Marrakesh Street Food Guide

Mar­rakesh is a culi­nary par­adise. Moroc­can cui­sine is right­ly world-famous, because the aro­mat­ic, stewed tagines and salades maro­caines are unique. But don’t stop at tagines and cous­cous, because there is so much more to discover!

A snack from a street stall can also be a culi­nary treat and is an essen­tial part of a vis­it to Mar­rakesh. Count­less kitchens line the alley­ways and the smell of grilled food wafts through the souk.

But what is on offer? What is all this? Does it taste good? Can you eat it with­out intesti­nal prob­lems ruin­ing your vaca­tion after­wards? What is lamb mechoui and where can you get the best tangia?

Find the answers in this guide to street food in Mar­rakesh! We present the best places where you can get a quick bite to eat.

If you are look­ing for a cozy place to eat: Good restau­rants with great roof ter­races and dreamy court­yards can be dis­cov­ered in our blog post The best restau­rants in the med­i­na of Mar­rakesh.

The best way to book a guid­ed food tour is via GetY­our­Guide, e.g. the Guid­ed Street Food Walk and Taste Tour*.

Hygiene

In gen­er­al, you can eat at street ven­dors and snack bars with­out any prob­lems. Hotels, restau­rants and snack bars must adhere to cer­tain hygiene stan­dards and are reg­u­lar­ly inspect­ed. The Moroc­can gov­ern­ment is well aware that in times of online por­tals such as Tri­pad­vi­sor and the like, bad reports about hygiene prob­lems are dam­ag­ing tourism, and is react­ing accordingly.

Nev­er­the­less, the fol­low­ing also applies here: it does­n’t hurt to take a look at the clean­li­ness of the counter or even the kitchen. Your gut feel­ing is impor­tant — if you are unsure, don’t do it. There are plen­ty of alternatives.

How­ev­er, you should­n’t always be put off by out­ward appear­ances — the food can be absolute­ly deli­cious despite sim­ple tin plates, a scratched table­cloth and a piece of paper instead of a napkin!

Drinks — water, tea and fruit juices

Water

Walk­ing around the souk makes you thirsty, espe­cial­ly when it’s hot. This makes it dif­fi­cult to drink enough water every day. But it’s not real­ly a prob­lem, because bot­tled water and oth­er drinks can be bought in many places in the souk, usu­al­ly at mod­er­ate prices and well chilled.

Dis­pos­ing of the bot­tle is more of a prob­lem. There are only pub­lic garbage cans at Jemaa el Fna. Some­times there are garbage cans at the snack bars or kiosks, some­times at tourist points of inter­est such as ATMs or tourist attrac­tions. Oth­er­wise it’s a case of: Car­ry the bot­tle around with you and dis­pose of it at the hotel or when vis­it­ing a restaurant.

Mint tea

If your feet need a break, find a small café and drink a mint tea. You can’t go wrong with that, fresh mint tea is always good. I always order a bot­tle of water with it, as the tea is usu­al­ly sweet and does­n’t real­ly quench your thirst. You can also use the toi­let in the café, as pub­lic toi­lets are few and far between and I haven’t yet found one that I would have liked to use.

Fruit juices

There are a num­ber of juice stalls on the Jemaa el Fna where you can get incred­i­bly tasty juice.

You can drink it with­out any prob­lems, but you should order the juice with­out ice cubes and make sure the plas­tic cups are new and clean beforehand.

Fresh juices are also some­times avail­able in small snack bars and street ven­dors. The same applies here: no ice cubes and check the plas­tic cups first.

When in sea­son, pome­gran­ates are piled up on mobile carts all over the city, from which pome­gran­ate juice is pressed on the spot. It tastes deli­cious. The ven­dors don’t have any ice any­way and if the plas­tic cups look new, there’s noth­ing to stop you enjoy­ing it.

Sug­ar cane juice is just as sea­son­al. A lot of sug­ar cane is grown in Moroc­co and mobile juice press­es are a com­mon sight in the city. The juice is deli­cious, but pure sug­ar and there­fore real­ly sweet.

