Where to eat in Fes

Dining guide

Fes is the home of Fassi cuisine, arguably the most refined regional kitchen in Morocco. The best tables sit inside restored riads in Fes el Bali, where slow-cooked tagines, pastilla and tanjia are taken seriously. Come here to eat traditionally, not trendily.

Fassi cooking is the slowest and most layered in Morocco. Pastilla was perfected here before it traveled to Marrakech. The city's signature tagines rely on preserved lemons, olives, and long reductions rather than quick spice. Rfissa, a dish of shredded msemen bread soaked in lentil and fenugreek broth and topped with pulled chicken, is a Fes celebration dish that rarely appears on restaurant menus outside the city. Pigeon pastilla in Fes is made with an almost paper thin warqa crust and enough cinnamon to scent the room. The medina bakeries produce khobz and handmade msemen at volume that smaller cities cannot match, and the quality difference shows.