Moroccan Food: 15 Dishes to Try and Where to Eat Them

The short answer: start with a chicken tagine with preserved lemon, Friday couscous, pastilla, harira soup and Marrakech tanjia, then add mint tea, msemen pancakes and a Berber pizza (medfouna) on the way to the Sahara. Most dishes are slow-cooked, lightly spiced rather than hot, and eaten with bread instead of cutlery.

Moroccan cooking mixes Amazigh (Berber), Arab, Andalusian and French influences. Spices such as cumin, ginger, saffron, cinnamon and turmeric give depth without much heat, and the fiery harissa you may know from Tunisia is served on the side, if at all. In 2020 UNESCO added the knowledge and practices of couscous, shared by Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania, to its list of intangible cultural heritage.

The 15 Moroccan dishes to try

1. Tagine

The tagine is both the cone-lidded clay pot and the stew cooked in it. Classic versions are chicken with preserved lemon and olives, beef or lamb with prunes and almonds, and kefta (meatballs) with egg in a tomato sauce. A good tagine has been cooking for at least an hour; if it arrives five minutes after you order, it was reheated.

2. Couscous

Steamed semolina topped with seven vegetables and meat, traditionally served on Friday after midday prayers. Many family restaurants only make it on Fridays, so plan one lunch around it.

3. Pastilla (bastilla)

A flaky pie of warqa pastry filled with pigeon or chicken, almonds and egg, dusted with sugar and cinnamon. The sweet-savoury mix comes from Andalusian cooking and Fes is its home. A seafood version is common on the coast.

4. Harira

Tomato, lentil and chickpea soup with herbs and a little meat. It is the dish that breaks the fast every evening during Ramadan, served with dates and chebakia (honey-coated sesame cookies).

5. Tanjia

Marrakech's bachelor dish: beef or lamb, preserved lemon, garlic, cumin and saffron sealed in a tall clay urn and left for hours in the embers of a hammam furnace. Ask for it around Jemaa el-Fnaa or in the Mellah food stalls.

6. Mechoui

Whole lamb roasted slowly in an underground oven until it falls apart, eaten with salt and cumin. In Marrakech the "mechoui alley" next to the spice square serves it by weight at lunch.

7. Zaalouk and taktouka

Two cooked salads that open most meals: smoky aubergine and tomato (zaalouk), and grilled peppers with tomato (taktouka). Scoop them up with bread.

8. Khobz and msemen

Khobz is the round bread baked in neighbourhood ovens; msemen is a square, layered pancake eaten at breakfast with honey or amlou (argan oil, almonds and honey). Baghrir, the "thousand-hole" semolina pancake, is its spongy cousin.

9. Medfouna (Berber pizza)

Bread stuffed with spiced meat, onion, egg and almonds and baked in a sand-heated oven. It is the speciality of Rissani and Merzouga, and our Sahara tours stop for it on the desert day.

10. Rfissa

Shredded msemen soaked in a chicken, lentil and fenugreek broth, cooked for family celebrations and after a birth. Rarely on tourist menus, so say yes if a host offers it.

11. B'ssara

A thick fava bean soup with olive oil and cumin, the cheapest and warmest breakfast in Fes and the north on a cold morning.

12. Grilled sardines and fish

In Essaouira you pick your fish at the port grills and they cook it in front of you. Oualidia, on our coast tour, is famous for oysters.

13. Snail soup (babbouche)

Evening carts in Jemaa el-Fnaa ladle snails in a broth of about a dozen herbs and spices. Locals drink the broth for digestion.

14. Kaab el ghazal and pastries

"Gazelle horns" are crescent pastries filled with almond paste and orange blossom water. Pastry shops sell them by weight with sesame fekkas and honey-dipped chebakia.

15. Mint tea

Green tea brewed with fresh mint and plenty of sugar, poured from a height to make foam. It is served at every welcome, every shop negotiation and every desert camp. You can ask for "bla sukkar" (without sugar).

Where to eat each dish

Food etiquette in Morocco

• Wash your hands before eating; a jug and basin often come to the table.
• Eat from the side of the shared dish in front of you, with your right hand or a piece of bread.
• Your host will keep offering more. Saying "shbaat" (I'm full) with a hand on the heart is polite.
• Alcohol is served in licensed hotels and restaurants, not in most family places.

Vegetarians eat well: vegetable tagine, couscous with seven vegetables, lentils, zaalouk and harira without meat are easy to find. Tell us about allergies when you book and we brief the riads and camps on your route. More tips in our Morocco packing guide and Morocco travel guide.