Coffee

Small cof­fee shops serv­ing espres­so, lat­te mac­chi­a­to or Moroc­can cof­fee with spices can be found all over the med­i­na. Some stores have adapt­ed to the needs of tourists and serve soy, oat or almond milk with their cof­fee along­side the classics.

Our favorite cof­fee shop is Kech’Cup, locat­ed on a cor­ner near the Jardin Secret. You can’t miss it because of its bright green col­or, and the best espres­so is served here. There are 3 stools in the tiny store, it’s always full and the barista knows his business!

If you come across a stand that pre­pares cof­fee in the sand, you should def­i­nite­ly try it:

Under the Sahara sand is a gas cylin­der that heats the sand to around 80 degrees Cel­sius, in which the cof­fee pot is then heat­ed until the cof­fee is thick and frothy.

Thanks to the gen­tle prepa­ra­tion, the cof­fee is creamy and vel­vety and not a bit bit­ter. Very, very tasty!

Mobile sales stands

In the wider alley­ways in the souk and the med­i­na, there are always mobile stalls, so-called charettes, offer­ing sea­son­al pro­duce. Here you can buy fresh­ly har­vest­ed fruit and veg­eta­bles, usu­al­ly charged by weight.

The fruit tastes much bet­ter than here. It is sweet­er and riper and always fresh.

The carts arrive ful­ly loaded in the morn­ing in the med­i­na, move around and are bought emp­ty a few hours later.

If you buy some­thing from the charettes, the stalls on wheels, make sure you wash the fruit before eat­ing it if nec­es­sary. With bot­tled water of course, not the water from the hotel tap.

The small bananas grown in Moroc­co are very tasty. If it is straw­ber­ry sea­son, you will find moun­tains of deli­cious red straw­ber­ries, which are sold by the kilo.

In sum­mer, there are sug­ar-sweet mel­ons and once you’ve tried a Moroc­can water­mel­on, you will be spoiled. My son is water­mel­on fan and he always makes sure that our vaca­tion plans coin­cide with water­mel­on sea­son! But be care­ful: too much water­mel­on can also have neg­a­tive con­se­quences for the gut.

The avo­ca­dos, start­ing from Octo­ber, are incred­i­bly tasty. Per­sim­mons are avail­able in the fall, as are sweet grapes. Novem­ber is tan­ger­ine and orange season.

Prick­ly pears are also ripe in the fall and are sold in heaps through­out the city. The ven­dor cuts them open on the spot, you pick out the inside with a tooth­pick and enjoy. This way you are guar­an­teed not to come into con­tact with the spines. The dark pur­ple flesh tastes tart and sweet at the same time and is a real superfood.

After­wards, your tongue is just as pink as your lips. You should def­i­nite­ly try prick­ly pears if you are not famil­iar with them, as you can hard­ly ever buy them in cen­tral Europe.

Of course, there are also sea­son­al veg­eta­bles, which are just as deli­cious as the fruit, but as a hotel guest you can usu­al­ly do lit­tle with them.

With a loaf of bread, a few olives, an avo­ca­do and some fruit, you could have a won­der­ful pic­nic at lunchtime. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, it’s not that easy, as there are no pub­lic green spaces for a pic­nic in the med­i­na. Even at Jemaa el Fna there are hard­ly any places to sit. You are most like­ly to find some­thing around the Koutoubia Mosque.

Markets and market halls

Medina markets

There are small­er mar­kets in var­i­ous cor­ners of the med­i­na. We like to buy our fruit and veg­eta­bles at Bab Doukkala. There is a mix­ture of stores and mar­ket stalls in the wide alley­way and the hus­tle and bus­tle is char­ac­ter­ized by locals who buy their gro­ceries there.

The mar­ket stalls sell veg­eta­bles, fruit and herbs, and there are also butch­ers and fish­mon­gers. The stores sell every­day items such as soap, cat food and cell phone cards, as well as olives, dates and nuts.

