What to eat in Tangier — an honest food guide

Tangier eats with one foot in the sea and one in Spain. The full Moroccan repertoire of tagine and couscous is here, but the city's real character is in its fish — landed that morning and grilled behind the port — and in the Spanish habits left by decades of cross-Strait life. Here is where to begin.

The dishes worth seeking out

Grilled fish is the headline. The boats land sardines, sea bass, sole, calamari and prawns; the small restaurants behind the port grill them over charcoal with little more than salt, lemon and chermoula (a coriander, cumin and garlic marinade). Order a mixed platter — a friture — to share across the table.

The Tangier fish tagine is the city's signature home dish: white fish layered over potatoes, peppers and tomatoes, bound with chermoula and slow-cooked until it flakes. It is rarely the most photographed thing on a menu, but it is the one to order to taste what Tangier cooks for itself.

For meat, look for kefta (spiced minced lamb) skewers and chicken tagine with preserved lemon and olives. And keep an eye out for pastilla — the sweet-savoury almond pie — which appears in fish form on the coast. Our guides know exactly where to go.

The port and street food

The cluster of grills behind the fishing port is where locals eat the catch cheaply and well — point at what you want and it goes on the charcoal. Around the Grand Socco and the medina lanes you'll find msemen (flaky griddle bread with honey), fried fish in paper, Spanish-style bocadillos, and in winter a cup of cumin-spiked snail broth. Fresh juice stalls are everywhere — the orange juice is pressed to order and excellent.

The Spanish thread

Tangier's decades under Spanish influence left a distinct strand on the table: bocadillos at lunch counters, fried-fish stands that owe as much to Cádiz as to Casablanca, churros and Spanish coffee in the ville nouvelle, and tapas-style small plates in the old International Zone cafés. It is one of the things that makes eating in Tangier different from anywhere inland.

Where to sit down

For a proper meal, the seafront and the ville nouvelle around Boulevard Pasteur have smarter fish restaurants; the medina has neighbourhood places where a set fish lunch costs a fraction of the tourist-strip prices. As a rule of thumb, walk a couple of streets away from the port and the main square — prices drop and quality often rises, because you're eating where locals eat. We build a food thread into every private itinerary.

Café culture: mint tea and Café Hafa

Tangier runs on café terraces. The default drink is atay — gunpowder green tea with fresh spearmint and sugar, poured from height to aerate it. The place to drink it is Café Hafa, on terraces cut into the cliff above the sea since 1921, a haunt of Bowles, the Beats and the Rolling Stones, with the Strait below. The old cafés of the Petit Socco are the other classic. A glass costs a few dirhams and buys you a table for as long as you need. Read our full Tangier destination guide.

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