Tangier Food Guide: 12 of the Best Restaurants in Tangier, Morocco

We absolutely LOVED Tangier. Within a few hours of arriving in this city, we couldn’t help but fall for its hilly streets, easygoing vibe, and magnificent ocean views. We had just spent a month in the much drier landscape of Marrakech so Tangier felt like an oasis!

Located on the northwestern tip of Morocco and Africa, Tangier lies along the coast of the Strait of Gibraltar – a narrow strait that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. Like anywhere in the country, traditional Moroccan dishes like tagine and couscous abound but the real draw in this coastal city is the seafood. From grilled sardines to swordfish tagine to fried calamari, seafood lovers will have lots to look forward to here.

We recently spent three weeks in Tangier looking for the best restaurants to have the tastiest seafood and most delicious Moroccan food. Here’s what we found.

MUST-VISIT TANGIER RESTAURANTS FOR TRADITIONAL MOROCCAN CUISINE

1. Cafe Hafa

There’s no better way to start this article on the best restaurants in Tangier than with Cafe Hafa. This legendary cafe has been offering its guests mint tea with some of the most spectacular views in Tangier for over a hundred years.

Cafe Hafa consists of two parts – a cafe and a restaurant. You can eat and drink tea at both but people looking for heavier dishes like tagine or seafood need to go to the restaurant. They offer a wider menu with traditional dishes and comfort food like tagine, fried or grilled seafood, sandwiches, salad, and pizza.

What you’re looking at below is one of their most popular dishes – grilled swordfish with a side salad and fries. It was highly recommended to us by our server and rightfully so.

If you prefer a softer and flakier fish, then perhaps you’d like to try this grilled whiting instead. It’s a type of whitefish that’s oilier and less meaty in texture.

Vegetable tajine is something we need to have with every Moroccan meal. They can be made with different vegetables but Cafe Hafa’s version had a generous amount of cubed potatoes.

And of course, a glass of delicious mint tea to wash everything down with. I enjoyed Moroccan tea so much that I stopped drinking coffee altogether!

Cafe Hafa has been open since 1921 and has attracted celebrities and creatives like Henri Matisse, The Rolling Stones, William S Burroughs, and Yves Saint Laurent over the decades. Today, it’s no longer the Bohemian and intellectual enclave it once was but it remains one of the most popular cafes in Tangier. Wait until you see the view.

This is the cafe section of Hafa. It consists of multiple tiered levels of open-air seating with an unobstructed view of the Strait of Gibraltar. We only drank mint tea here but they do serve a few light dishes as well, like msemen and other types of bread.

This is one of the restaurant’s seating areas. The cafe and restaurant are operated separately.

Here’s a shot of the view from the cafe area. Spectacular isn’t it? My camera can only capture so much so it’s even better in person. That landmass in the distance is Spain.

The sun can be a bit much but they do offer a few areas with covered seating. You’ll probably want some shade because it’s easy to get lost in that view for hours.

Cafe Hafa

Address: Rue Hafa, Tangier, Morocco
Operating Hours: 9AM-11PM, daily
What to Order: Seafood dishes, tagine, comfort food

2. La Terrasse – Dar El Kasbah (Kasbart)

The street where this restaurant is on is one of our favorites in Tangier. It’s a steep street that runs along the western side of the kasbah and is filled with many good Moroccan restaurants, one of them being La Terrasse – Dar El Kasbah.

Also known as Kasbart, La Terrasse doesn’t offer as wide a menu as some of the other restaurants on this list but they do offer Moroccan favorites like tagine, zaalouk, taktouka, and couscous. Pictured below was my incredibly delicious anchovy tagine.

Aside from Moroccan dishes, La Terrasse offers a few Western-style dishes as well, like this salmon bagel sandwich made with smoked salmon, avocado, cream cheese, arugula, and chives.

Healthy eaters will love the fact that Kasbart offers a wide selection of fresh juices as well.

We were lucky to stay at the top of this hill and not too far from Kasbart. We enjoyed their food and fruit juices, but the one thing that stood out the most was the restaurant itself.

True to its name, Kasbart was one of the prettiest and most artistic restaurants we visited in Tangier. This first-floor seating area was nice but I highly recommend going up to the rooftop terrace.