Market Halls

While the mar­kets most­ly offer fresh pro­duce, the mar­ket halls also have meat and fish, includ­ing the strong smell that goes with it. The mar­ket hall on Place des Ferblantiers in the south of the med­i­na is only for peo­ple with strong nerves, espe­cial­ly the cor­ner where the chick­ens are slaugh­tered. In the Moroc­can heat, cus­tomers want to be sure that the meat is fresh! 

So if you are curi­ous, I can only rec­om­mend a vis­it to a mar­ket hall — it could hard­ly be more authentic.

Small vendors make up the majority of street food in Marrakesh

Food is sold on every cor­ner in the med­i­na, some­times on a mobile stall, some­times in a real store. The ven­dor usu­al­ly focus­es on one spe­cial­ty and when he is sold out, he makes room for the rest of the day. It is there­fore rarely pos­si­ble to pre­dict exact­ly where you will get what, and you have to grab it when the oppor­tu­ni­ty presents itself.

Briouats are tri­an­gu­lar filled dumplings that are some­times sold in the souk. They are filled with chick­en, cheese or veg­eta­bles and taste deli­cious. If you want to eat some­thing hearty quick­ly, which is very tasty and does­n’t cost much, briouats are just the thing.

Chickpeas, nuts and olives

Roast­ed chich­peas are in Mar­rakesh what pota­to pota­to chips are to us. Light­ly salt­ed, some­times spiced, crispy, crunchy, irre­sistibly deli­cious. The chick­peas are fresh­ly roast­ed by traders in mobile stalls and sold while still warm, sim­i­lar to our chest­nut traders in win­ter. Or you can find the chick­peas at the traders who sell nuts and dates, not fresh­ly roast­ed, but also very tasty.

Almonds, peanuts and oth­er nuts can be bought open­ly from traders whose tiny stores are hid­den among all the oth­er stores. You are usu­al­ly allowed to try what you like before­hand and are charged by weight. If the trad­er only speaks Ara­bic, the own­er of the store next door trans­lates or the price is indi­cat­ed with hands and feet. Nobody has to go hun­gry in Moroc­co because of lan­guage difficulties.

Behind the Jemaa el Fna there is an area where all the olive mer­chants are locat­ed. Here, vis­i­tors are spoiled for choice between the count­less ven­dors, who basi­cal­ly all offer the same thing: Olives in all pos­si­ble variations.

The traders are hap­py to let you taste the olives and the goods are charged by weight. The olives are not expen­sive and there are many deli­cious vari­eties to discover.

You can also buy the typ­i­cal Moroc­can pre­served lemons, the cit­rons con­fits, here. You should let the ven­dor know if you want to take the olives or lemons home with you, then maybe he will pack them in a plas­tic box, not in a plas­tic bag.

Bread fresh from the oven

Flat­bread is avail­able fresh from the count­less small bak­eries that can be found in many places in the med­i­na. Right at the begin­ning of the alley­way Derb Tizougarine, where our Riad Selouane is locat­ed, there is a bak­ery that bakes fresh bread all day long. The first batch is baked at 6 in the morn­ing and the bak­ery is cleaned and closed at midnight.

You can buy a loaf of bread for a few dirhams and there is hard­ly any­thing tasti­er than a warm flat­bread straight from the wood-fired oven.

Inci­den­tal­ly, the ovens are fired with the waste from the wood carvers who work all over the souk. Moroc­can recy­cling, so to speak.

Looking for a hotel in Marrakesh?

The best loca­tion in the med­i­na, break­fast includ­ed, an oasis of peace in the mid­dle of the souks:
the Riad Selouane is the ide­al address for your city trip!

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Snack stalls and takeaways

Every alley has its own snack booth

Every­where in the med­i­na there are snack stalls offer­ing food to go, some­times with a chair or two to wait on. Some are clear­ly designed for tourists, but many are main­ly fre­quent­ed by locals work­ing in the souk.

There are small snack stalls like this in many places in the souk. The food is inex­pen­sive and tasty.

For exam­ple, in the Souk Had­dadin near the fer­roniers, the iron ben­ders: there are sev­er­al small bar­be­cue stalls sell­ing deli­cious bar­be­cue skewers.

