Fes Restaurants

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At Restaurant Nautilus, which is now located both on the basement and top floors within Hotel de La Paix, you can do bistilla and risotto, tajine and pasta, booze, tea and cigarette smoking. The place even sports a lute player to get buzzed to - Nice place, nice people, rockin food if you can't swing any at a friend's house...

Favorite Dish: The risotto and safron - it's not the easiest dish to get right so as to please this Italian man (nothing compares to you, Tio Enrico...) and they do a decent job of it.

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Morocco

Favorite Dish: Bayti: Care for the Street Kids of Morocco
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Bargaining pt 1

Photos by Jamal Morelli, uploaded at Studio Shamharush

This small local restuarant is mentioned in LP so gets some tourists but at lunchtime is packed with locals dining.

It's at the cheaper end of restaurants and is fairly basic. There's seating outside near a busy road, where you can watch the local colour. We observed a bit of a farce scenario that involved a chicken being chased across the street - it didn't have a happy ending...

Locals all seemed to be having a set menu (everyone was basically eating the same dishes and was brought yoghurt...), but I was happy enough with my meal here. All the mains were 30 dh, not the most exciting menu, but it did have plenty of sliced heart and liver, if you're into that.

Favorite Dish: I had a steak grill, eating companion had kefta meatballs. Both came with a fried egg and some very nice fried potato. For 30 dh you can't really grumble.

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This hotel seems to get a good write up in LP but I was slightly dissatisfied. It's popular with locals as well as tourists, but all the tourists get shoved at the front of the restaurant, even when there's very little space, and plenty of space at the back (local part) of the place. I saw three tourists stuck on a table that was barely big enough for 2 even though there was space at the back. However, it seemed that the back was full of men, so perhaps women might not feel too comfortable out back.

A guy stands outside the whole time beckoning in passers-by, which didn't bother me too much as we'd already decided to eat here. I also noticed that the kid who'd practically followed us around the Ville Nouvelle the night before asking us if we needed a guide/hash/massage was hanging out here.

Service is adequate enough, they do push the starters, desserts and coffee, though the mains are sufficient on their own. A plus is that this place serves alcohol, local beers are 20 dh each.

One positive - before going into the restaurant I needed to find an internet cafe and the guy on the door was able to give me directions. In the end it was that help that made us return to eat.

Favorite Dish: Regards the food, we had a green salad (felt a bit hassled into taking it) which consisted of lettuce, lettuce and, well, just lettuce. Oh, and a bit of chopped onion. The mains, mine a tagine kefta Fassi (meatballs), eating partner's Merbaze sausages (lamb, with a lot of cumin)were tasty enough though portions weren't that large. Mains cost around 65 dh.

Desserts can be avoided as they aren't very interesting and aren't good value at 30 dh.

Overall we felt this place had a fairly safe menu but wasn't great value. It's perhaps got more atmosphere than La Cheminee, but the general experience was missing something. I wouldn't recommend having the set menu as the items on that are actually cheaper as individual dishes.

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Just inside the Medina near the Bab Bou Jeloud entrance you'll be greeted by multiple touts offering you menus and enticing you into the variety of restaurants that line the square. While some of these might be good for a bit of people watching, we were attracted to this one as it has what appeared to be one of the better terraces with views over the Medina rooftops. Price wise, the restaurants around here all seem rather similar, though this was on the cheaper side.

Funky Arabic pop playing in the background, occasionally switched off to allow for the call to prayer to take precedence, wailing from the depths of the Medina. While this is predominantly a tourist place, there were also some locals eating too. The place was an accidental find though it turned out that it's listed in LP too.

Favorite Dish: Make your way straight to the top of the building for the best views.

They had the standard Moroccan fare of omelette or brochettes (meat on skewers). While they have a three course menu for 70 dh, I just had a chicken brochette for 40 dh; soft drinks come to 5 dh each. They also bring a stack of bread and olives which is usual in Morocco. On leaving, pay downstairs on your way out. They made quite sure that we were aware that a tip would be expected, which is the one thing I wasn't too impressed by.

Having visited the Dar Batha Museum just outside the Medina, we wanted to grab something to eat before running the gauntlet of faux guides and touts, knowing that we'd be entreated into various eateries and that our tummies might rule over common sense.

Just across the road from Dar Batha is the bar/restaurant of the Batha Hotel. We sat out in a nice courtyard, although the waft of sewage and the terribly uncomfortable metal seating somewhat detract from the nice surrounds. Staff are friendly enough, although I felt a little that the waiter was trying a bit of hard sell with coffee, salads, desserts etc.

Favorite Dish: They offer the usual selection of foods, omelettes, brochettes and paninis - selection overall was a bit on the dull side given the costs. We opted for warm paninis, one of chicken, one of 'charcuterie' that seemed like ham, but I doubt very much it could have been.

This place also served beer (20 dh each) and wines. As mentioned, prices are at a more touristy rate and this you'll be sharing the courtyard with tourists too.

Overall, a nice enough place for an afternoon beer before or after hitting the Medina.

From the outside this restaurant doesn't look anything special and inside it perhaps lacks a bit of atmosphere, but a friend of mine who currently lives in Morocco took us here as it served alcohol and good food. The LP guidebook description of this place is that of a classy French Brasserie style restaurant. Frankly, that's pushing it a bit. The interior is more like being in someone's 1970's style living room. And not a sign of the bowties mentioned by LP...

While the LP description of the surroundings might not be accurate, and the atmosphere a little on the grey/brown side, nevertheless, the service is very attentive indeed and the food is excellent, although you do pay for this, the restaurant being more costly than average. In fact we returned here on the last night in Morocco and I was relieved to discover that both the service and quality of food were consistent on both occasions.

The first occasion we ate here (a Tuesday) we were the only people in the restaurant most of the evening. The second time (a Friday) the place was busier though still quiet and all the clientele were tourists!

Favorite Dish: On both occasions I had the beef tagine with prunes, very nice meat, virtually no fat and no bone at all. I'd give this a very good thumbs up. Very rich, syrupy and sweet, so make sure you like prunes! I also had the Moroccan soup, which tasted more like a nice minestrone than the (very nice) Moroccan soups I'd had elsewhere.

Other good dishes eaten by my dining partners included tagine of Kefta meatballs with an egg in it, chicken and lemon tagine and beef stroganoff.

Mains are in the region of 75 dh, starters 35, bottle of Moroccan wine from 85 dhiram upwards.

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On our first night in Fes we were trying not to stray too far from our hotel in the Ville Nouvelle and found this place on Place Florence. With small pizzas around 30 dh and larger pizzas around 50 dh, the prices aren't total bargains but aren't a rip off either.

Service could be described as disinterested at best, although we became rather used to this in the various places we ate at in Morocco. It means that you do really appreciate good service when you find it.

There are a few possibly cheaper places in the Ville Nouvelle that also do pizza but they tended to be full of local men, not a tourist in sight and we weren't feeling too adventurous on the first evening in Morocco.

Favorite Dish: As well as pizzas, there are some other dishes available such as chicken or even steak at more expensive prices but I doubt that they would be anything amazing, rather a dull menu actually. The pizza was ok, nothing special, I'd say get the bigger size if you're having dinner rather than lunch here.

The restaurant seems fairly new actually and is nice enough inside. It was rather on the quiet side the night I was there, just another couple of tourists and one local courting couple in there. I don't think they serve alcohol here.

I had the Sicilian, which had beef salami, olives and peppers. The standard pizza fare is on the menu though, probably something for everyone and a safe bet although bear in mind that this is Moroccans serving pizza not Italians.