Where to eat in Tamraght and Taghazout: the authentic tables, and the ones nobody tells you about

01

How eating works here

Breakfast is at the house. Lunch is the big meal for Moroccans and the cheap one for everyone: a tagine or grilled fish with bread and salad, 50 to 90 MAD. Mint tea is poured from a height, very sweet, at any hour, and refusing a second glass is harder than it sounds. Dinner starts late, after the sunset. Most places take cash only, Friday lunch is couscous everywhere, and during Ramadan the cafés change their hours and the evenings become the best part of the day.

02

Tamraght

Moroccan, as the village eats it

• Le Petit Kawa: the institution. Tagines, brochettes, harira; everyone has eaten here.
• Chez Mimoun: lentils, bissara, soup and tagines at prices that have not followed the surf boom.
• Sandwich Kamal: a shack near the mosque with stools on the dusty street and a line of locals. Sandwiches for 10 dirhams. The best value on the coast.
• Timam du Chef: chicken tacos and skewers with a sauce people cross the village for; about 100 MAD for two.
• Fana Food: crunchy chicken with fries or a tuna sandwich, 35 MAD, and a friendly owner.
• Kisslaz Café: run by two women from the village. Berber omelette, calamari tagine, avocado smoothies. Small, cosy, cash only.

Coffee and mornings

• Zawya Coffee Shop: tiny, on a side street in the new part of the village, no wifi, perfect tea, a sign that reads no shoes, no rules.
• La Panière d’Imourane: open from seven for bread, pastries, juices and brunch on a terrace that faces the sea.
• Hey Yallah: specialty coffee, vegan snacks, weekly community events, dogs welcome.
• Surf & Friends Café: the digital nomads’ office, with good wifi and lattes at 30 MAD.
• Playa Surf House & Café: a quiet place to work and a good chicken sandwich.

Evenings

• UWoodLove Pizza: wood-fired, Moroccan-style pizza at roadside tables at the edge of the village; two pizzas and a drink for about 100 MAD.
• Casa Hakuna: fusion plates and tapas on the main road, lively, one of the few places with a beer.
• Let’s Be Healing Food: colourful bowls, kombucha and smoothies for the day after.
• Manouche: Lebanese mezze, hummus and falafel; check it has reopened after its refurbishment.

Mint tea is poured from a height, very sweet, at any hour, and refusing a second glass is harder than it sounds.

03

Taghazout

Moroccan

• Café Taliouine: on the main street. The tagines are the ones everyone names first, and they are right.
• Café Tayoughte: a hole in the wall by the beach where the fishermen eat; the food is better than the service, which is part of the charm.
• Rasta Pasta: Moroccan dishes with your feet in the sand.

International and evenings

• Dar Josephine: French home cooking from the market and the fishing port, house-made bread, a garden full of cats. Book.
• World of Waves: lunch and dinner on a terrace over the beach, the sunset table of the village.
• Le Spot: pizzas, crêpes, calamari and generous portions until eleven at night.
• Munga: a small bar with very good pizza and music, hidden behind the main street.
• Amouage by Surf Maroc: tapas by a pool with a view of the bay; DFrost Almugar: beanbags and a sunset.

Coffee

• Sozi Cookies: the coffee and cookie stop of the main street.
• Espresso Lab: for people who care about their espresso.
• Teapot Café: smoothie bowls, poke, tacos and breakfast all day, strong wifi; run by a surf school.

04

The ones nobody tells you about

The fish grills on Taghazout beach at noon, when the boats come in and whatever is on the coals is what you eat. The bread ovens of old Tamraght, where you can buy a round loaf still warm for a few dirhams if you follow the smell at seven in the morning. The banana carts of Aourir along the main road. The Wednesday souk at Aourir for olives, dates and a bowl of snails in broth from a cart. And the long table on the roof of Blue Whale, where dinner is a tagine for the whole house and the sunset is free.