It is main­ly the local work­ers from the sur­round­ing souk who shop here and the store also oper­ates a deliv­ery ser­vice for the craftsmen.

The snack bar is bare­ly 10 square meters in size and yet 4 peo­ple work here.

There are bar­be­cue skew­ers with lamb, beef, chick­en or — high­ly rec­om­mend­ed — liver.

If you can get hold of one of the three stools to sit on, you can also enjoy a fresh sal­ad with toma­to and onions and flat­bread. You can buy water from the kiosk next door.

Or there is meat from the grill plat­ter with toma­to and onions in flat­bread to take away.

If you are afraid of intesti­nal prob­lems, sim­ply leave out the fresh ingre­di­ents such as toma­toes and onions. A good indi­ca­tor of qual­i­ty is always the many locals who buy there.

Cookshops offer the whole variety of Moroccan cuisine

In the midst of all the stores, you will always come across small food stalls sell­ing some­thing to eat. As the eater­ies are very small, each one spe­cial­izes in one or two dish­es. Here you can eat a soup made from lentils or beans or a flat­bread filled with egg and veg­eta­bles at a very rea­son­able price.

These food stalls pro­vide the locals with quick, inex­pen­sive food that is tasty and fill­ing. There are usu­al­ly one or two tables in the alley and there is a lot of com­ing and going.

Even if the loca­tion does­n’t nec­es­sar­i­ly meet our stan­dards visu­al­ly, grilled lamb chops, for exam­ple, are unbeat­able in terms of taste and you usu­al­ly have an excel­lent meal for less than €10 for two.

Sandwiches and filled flatbreads

At the entrance to the Derb Tizougarine alley, where our Riad Selouane is locat­ed, Meh­di runs his small sand­wich store.

He sells deli­cious flat­breads fresh­ly filled with chick­en and veg­eta­bles at his tiny stall.

He also offers veg­e­tar­i­an fill­ings and every­thing is fresh and delicious.

You can find small stalls like this scat­tered all over the med­i­na. Some sell very tra­di­tion­al sand­wich­es, but some­times, like at Mehdi’s, you will be real­ly sur­prised, as there are unusu­al com­bi­na­tions to discover.

There are many small stalls sell­ing flat­bread filled with toma­to sauce and boiled egg. The locals use this oppor­tu­ni­ty to get a quick, inex­pen­sive meal. These flat­breads are also often offered on mobile stalls. When every­thing is sold, the stall is packed up and closed for the rest of the day.

Specialties

Tagine is prob­a­bly the Moroc­can spe­cial­ty par excel­lence. But there is much more to dis­cov­er and, above all, great region­al dif­fer­ences. Mar­rakesh is par­tic­u­lar­ly famous for its tan­gia mar­rakchia, but lamb from the clay oven is also a very spe­cial delicacy.

Lamb Mechoui

Near the olive mer­chants behind the Jemaa el Fna are the restau­rants that offer lamb mechoui. This lamb, a spe­cial­ty of Mar­rakesh, is cooked for sev­er­al hours in huge ovens set into the ground.

Sold by weight, the crowds at the start of the sale are huge and the meat is ten­der as butter.

The lamb is either avail­able to take away or you can eat on site in the restau­rant if you can get a seat. There are no plates, every­thing is served on pieces of paper. The meat is served with flat­bread and a mix­ture of cumin and salt. Very tasty and a tru­ly unusu­al culi­nary experience.

Even if you don’t want to eat here, it’s worth pop­ping in to take a look at the impres­sive oven and soak up the bustling atmosphere.

Lamb mechoui is only served here at lunchtime, so if you arrive too late, you have to take the unpop­u­lar pieces that are the last to go over the counter.

If you would pre­fer to dis­cov­er the culi­nary secrets such as lamb mechoui with a local guide, a guid­ed food tour through Mar­rakesh* is just the thing for you!

Tangia

In many small restau­rants, clay pots are piled up, their glaze show­ing signs of heavy use.
Tan­gia, a stew, is pre­pared in them.