Isn’t this space lovely? This has to be one of the prettiest rooftop dining areas in Tangier.

Kasbart has a small shop as well selling clothing and accessories. You can dine here too if you like.

La Terrasse – Dar El Kasbah (Kasbart)

Address: 14 Rue de la Kasbah, Tanger, Morocco
Operating Hours: 10AM-10PM, Tue-Sun (closed Mondays)
What to Order: Tagine, Moroccan salads, breakfast sandwiches, fresh fruit juices

3. Chez Hassan Bab Kasbah

Chez Hassan is a great restaurant located at the bottom of the hill from Kasbart. We ate here several times as it’s probably one of our top three favorite restaurants in Tangier. It’s an inexpensive but delicious Moroccan restaurant that serves many different types of meat and seafood tagine and grilled brochette dishes.

Before we get to the entrees, here’s a quick shot of Chez Hassan’s olives. Nearly every restaurant in Tangier starts you off with brined olives but these were the best. They’re marinated with harissa (Maghrebi chili pepper paste), giving them an extra kick. Delicious!

If you’d like a grilled seafood dish with a little bit of everything, then you may want to get this mixed seafood brochette platter. If I remember correctly, it comes with barbecues prawns, squid rings, and three types of skewered fish. You can get it with a side of Moroccan salad, vegetables, or french fries.

Chez Hassan’s grilled calamari was absolutely delicious – tender and charred in parts – so we had to get a whole plate of it on another visit.

Their chicken brochette is fantastic as well, probably the best we had anywhere in Tangier. At the time of our visit in June 2023, three large skewers went for just MAD 60.

We ate at Chez Hassan once on a Friday so we had to get the vegetable couscous. Couscous is a special dish that’s traditionally eaten only on Fridays in Morocco.

As described, Chef Hassan Bab Kasbah is an inexpensive restaurant that serves delicious food so expect it to be full at peak meal times. Even our Airbnb host called it his favorite restaurant in Tangier.

Chez Hassan Bab Kasbah

Address: 8 Rue de la Kasbah, Tanger 90000, Morocco
Operating Hours: 12:30-11:30PM, daily
What to Order: Tagine, grilled seafood, brochette

4. Dar Harruch

Don’t miss Dar Harruch. Not only do they serve delicious Moroccan food, but this lovely restaurant is hidden deep inside the medina. Eating here will make you feel like you’ve discovered one of Tangier’s lesser-known gems.

Dar Harruch offers typical dishes like tagine, couscous, and brochette but they offer a few Spanish dishes as well like tortilla de patata and flan. They started us off with these small clay dishes of bean stew, brined olives, harissa, and khobz.

If you’re in the mood for soup, then you may want to try harira. It’s a hearty and warming Moroccan soup made with lentils, chickpeas, and tomatoes.

Dar Harruch offers a few grilled and fried fish dishes but I highly recommend trying the swordfish plate. It’s made with a big, perfectly cooked swordfish steak and a side of pilaf and grilled vegetables. This was delicious and probably the best swordfish dish I had in Tangier.

We ate at Dar Harruch on a Friday. You know what that means right? Couscous! This time, we got it with lamb.

The vegetables in the couscous weren’t enough so we ordered this vegetable tagine as well. The vegetable dishes in Morocco are so delicious.

Nestled deep within the labyrinth of alleyways in the medina, Dar Harruch can be hard to find so be sure to check our map for its exact location.

Aside from serving terrific food, we loved the friendly service and warm and cozy atmosphere of the restaurant as well. Dar Harruch is run by the loveliest Moroccan family which makes the experience of dining here even more memorable.

Dar Harruch

Address: Mohammed Torres medina, 35 Rue Hadj Mohamed Torres, Tanger 90000, Morocco
Operating Hours: 9AM-11PM, daily
What to Order: Traditional Moroccan cuisine

5. Kebdani

We ate at many delicious restaurants in Tangier, but Kebdani may have been the most interesting. Aside from traditional dishes like tagine, pastilla, harira soup, and couscous, they offer a few “Rif” dishes on their menu as well.

