Fine Dining in Casablanca — Morocco's Most Cosmopolitan Tables

As Morocco's economic hub, Casablanca has a fine-dining scene unlike anywhere else in the country — broader, more international and more comfortable with wine and cocktails. French cuisine runs deep here, a legacy of the Protectorate era, so classic brasseries and bistros doing steak, oysters and seafood plateaux are a Casablanca strength. The seafood restaurants along the Ain Diab Corniche, several with Atlantic views, are among the smartest tables in the city.

The city also does modern Moroccan cooking with real ambition, plating the classics — pastilla, slow-cooked lamb, seafood tagine — with contemporary technique, often in stylish rooms rather than traditional riads. Art-deco Casablanca provides some spectacular settings, from grand old dining rooms to rooftop restaurants over the boulevards. International options — Italian, Japanese, Lebanese, French-fusion — are more plentiful and more accomplished here than elsewhere in Morocco.

Because Casablanca is a licensed, cosmopolitan city, wine lists and cocktail bars are the norm at this level, and Moroccan wines from Meknes share the list with imports. The dining is more European in rhythm too: later, smarter, and centred on the Corniche, the Gauthier and Maârif districts, and the luxury hotels rather than a historic medina.

Book ahead for the best Corniche and hotel tables, dress a little smarter than you would in the medina, and expect prices to run higher than inland cities — from around 350 MAD per head at the accessible end to 800 MAD and beyond for a seafood plateau or tasting menu with wine.