Meat and veg­eta­bles are cooked for hours direct­ly in the clay pot and the result is won­der­ful­ly ten­der and high­ly aro­mat­ic. This dish is also served with flatbread.

The price varies depend­ing on the ingre­di­ents and the orig­i­nal Tan­gia Mar­rakchia with lamb and beef is also served in expen­sive restau­rants. There are usu­al­ly sim­pler ver­sions in the souk, but they don’t nec­es­sar­i­ly taste any worse.

Tra­di­tion­al­ly, tan­gia is a real work­ing-class dish: in the morn­ing, the house­wife fills her hus­band’s clay pot with meat and veg­eta­bles and he takes it to the souk, where he deliv­ers it to the ham­mam heater.

The fire that heats the ham­mam is also used to cook the tan­gia. For a small fee, the crafts­men let their lunch sim­mer here before pick­ing it up again at lunchtime and eat­ing it with flatbread.

It is there­fore quite pos­si­ble that an inex­pen­sive tan­gia in the souk, cooked in the ham­mam, tastes bet­ter than the expen­sive ver­sion in the fan­cy rooftop restau­rant, which was pre­pared in a nor­mal oven.

Sweets — Patisserie Marocaine

Moroc­cans love it sweet. You can see this in the mint tea, which seems to have more sug­ar than tea, and in the hon­ey-drip­ping sweet pas­tries that are sold every­where. In gen­er­al, all these lit­tle del­i­ca­cies are grouped under the term patis­serie maro­caine.

Dates and dried fruits

There are sev­er­al stalls sell­ing dates, nuts and dried fruit on the Jemaa el Fna.

Dates are avail­able loose or pre-packed. They most­ly come from the area south of the High Atlas and there are count­less varieties.

My favorite is the large Med­joul dates, which are also called dattes royales in Morocco.

Pastry

There are some impres­sive stores sell­ing pas­tries and cook­ies in the alley­ways around Jemaa el Fna.

The ven­dors are very enter­pris­ing, let­ting vis­i­tors try every­thing and usu­al­ly sell­ing by weight.

You can also find all kinds of cook­ies on mobile stalls, espe­cial­ly in the evening on Jemaa el Fna.

In the med­i­na, there are always small pas­try shops sell­ing deli­cious Moroc­can cook­ies and French patis­serie. Mille feuille, eclairs, gazelle horns, bakla­va — the vari­ety is incred­i­ble. Some­times there is a small rooftop ter­race where you can enjoy the del­i­ca­cies while sip­ping a mint tea.

How­ev­er, the cook­ies, which are sold by weight, are usu­al­ly packed in a card­board box to take away. These patis­series maro­caines are very pop­u­lar with my fam­i­ly in the evenings on the roof ter­race of the riad or as a sou­venir to take home.

You can also stum­ble across mobile stalls sell­ing all kinds of nougat from time to time. The traders are hap­py to let you try them and some of the fla­vor com­bi­na­tions are real­ly amaz­ing­ly delicious.

Some small stalls sell fresh­ly fried Moroc­can donuts: sweet, greasy and absolute­ly pop­u­lar with the locals. I have nev­er been able to get excit­ed about them. Alone the ori­gin of the fry­ing oil is too sus­pect for me…

Icecream

Small, styl­ish stores with col­or­ful cook­ies and mod­ern fla­vor com­bi­na­tions are aimed more at tourists. This also applies to the ice cream on a stick, which is col­or­ful, made from deli­cious fruit juices and tempt­ing on hot days.

In the Hotel Palais Khum and the asso­ci­at­ed restau­rant Babouche — the own­ers are Ital­ian — there is a small espres­so bar open to the street. Here, deli­cious Illy cof­fee is served at the counter like in an Ital­ian bar and there is also home­made Ital­ian ice cream in the ice cream cone.

Streetfood in Marrakesh is a real experience.

Have the courage to try it!

Looking for more information on Marrakech?

Vis­it our trav­el guide to learn more about the red city!

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