Best Street Food in Safi — Grilled Sardines and Port-Town Snacks

The defining street food of Safi is, inevitably, the sardine. At the port and around the fish market, charcoal grills turn out fresh sardines — often stuffed with chermoula and grilled in pairs — for next to nothing, eaten with bread and salad in sight of the boats. As Morocco's historic sardine capital, Safi does this humble street food better and cheaper than anywhere, and it is the city's must-eat.

Beyond the sardines, the medina and city streets offer the familiar Moroccan street food: grilled skewers and kefta, snail (babbouche) carts, harira and bissara soup stalls, sandwich counters stuffing baguettes with grilled meat or fish, and griddle carts making msemmen and harcha. Morning fryers turn out sfenj doughnuts. The markets sell fresh produce, olives, dates and bread for cheap grazing, and fresh fish is, naturally, everywhere.

Safi's character as a working port and pottery town — home to the centuries-old Potters' Hill and Portuguese-era seafront fortifications — gives its street food an unpretentious, local feel. Far fewer tourists come here than to the resort towns, so the grills and stalls serve fishermen and locals at honest prices, with freshness the priority. Eating grilled sardines by the water is the quintessential Safi street experience.

Head to the port grills for the famous sardines, graze the medina for skewers, soups and snacks, and follow the busy stalls. Agree prices before ordering, keep small change ready, and enjoy an authentic, seafood-rich street-food scene in one of Morocco's most underrated coastal towns.