Moroccan & French breakfast
Best Breakfast in Rabat — Riverside Cafés and Moroccan Mornings
Rabat starts the day gently: Moroccan griddle breads and honey, French-style pastries in the ville nouvelle, and mint tea at the famous café in the Kasbah des Oudayas overlooking the river mouth. It is a capital that does mornings at an easy pace.
- City
- Rabat
- Cuisine
- Moroccan & French breakfast
- Typical price
- 20-90 MAD
The Moroccan breakfast is the foundation here as everywhere: msemmen and harcha griddle breads with honey, jam, soft cheese and amlou, baghrir pancakes, olives, eggs and mint tea. Cafés across the medina and city centre serve it, and morning stalls fry sfenj doughnuts and ladle bissara soup for the cheap, traditional workers' start. It is a comforting, generous spread meant to be grazed over an unhurried hour.
Rabat's showpiece breakfast setting is the Café Maure inside the Kasbah des Oudayas — a terraced café in the blue-and-white kasbah gardens, looking across the Bou Regreg river mouth to Salé, where you sit over mint tea and Moroccan pastries (like the sesame-and-honey sweets and almond briouats) with one of the best views in the capital. It is more a tea-and-sweets stop than a full breakfast, but the setting makes it a morning worth building a plan around.
As a modern administrative city with French roots, Rabat also has good patisseries and café-terraces, especially in the ville nouvelle and Agdal, serving croissants, pain au chocolat and proper coffee for a European-style start. Specialty cafés for a contemporary flat white have grown up around Agdal too. The coffee vocabulary is the national one — nous-nous, café cassé — and mint tea is always on offer.
Whether you want the full Moroccan spread, a French pastry and espresso, or mint tea with a river view at the Oudayas, Rabat has a relaxed morning for it. Eat early to enjoy the calm before the capital gets going.
How to eat well
- 1
Take mint tea and Moroccan sweets at the Café Maure in the Kasbah des Oudayas for the best view in the capital.
- 2
For the full Moroccan spread, order msemmen and harcha with amlou and honey at a medina café.
- 3
The ville nouvelle and Agdal have French-style patisseries for croissants and good coffee.
- 4
Cheap traditional start: sfenj doughnuts and bissara from a morning stall.
- 5
Eat early to enjoy the calm before the administrative city gets busy.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the best breakfast view in Rabat?
The Café Maure in the Kasbah des Oudayas, a terraced garden café in the blue-and-white kasbah looking across the Bou Regreg river to Salé, is the classic spot for mint tea and Moroccan sweets with a view.
What is a typical Rabat breakfast?
The Moroccan spread of griddle breads (msemmen, harcha, baghrir) with honey, amlou, cheese and olives and mint tea, or a French-style patisserie breakfast of croissants and coffee in the ville nouvelle.
Does Rabat have good coffee?
Yes — French café heritage means good patisseries and terraces, with a modern specialty-coffee scene around Agdal. Order a nous-nous for the classic local half-coffee-half-milk cup.