You Just Arrived in Marrakech. Here's What to Eat First.

You've landed. The taxi from the airport cost somewhere between 70 and 200 dirhams depending on how good your negotiation face is. You're inside the medina now, or near it, and you need to eat.

Here's what to know before you walk into anywhere.

The rules

Bread is your utensil. Every meal comes with khobz — round, dense, golden bread. Tear pieces, use them to scoop. There will not always be a fork.

Eat with your right hand. If you're eating from a shared dish (and you will be), use your right hand. Left hand stays off the communal plate.

Water comes in bottles. Don't drink the tap water. A 1.5L bottle of Sidi Ali costs 5–8 dirhams everywhere.

Prices are not always on the wall. At street stalls, ask before you order. "Bshhal?" means "how much?" Knowing this word saves you money.

Your first meal: play it safe

If you want air conditioning, a menu in English, and a gentle introduction, go to Café des Épices in the spice square. It's not the most authentic meal in the city, but the rooftop is calm, the avocado smoothie is cold, and you can watch the square below while you adjust to the noise. Tagines run 60–90 MAD. It's a landing pad, not a destination.

Your first real meal: go to the lamb

Walk to Mechoui Alley, a row of stalls just off Jemaa el-Fna near the Koutoubia side. This is where whole lambs roast underground for hours. There's no menu. You point at the lamb, they pull meat off the bone with their hands, weigh it, and serve it on paper with bread, cumin, and salt. Half a kilo is enough for one person (40–60 MAD). The meat is so tender it falls apart when you look at it.

This is the meal that will recalibrate your expectations for the rest of the trip.

The sandwich that costs 15 dirhams

Marrakech has a street sandwich culture that nobody writes about. At any hole-in-the-wall with a charcoal grill, you can get a kefta sandwich — spiced minced beef, grilled over coals, stuffed into a roll with tomato, onion, and harissa. Fifteen dirhams. Sometimes twenty. It's the best value meal in the city.

Haj Mustapha near Bab Fteuh usually has a queue. That's your quality signal.

The tangia question

Tangia is Marrakech's other dish — the one tourists don't know about. Beef or lamb sealed in a clay urn and slow-cooked in the ashes of a hammam furnace. It takes 6–8 hours. You can't rush it. Snack Chez Brahim near the tanneries is a good starting point, though the neighbourhood is harder to find.

You'll read more about tangia in our story on the dish. For now, just know it exists and it's better than most tagines you'll eat this week.

If you're in Gueliz

The new town isn't where most tourists eat, but Amal Women's Training Centre is worth the walk. It's a non-profit that trains disadvantaged women in restaurant skills. The daily tagine (60–90 MAD) changes every day and is consistently excellent. The space is calm, the service is warm, and your money goes somewhere good.

What not to do

Don't eat at a restaurant because a man in the street tells you to follow him there. He gets a commission. The food will be mediocre and overpriced.

Don't order from a menu with photos of every dish laminated in plastic. That's tourist infrastructure, not a kitchen.

Don't eat at the stalls in the centre of Jemaa el-Fna on your first night. Save that for when you've got your bearings. We have a full guide to the square.