Travel tips
Where to Eat in Rabat
Rabat is Morocco's calm, green capital, and it eats the way it governs — quietly and without spectacle. There is no hard-sell medina here; the old town is walkable and gentle, the kasbah looks out over the Atlantic, and the diplomatic crowd supports a steady, understated restaurant scene. It is an easy, low-pressure city to eat in, coastal in flavour and restrained in style.
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- 20 July 2026
At a glance
- Rabat's medina is calm and easy to navigate — good for relaxed eating.
- The Kasbah des Oudayas has a famous garden café for mint tea and pastries.
- Being on the Atlantic, the city eats plenty of fresh seafood.
- Across the river, Salé offers a more traditional, less polished counterpoint.
The medina and Rue des Consuls
Rabat's medina is compact, orderly and refreshingly free of touts. The main food streets near Rue Souika and Rue des Consuls have cook-shops, bakeries, olive stalls and juice stands doing the everyday business of feeding the neighbourhood. It is a good place to eat a plain, honest lunch — a tagine, a bowl of harira, grilled fish — without the pressure of a tourist medina.
The Oudayas and its café
The Kasbah des Oudayas, an Andalusian-walled quarter of blue-and-white lanes above the river mouth, holds one of Morocco's most photographed tea spots: the Café Maure, set in the kasbah's Andalusian garden, serving mint tea and almond sweets on terraces overlooking the estuary toward Salé.
- Café Maure: mint tea, ghriba and kaab el ghazal with an estuary view.
- Andalusian garden: a shaded, calm place to pause between meals.
- Riverside walk: leads down toward the beach and seafood shacks.
Seafood and the modern city
As an Atlantic city Rabat eats well from the sea — grilled fish, calamari and prawns feature across price levels, from beach shacks near the river mouth to the polished restaurants of the Agdal and Hassan districts. The Ville Nouvelle has the capital's diplomatic dining: quiet bistros, café-brasseries and international kitchens serving a resident professional crowd rather than tourists.
Crossing to Salé
For a more traditional, less manicured experience, take a small boat or the tram across the Bou Regreg to Salé, Rabat's older sister city, whose medina cooking is plainer and more workaday. Together the two give you the full range — capital polish on one bank, old-town simplicity on the other. For the wider context, see our regions overview.
Frequently asked questions
Is Rabat a good city for food?
Yes, in an understated way. It has a calm, walkable medina, Atlantic seafood, a famous garden tea café in the Oudayas kasbah, and a steady diplomatic dining scene. It lacks the intensity of Marrakech or the pedigree of Fes, but it is easy and pleasant to eat in.
What is the Café Maure in the Oudayas?
It is a historic mint-tea café set inside the Andalusian garden of the Kasbah des Oudayas, with terraces overlooking the river mouth toward Salé. It serves mint tea and Moroccan almond sweets and is one of the capital's signature relaxed spots.
Where do I find seafood in Rabat?
Across price levels — casual grilled-fish shacks near the river mouth and beach, and more polished seafood restaurants in the Agdal and Hassan districts. As an Atlantic capital, fresh fish, calamari and prawns are widely available.
Is it worth crossing to Salé for food?
If you want a more traditional, less polished medina experience, yes. Salé, just across the Bou Regreg river, has plainer, more workaday cooking than the capital and is a quick trip by boat or tram.