Budget Moroccan
Cheap Eats in Casablanca — Best Budget Food in the City
For all its glass towers and business hotels, Casablanca feeds its workers cheaply. Sandwich counters, snack bars, soup stalls and the buy-and-grill fish market mean you can eat well here for far less than the modern skyline suggests.
- City
- Casablanca
- Cuisine
- Budget Moroccan
- Typical price
- 10-45 MAD
The backbone of cheap eating in Casablanca is the sandwich. Counters across the city stuff baguettes with maakouda (potato fritters), grilled kefta, merguez, tuna, or fried fish, loaded with chips, salad, olives and harissa for 15-40 MAD — a full meal in bread. The old medina, the districts around the Marché Central, and the busy commercial streets of the centre are thick with these spots, busiest and freshest at lunch.
Soups keep costs lower still. Harira (tomato, lentil and chickpea) and bissara (fava bean) are ladled out at small stalls for around 10-15 MAD with bread, filling and nourishing. Small canteens (gargotes) serve a plate of the day — tagine, lentils, beans, or kefta with egg — with bread and salad for 30-45 MAD, aimed squarely at office and market workers rather than tourists.
Seafood, surprisingly, can be a budget option here: a plate of friture (mixed fried small fish and calamari) from a Port de Pêche eatery, or fish bought cheaply by weight at the market and grilled, gives you fresh Atlantic seafood for a modest price. Grilled sardines in particular cost almost nothing and are everywhere.
To eat cheaply, stick to the sandwich counters, soup stalls and canteens where locals eat, agree prices before ordering at carts, and pay in small notes. Casablanca's business-district restaurants can be pricey, but two streets away the same city eats a full, fresh lunch for the price of a coffee.
How to eat well
- 1
Stuffed-baguette sandwich counters give you a full meal for 15-40 MAD — the city's best cheap standby.
- 2
Harira and bissara soups with bread cost around 10-15 MAD at small stalls.
- 3
For cheap seafood, order friture (mixed fried fish) at a Port de Pêche eatery.
- 4
Step two streets away from the business-district hotels for far better prices on the same food.
- 5
Small canteens serving a plate of the day feed office workers a full lunch for 30-45 MAD.
Frequently asked questions
Is Casablanca expensive to eat in?
It can be in the business-district and Corniche restaurants, but everyday Casablanca is cheap: sandwich counters, soup stalls and canteens serve full meals for 15-45 MAD just streets away from the pricey hotels.
What is the cheapest meal in Casablanca?
A bowl of bissara or harira soup with bread for around 10-15 MAD, or a maakouda sandwich for 15-35 MAD — both filling, local and widely available.
Can you eat seafood cheaply in Casablanca?
Yes — a plate of fried friture at the fishing port, grilled sardines from a cart, or fish bought by weight at the Marché Central and grilled all give you fresh Atlantic seafood on a budget.