Food & drink
Fez is Morocco's culinary capital. Chicken pastilla was invented here. The riads serve dinner in lantern-lit courtyard gardens. This is not dinner as a necessity — it is dinner as theatre.
Fez is Morocco's culinary capital — the city where chicken pastilla was invented, where the seven-vegetable couscous reaches its definitive form, where the best riads serve dinner in lantern-lit courtyard gardens to the sound of fountains. Eating well here is one of the primary reasons to come.
Riad Laaroussa Bistro
Set within one of Fez's most elegant riads, in a serene courtyard setting that makes every meal feel like a private occasion. The menu changes seasonally, built around local ingredients and classical technique. The wine list is the most carefully curated in the medina — a significant achievement in a city where many restaurants serve no alcohol at all.
riadlaaroussa.com · t: +212 535 636 990
Café Clock
The rooftop looks out over a nearby mosque. The menu includes a camel burger that is considerably better than the concept suggests, and a mint lemonade that is among the best things you will taste in Morocco. Cooking classes available — including a tour of the food medina. Live music most evenings. The kind of place that ends up on everyone's itinerary for good reason.
cafeclock.com/fez · t: +212 535 637 855
The Ruined Garden
A hidden courtyard garden restaurant in the medina — the kind of place that takes twenty minutes to find and that you will spend three hours not wanting to leave. Moroccan and international dishes, a beautiful setting of trailing greenery and old stone, and a kitchen that takes the food seriously without making the occasion stiff.
theruinedgarden.com · t: +212 535 741 535
L'Amandier at Palais Faraj
Rooftop fine dining with panoramic views across the entire medina — at dusk, when the call to prayer echoes across the rooftops and the city turns amber, there is no better table in Fez. Traditional Moroccan cooking with some unusual and rarely seen dishes. The setting does most of the work; the kitchen keeps pace with it.
Dar Roumana
Intimate and quietly serious — a restored riad with a small dining room and a kitchen producing modern Moroccan cooking of real ambition. Classical French technique applied to seasonal local ingredients, producing food that feels both rooted in Fez and surprised by what it finds there. Strong reputation among food-focused visitors who have done their research.
darroumana.com · t: +212 535 741 637
Restaurant Nejjarine
Traditional Moroccan on the historic Place Nejjarine — the carpenters' square — surrounded by the sounds of woodworking and the smell of cedar. Tagines, couscous, harira soup, pastilla. The setting is as much the point as the food. Straightforward, atmospheric, and honest.
Moroccan mint tea — gunpowder green tea, fresh mint, and enough sugar to stand a spoon in — is poured from height to create a froth and served at all hours in all situations. Many restaurants in the medina serve no alcohol. The riads that do — Riad Fes and Riad Laaroussa are the most reliably stocked — often have Moroccan wines of real quality: look for Médaillon, Ouled Thaleb, and Cuvée du Président.