This Fes and Meknes Restaurant Guide tells you some restaurants you may wish to visit. Information about the most popular dishes of the country can be found by visiting our Morocco Restaurants Guide. And to work yourself up an appetite, why not explore the souks and markets beforehand - good places to go shopping can be found in our Fes and Meknes Shopping Guide.

Food & Cuisine in Fes & Meknes

Fes enjoys a reputation among travellers as a great place to eat out and justifiably so. It's a connoisseur's delight with many good Fes restaurants serving sumptuous Moroccan dishes, at affordable prices. Ville Nouvelle boasts of some fine Italian restaurants and the ubiquitous fast food joints. The French influence is quite apparent in the patisseries dotting the city that sell quality pastries and cakes. Good street food, usually very cheap and quite safe, is available throughout Fes; look out for this around the Bab Boujeloud area in the medina.

Traditional Moroccan cuisine is appetizing and healthy; its diversity reflects the country's long interaction with other cultures and the outside world. The food here is a wonderful blend of the native Berber cuisine with that of Arab, European, and Turkish and Mediterranean cuisines. The distinctive feature of Moroccan food is its fascinating blend of sweet, spicy flavours with savoury dishes.

Typical Moroccan cooking uses a lot of spices (ginger, cayenne, chillies, black pepper, turmeric, saffron, cumin etc) and other ingredients like mint, fresh herbs and rose water, giving the food a fantastic flavour as well as aroma. A common ingredient in many dishes is the ras el hanout which is a special blend of spices sold in most spice shops. Up to 30 different spices are used in its preparation and each shop owner creates his unique ras el hanout, the ingredients of which he generally keeps secret. A hot condiment called Harissa, made with chillies, garlic and olive oil is used with many dishes. While spices are mostly imported, most other items including vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, nuts, saffron, mint and olives are locally produced and fresh which obviously manifests in the food.

Salads of cucumber and lettuce, sometimes served with green peppers (salade Marocain) and simple green salads are regular features of Moroccan cuisine. The ever-popular mezze is served at most upscale restaurants, a vegetarian favourite.

Specialities of Fes and Meknes

Among the best known Moroccan preparations are couscous, pastille, harira and tajine and no traveller to Fes should miss out on these dishes. Couscous is hand rolled, steamed semolina which is eaten with one of a variety of accompaniments such as chicken, lamb, vegetables or egg. Pastilla is a delectable, multi-layered flaky pastry with fillings of pigeon meat or chicken and flavoured with parsley, cinnamon, almonds and honey. This is a top favourite with most visitors. Tajine is a filling, slow-cooked stew of marinated meat or fish served with vegetables, olives or fruits. The dish gets its name from the terracotta pot with peaked lid (to steam cook the ingredients) in which it is prepared. Harira, a soup of lentils and chickpeas is another hot selling item.

Other specialties of Fes include mchoui (pit-roasted mutton), djaja mahamara (chicken stuffed with semolina and strewn with almonds and raisins),and amlou (sweet dish made with almond paste and honey). Also look out for boricuas (deep fried dish of meat, chicken or rice wrapped in dough),  briouat (flaky pastry with minced beef or chicken), Kab el-ghzal (crescent shaped almond pastry), Baghrir (a scrumptious sponge like pancake), Brochette (charcoal grilled meat) and Sfenj, a traditional deep fried doughnut which is usually threaded, six at a time, on a piece of bamboo.

Drinks in Fes and Meknes

Mint tea is the most popular drink in Morocco and is frequently consumed during the day by the local population. An invigorating drink, it is made by adding fresh mint to green tea. Freshly squeezed orange and lemon juices from locally grown fruits are other popular drinks with locals and visitors alike. Excellent local wines and beers are available in the supermarkets in Ville Nouvelle as well as in hotel bars. Try out the local lagers, Flag Special, Stork and Casablanca. Beau Vallon, Gris de Boulaoune and Guerrouane are some good wines to look out for in Morocco.