We didn’t know what Rif meant so we googled it. Apparently, it pertains to the Rif region and Berber people occupying a part of northeastern Morocco. According to Brittanica, they’re a herding, cultivating, and sardine-seining culture that seems to have their own way of preparing food. Interesting!

Before we get to the entrees, Kebdani started us off with these small plates of stewed beans, olives, Moroccan salads, and khobz. Most restaurants in Tangier offer a few freebies like olives and bread but Kebdani offered the most, which was nice.

I’m a big seafood guy which is one reason why I loved Tangier so much. Almost every seafood restaurant offers some type of fried or grilled seafood platter. The types of seafood vary from restaurant to restaurant but at Kebdani, they give you two types of grilled fish, calamari, shrimp, and roasted vegetables.

If you’re hungry and you love seafood, then you need to get one of these.

Kebdani offers a handful of Rif dishes like Rif salad and Rif tagine made with chicken or lamb. What you’re looking at below is Rif chicken tagine. A savory-sweet tagine that reminded us of mrouzia, it’s made with apricots, figs, grapes, plums, and almonds.

This is the only restaurant where we’ve seen Rif dishes. If you’re interested in trying less common but authentic Moroccan cuisine, then you need to enjoy a meal here. Prices are a bit higher than at other restaurants – about MAD 80-140 per tagine (as of June 2023) – but it’s worth it.

Kebdani is located inside the medina. You can refer to our map for its exact location.

Like many of the places on this list, Kebdani is a small restaurant with a warm and cozy atmosphere.

Kebdani

Address: Rue Dar Baroud, Tanger, Morocco
Operating Hours: 12NN-5PM, 7-11:45PM, daily
What to Order: Traditional Moroccan Rif dishes

6. Restaurant Al Maimouni

Al Maimouni was one of the tastiest restaurants we visited in Tangier. They serve different types of meat and chicken dishes but what we came here for, surprise surprise, was the seafood.

Before we get into that, here’s a look at the freebies they gave us – stewed carrots with zaalouk, brined olives, and khobz.

We’re more conscious of what we eat these days so vegetables are a big part of our diet. In Morocco, one of our favorite vegetable dishes to order is Moroccan salad. It’s a simple but delicious salad made with fresh vegetables like chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, herbs, and other ingredients.

Many restaurants in Tangier serve the same seafood dishes but not all are created equal. Grilled calamari isn’t hard to come by in Tangier but the version at Al Maimouni was one of the best. It was served with a butter-garlic-herb sauce that was so incredibly tasty.

We enjoyed many delicious dishes in Tangier, but this was easily one of our favorites.

Made with a similar sauce, this grilled sole was equally delicious. As you can see below, they give you a sizeable portion as well!

This was really nice. We wanted to order mint tea after lunch but our server told us that some tea and Moroccan pastries were already included. Merci!

Unless I’m mistaken, these are called ghoriba which is a type of Moroccan shortbread cookie made with ground almonds and toasted sesame seeds.

Restaurant Al Maimouni can be a little hard to find so be sure to refer to our location map to find it.

It was overcast when we went but on clear days, you may want to enjoy your meal on the rooftop. It provides no cover from the sun but it does offer fantastic views of the marina and kasbah.

Restaurant Al Maimouni

Address: Unnamed Road, Tangier, Morocco
Operating Hours: 11:30AM-11:30PM, daily
What to Order: Traditional Moroccan dishes

7. Restaurant Ahlen

Do a search for the best Tangier restaurants and Ahlen will surely come up. It’s one of the most popular and highly-rated restaurants in the medina, which isn’t hard to understand because their food is delicious and reasonably priced.

Pictured below is the plate of fresh house cheese, olives, and khobz they gave us for starters.

We usually order harira soup but today, we wanted something different. What you’re looking at below is a delicious and hearty bowl of lentejas or lentil stew.

Many restaurants offer sardine tagine but Ahlen was the only place we went to that had grilled sardines. We love sardine tagine but these alone are worth the return visits to Ahlen. So simple but delicious!

There’s nothing more delicious to pair with your meat or seafood than vegetable tagine.

Like Al Maimouni, Restaurant Ahlen offered us some delicious homemade desserts at the end of our meal. I don’t know what this one was called but it was delicious. Thank you!

Restaurant Ahlen is a popular restaurant in the medina so it shouldn’t be hard to find.

