15 Best Restaurants in Rabat, Casablanca, and the North Atlantic Coast, Morocco

Loved by locals and visitors alike, Dar Naji is one of the city's most authentically Moroccan, medina-based restaurants and features interesting dishes more often found in Moroccan homes. Look for trid (soft layers of pastry layered with a meaty sauce) and medfouna (a rustic stuffed bread). Prices are reasonable, and the salads, tagines, and couscous dishes are top quality. 

In the stylish Hotel L'Iglesia, La Capitainerie has tables that spill out onto the esplanade as well as a lovely dining room that highlights local tradition by displaying numerous period objects. The menu revolves around seafood with a Moroccan edge; you can order à la carte or choose a fixed-price menu; both change daily. There's a decent wine list as well as a bar area for evening drinks.

Even if you're not staying at La Sultana, you can indulge in a leisurely lunch at its shaded wooden terrace right on the sand. The restaurant specializes in fresh shellfish from local suppliers; the oysters, clams and spider crabs are delicious, so is the just-caught fish and organic veggies plucked from their own garden. There's a great wine list, too.

A place to see and be seen, this stylish restaurant-bar-club, perched on a clifftop beneath the El Hank Lighthouse, comes with spectacular ocean views. The modern Mediterranean menu puts the focus on fresh fish, and quality is high, with a lively tapas bar that draws a cocktail- and champagne-loving crowd until the early hours. Book ahead to request a table on the terrace or next to a panoramic window.

With its beautiful stained-glass ceiling, marble floors, sparkling chandeliers, white linen tablecloths, and sumptuous red-velvet chairs, an evening at the Hôtel Le Doge’s fine-dining Moroccan restaurant is like stepping back into the opulence of the Art Deco era. Perfectly prepared dishes include lamb shank with prunes and almonds and a sinful pastilla drenched with honey and served with orange-blossom ice cream. 

With decor featuring a long leather banquette, retro-style chairs, and a wall of family-style photos and old plates, this homey spot run by two sisters, Zineb and Malika, is a wonderful find, though easy to miss: it's up a few steps in a lovely old house. The French menu is limited but exquisite, featuring lots of fish.

Another offering in the buzzing district of Gauthier, Le Rossignol is billed as a French restaurant but has all sorts of interesting dishes thanks to a chef who has worked all over the world. You'll find Lebanese meze and chorizo mac 'n' cheese, excellent salads, fish dishes, and a very upscale burger, not to mention great breakfast options. 

Sliding glass windows run the length of this restaurant, and open onto the beach between Temara and Skhirat. The inventive menu features Oualidia oysters, fish or prawn carpaccio, and plenty of fresh fish, as well as some Spanish dishes such as paella and fish fiduea (sort of a paella made with noodles instead of rice). There's a tapas bar, too---more rustic than the main restaurant---serving cocktails to the after-work crowd.

The setting at Lily's is quite magnificent, with carved wood screens, butterflies on the ceiling, bamboo growing through the wooden floors, and spectacular sea views through every window. The food is pretty spectacular, too, featuring Japanese, Thai, Korean, and Vietnamese dishes.

A branch of the popular French café, bakery, and restaurant group, this Paul location is in the beautiful Modernist Villa Zevaco, with a fabulous garden. The milk shakes and desserts are decadent, and the rustic breads are beloved throughout the city; for something more substantial, the pastas, burgers, steaks, and fish are all good, too. 

The sophisticated restaurant in The Repose riad is a destination in its own right, whether you dine in the courtyard or on the plant-filled roof terrace. The chef uses local ingredients to prepare an entirely vegetarian menu (rare in Morocco); there's a daily-changing, prix-fixe, five-course menu (250 DH), and lighter meals available. Reservations required for nonguests.

This boat-shape fish restaurant next to the port is the most famous place to eat in town. The splendid food isn’t cheap, but it’s worth every last dirham because the chef insists on using top-quality ingredients and each dish is crafted with imagination and sophistication. If you’ve got room after sumptuous starters and mains, don’t miss the heavenly desserts. 

Set among verdant gardens, this enchanting eatery offers a menu that encapsulates the Brittany region of France: think luscious salads and buckwheat crepes oozing with all you can imagine, as long as it's (mostly) French. The experience is made even better by the fantastic service and the pleasant, knowledgeable staff. Alcohol is served, and if you're looking for picnic fare, there's a wonderful array of charcuterie and cheeses on your way into the restaurant.