbs and sometimes small pieces of meat, thickened with flour and finished with lemon. It is the soup Moroccans break the fast with during Ramadan, usually with dates and chebakia, and is sold all year in simple medina restaurants. Ask whether it is made with meat stock if you are vegetarian.
7. Kefta, brochettes and merguez
Grilled skewers of spiced minced meat (kefta), lamb or liver cubes, and thin spicy sausages (merguez), cooked over charcoal and served with bread, tomato and onion salad and harissa or cumin. Grill stalls and snack bars sell them everywhere; around Place el-Hedim in Meknes and on Jemaa el-Fna, they are the evening meal.
8. Grilled sardines and fresh fish
On the Atlantic coast, sardines, sea bream, prawns and calamari are grilled to order at simple port stalls. In Essaouira, you choose your fish at the harbor and agree the price by weight before it is cooked; in Agadir, a row of grill restaurants at the fishing port serves the catch at lunchtime.
9. Moroccan salads
A meal often starts with a spread of small cooked salads eaten with bread: zaalouk (smoky eggplant and tomato with garlic and cumin), taktouka (roasted peppers and tomato), carrots with cumin, beets and lentils. They are a vegetarian’s best friend and come free or cheaply with many set menus.
10. Medfouna
Sometimes called Berber pizza: flatbread stuffed with minced meat, onion, egg, almonds and spices, then baked in a clay oven or in the hot sand. It is the specialty of the desert towns of the southeast, around Rissani and Merzouga, and a good lunch on the road from Ouarzazate to the dunes.
Breakfast, sweets and drinks
11. Bissara
A thick, smooth soup of dried fava beans or split peas, served steaming hot with a pool of olive oil and a sprinkle of cumin and paprika. It is a working breakfast in Fez, Chefchaouen and the north, sold from tiny counters in the medina early in the morning, and it is naturally vegan.
12. Msemen and baghrir
Moroccan breakfast breads: msemen is a square, flaky pan-fried flatbread, and baghrir a soft, spongy semolina pancake full of tiny holes. Both are eaten warm with honey and butter, with olive oil, or with amlou, and are sold from street griddles in every medina in the morning and late afternoon.
13. Chebakia and Moroccan pastries
Chebakia are flower-shaped cookies of fried dough soaked in honey and sprinkled with sesame, eaten especially during Ramadan. Pastry shops also sell gazelle horns (kaab el ghazal) filled with almond paste, briouats (fried triangles of almond and honey) and ghriba (crumbly almond or coconut cookies). The Habous quarter of Casablanca is famous for its pastry shops.
14. Amlou and argan oil
Argan oil is pressed from the nuts of the argan tree, which grows only in southwest Morocco, and UNESCO lists the practices and know-how of the argan tree, passed on mainly by women, as intangible cultural heritage. Mixed with roasted almonds and honey, it becomes amlou, a rich spread for bread at breakfast. Women’s cooperatives on the roads around Essaouira and Agadir show the traditional pressing.
15. Mint tea
Green tea brewed with lots of fresh mint and sugar, poured from a height into small glasses so it foams. It is offered to guests, in shops and after meals, and accepting a glass is part of being welcomed. Ask for “bla sukkar” if you want it without sugar. Fresh orange juice is the other everyday drink, squeezed at stalls for a few dirhams.
Where to eat: Marrakech and beyond
- Marrakech: Jemaa el-Fna, whose cultural space is on UNESCO’s intangible heritage list, is the place to eat in the evening: at dusk dozens of food stalls set up benches and grills for harira, grilled meat, fish, snails and orange juice. Agree prices before you order. By day, try tanjia around the Mechouar, and book a rooftop or riad restaurant for tagines, couscous and pastilla.
- Fez: the medina’s snack bars serve bissara for breakfast, khlii (preserved dried beef) cooked into eggs, and sweets such as chebakia and almond briouats; the city is the home of pastilla.
- Essaouira: the fish market and port grills for sardines and sea bream, and medina restaurants for fish tagines, seafood pastilla and couscous.
- Casablanca: the Central Market for oysters, sea urchins and grilled fish cooked to order at the stalls around it, the port restaurants for seafood, and the pastry shops and olive sellers of the Habous quarter.