Restaurant Ahlen

Address: 8 Rue des Postes, Tangier 90000, Morocco
Operating Hours: 12NN-11PM, Thurs-Tue (closed Wednesdays)
What to Order: Traditional Moroccan food

8. Restaurant El Amrani

We love finding restaurants that cater mostly to locals on our travels. In Tangier, El Amrani is one of those restaurants. They don’t have a menu so ordering can be a challenge but it’s definitely worth the effort.

I suggest starting off with this always-dependable Moroccan salad.

I don’t know if their offerings change by the day but they always had sardine and chicken tagine. Pictured below is their tasty sardine tagine. They offer different types of brochette as well.

This one was the chicken tagine. It was made with a whole chicken leg and thigh and vegetables like cauliflower, zucchini, and carrots. Delicious!

Restaurant El Amrani is located in the medina but it shouldn’t be hard to find. They don’t seem to have a lot of offerings but their food is delicious and their prices are very affordable. At the time of our visits, a meal for two typically cost us around MAD 70 in total.

Restaurant El Amrani

Address: Q5PQ+756, Rue Smihi, Tanger, Morocco
Operating Hours: 11AM-12MN, daily
What to Order: Tagine, brochette

9. Restaurant Bachir

Bachir was easily the most popular restaurant we went to in Tangier. It’s located closer to downtown Tangier, around a 15-minute walk south of the medina, so a vast majority of the customers at this restaurant are local.

Restaurant Bachir serves typical dishes like tagine, brochette, couscous, and seafood but they also have this beauty that you don’t see on every Tangier menu – cow feet and chickpeas. We’re originally from the Philippines so we love finding dishes like this in other countries.

Aside from this delicious dish, Bachir also offers other less common dishes like tripe and chickpeas, sheep’s head tagine, and lamb brain tagine. If you’re a curious eater, then you need to enjoy a meal here.

Can you guess what type of tagine this is?

If you guessed anchovy tagine, then you win a pat on the back. Just kidding. This was delicious.

If you like fish tagine, then another good dish to try is this swordfish tagine. They also have another version of tagine made with shrimp and swordfish.

Here’s another tagine that curious eaters may want to try. It’s called rigamonte and seems to refer to a type of stew made with a tomato-based sauce.

At Restaurant Bachir, you can get two types of rigamote – normal and especial. We tried the normal which was made with egg, liver, chicken, and meat (either lamb or beef). I believe the especial is made with different types of seafood.

If you need more protein in your diet, then these chicken skewers are an excellent choice as well. Some locals were ordering these by the dozen!

And of course, our favorite vegetable tagine to balance out all that meat and seafood.

If you visit Restaurant Bachir on a Friday, then couscous is an obvious choice. They make it with beef, chicken, wild chicken, vegetables, and lben (fermented milk).

Restaurant Bachir is hugely popular with the locals and it isn’t hard to see why. Their food is excellent, the service is fast and attentive, and their prices are very reasonable. A tagine here will cost you between MAD 20-45 which is much less than what you’d pay at most restaurants in the medina. Highly recommended!

Restaurant Bachir

Address: Rue Zyriabe, Tanger, Morocco
Operating Hours: 11:45AM-1AM, daily
What to Order: Traditional Moroccan dishes

10. Romeo

Romeo is another great restaurant to visit if you’re willing to walk. Located near Plage Municipal Beach, about a 20-minute walk from the medina, they serve excellent seafood for much less than what you’d pay at many restaurants in the medina.

Before they served us our seafood, they started us off with a couple of freebies like this plate of bean stew.

They also gave us this plate of lentil stew, some brined olives, and a basket of khobz. Merci!

We need an ample amount of vegetables at every meal and Moroccan salad is always a good choice.

And for the main event – this bright and sunny mixed platter of grilled seafood. They usually serve this fried but you can ask that they grill them instead.

If I remember correctly, this seafood platter came with three or four types of fresh fish, calamari, and shrimp, all for just MAD 80! (June 2023). Our total bill with the Moroccan salad and bottled water came out to just MAD 100, which is less than what you’d pay for one entree at many restaurants in the medina. Awesome!

If you’d like to spend the day at beautiful Plage Municipale Beach, then Romeo is a great place to have a delicious and inexpensive seafood feast.

Romeo

Address: Q5HW+76Q، Rue Abou Alae El Maari. Inm، Ibn Al Khatib A, Tangier 90000, Morocco
Operating Hours: 10AM-11:30PM, Mon-Fri / 11AM-11PM, Sat-Sun
What to Order: Seafood, sandwiches

11. Made in Healthy

We’re middle-aged travelers so eating healthy is becoming more and more of a priority for us. In downtown Tangier, one of the best restaurants to go to if you’re watching your waistline is Made in Healthy. They have a fantastic salad bar and offer many delicious ala carte dishes like poke bowls, sandwiches, burritos, and desserts.

Pictured below is my supremely tasty avocado tartine with poached eggs.

Isn’t this pretty? This is the beetroot hummus tartine with poached eggs. I love hummus and the versions at Made in Healthy are some of the best I’ve ever had.

When a restaurant’s name is on a dish, then that usually means it’s going to be good. This is the Made in Healthy poke bowl. It’s made with grilled chicken breast, hummus, and a melange of delicious vegetables.

We couldn’t decide on a dressing so our server was kind enough to give us a selection of all three. Thank you!

The made-to-order dishes are delicious but what we loved most about Made in Healthy is their salad bar. Your server will give you this order sheet so you can specify exactly how you’d like your salad made.

And voila! Behold my beautiful medium salad made with eight ingredients and two toppings, not to mention a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice to wash it all down with. The salads here are delicious and something we looked forward to often in Tangier.

Made in Healthy is located in downtown Tangier, about a 25-minute walk south of the medina. It’s a bit of a trek but absolutely worth it.

Made in Healthy is a lovely modern cafe that’s bright, green, and cheery. It just feels good to be here.

Here’s a look at the fresh salad bar. You don’t make the salad yourself. You just fill out the form and the resident salad queen will make it for you.

Made in Healthy

Address: Q5GR+CJC, Tangier, Morocco
What to Order: Salads, poke bowls

12. Nougat de Tanger

This last entry isn’t a restaurant, but if you like delicious desserts and snacks, then you’ll probably want to seek it out. The Nougat de Tanger stall makes some of the best nougat we’ve had anywhere. They’re soft, chewy, nutty, and just absolutely delicious.

The Nougat de Tanger stall is located in one of the busiest parts of the medina so it shouldn’t be hard to spot. As you can see below, there’s always a line of customers waiting to get their hands on their tasty nougat.

At the time of our visit, their nougat sold for MAD 200 per kg.

Nougat de Tanger

Address: Q5PQ+25P, Rue Siaghine, Tanger, Morocco
What to Order: Nougat

BONUS: Place de Parc

As a bonus, I wanted to share this beautiful park with you. We enjoyed mint tea everyday in Tangier but this was our favorite spot to have it.

Place de Parc is a lovely park located near Cafa Hafa and the Phoenician Tombs. You can enjoy drinks here like Moroccan tea, coffee, soda, and juice. We only had tea here but I believe you can get some light snacks as well.

If you’re looking for a place to unwind, get lost in a book, or just take in the relaxing atmosphere of Tangier, then Place de Parc is an excellent place to do that.

LOCATION MAP

To help you navigate to these restaurants in Tangier, 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 TANGIER RESTAURANTS

We’re partial to casual restaurants but if you’d like a more proper tablecloth dining experience in Tangier, then an often recommended restaurant is El Morocco Club. Located close to Kasbah Museum, they offer refined Mediterranean cuisine and a good selection of global and Moroccan wines.

If whole fish set meals sound good to you, then two restaurants you can visit are Le Saveur du Poisson and Al Achab. We were planning on going to Le Saveur du Poisson but we never got around to it. Perhaps on our next visit to Tangier.

Lastly, if the sound of Syrian food excites you, then you should definitely check out Abou Tayssir. It’s a humble but highly-rated Syrian restaurant located close to Chez Hassan Bab Kasbah.

Regardless of where you eat in Tangier, please be advised that restaurants tend to open later than advertised. The restaurant hours posted here are from Google Maps but we found that most places usually open an hour or two after their listed opening time. Be sure to plan accordingly.

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