- Meknes and Rabat: the grill stalls of Place el-Hedim and the covered market’s olives, spices and dates in Meknes; in Rabat, Friday couscous, fish and simple medina places for harira and grilled sardines.
- The desert and the mountains: in Merzouga and the oases, medfouna, dates and desert-camp dinners of tagine or couscous; in the Atlas villages, simple tagines and Amazigh bread baked in clay ovens.
Food etiquette and tipping
In homes and traditional restaurants, food is served from shared dishes in the middle of the table, and you eat from the section in front of you using bread as a scoop. Eat and pass food with your right hand. Lunch is the main meal of the day, and dinner is often later and lighter. Alcohol is served only in licensed hotels, bars and restaurants, and many medina restaurants do not serve it.
During Ramadan, many restaurants outside hotels close until sunset, then the evening meal, iftar, begins with harira, dates and sweets, and the streets are lively late into the night. Eating and drinking discreetly in daytime is a courtesy.
Tipping is customary: in restaurants, leave about 10% if service is not included, and round up for cafés and food stalls. Our tip calculator helps you work it out, and our phrase cards have useful words in Arabic and French, such as “shukran” (thank you) and “l’addition, s’il vous plaît” (the bill, please).
Eating on a budget
Moroccan food is a highlight, and eating locally is cheap. Our Morocco trip cost guide puts a tagine lunch in a local restaurant at about MAD 50–100 ($5–10), mint tea in a café at MAD 8–20, a bissara breakfast or medina snack at MAD 10–40, and dinner at a food stall on Jemaa el-Fna at about MAD 60–120, while rooftop and riad restaurants in Marrakech charge more. Street griddles, bread from the neighborhood oven and set menus in simple places keep costs low. A market walk or a cooking class, often starting with shopping for spices and vegetables, is a popular way to learn the dishes; browse food tours and classes in Marrakech and Fez in our tour finder.
Food also shapes when to go. Ramadan moves about 11 days earlier each year and is expected to begin around February 8 or 9 in 2027; the date harvest begins in the southern oases in September; and the Damask rose harvest in the Dades Valley is celebrated in May. Our best time to visit Morocco guide covers the seasons and festivals month by month.
Plan your trip: our free trip planner can build a day-by-day plan around Marrakech, Fez and the desert with time for markets and long lunches. Then see our Morocco itinerary for 7, 10 and 14 days, and our top 10 places to visit in Morocco to decide where to go.
Frequently asked questions
What is the national dish of Morocco?
Couscous is the dish most Moroccans would name, eaten by families on Fridays and recognized by UNESCO in 2020 as shared heritage of Morocco and its neighbors. The tagine is the everyday favorite, and pastilla is the dish for celebrations.
Is Morocco food spicy?
Not usually. Moroccan food is richly spiced with cumin, ginger, cinnamon, saffron and paprika, but it is rarely hot. Harissa, the chili paste, is served on the side with grilled meat and some soups, so you can choose how much to add.
What do people eat for breakfast in Morocco?
Breads such as msemen, baghrir and khobz with honey, butter, olive oil, olives, cheese or amlou, with mint tea or coffee. In the medinas, working people eat bissara (fava bean soup) from small counters, and riads serve generous breakfasts with fresh orange juice.
Is Morocco good for vegetarians?
Fairly good. Vegetable tagines and couscous, cooked salads, bissara, lentils, msemen and fresh fruit are easy to find. Some soups and stews use meat stock, including harira, so ask for “bla lham” (without meat) and check how a dish is made.
Can you drink alcohol in Morocco?
Yes, in licensed hotels, bars and restaurants, but it is not served everywhere, and many medina restaurants are alcohol-free. Morocco also produces wine around Meknes. Mint tea and fresh juices are what most people drink with meals.
What is the best way to eat at Jemaa el-Fna?
Go after dusk, when the food stalls are set up, walk around once before choosing, and sit where locals are eating. Check prices on the menu board or agree them before you order, and decline dishes that you did not ask for. Harira, grilled meat, fried fish and a glass of fresh orange juice make a good first meal.