Fes From Above — The Medina's Best Rooftop Tables

Fes el-Bali, the old medina, is built low and inward. Traditional houses turn blank walls to the lane and open onto private courtyards, so at street level you see almost nothing of the city's shape; the alleys are canyons. Climb one flight to a roof terrace and the whole picture assembles at once: a sea of flat and green-tiled roofs, a forest of minarets, the hills of the Middle Atlas beyond, and, from the right terraces, the smoking Chouara tanneries below. Rooftop dining here is less a gimmick than the natural way to actually see the largest living medieval city in the world.

The reward changes by the hour. Late-afternoon light turns the walls and roofs to warm ochre; at dusk the call to prayer rolls across the medina from a dozen mosques at once; after dark the minarets are lit and the labyrinth below disappears into a glow of lanterns. It is one of the great urban views in Morocco, and much of it comes with nothing more than a pot of mint tea.

Rooftops fall into three broad camps: intimate riad rooftop dinners, modern medina rooftop restaurants, and hotel and cultural-cafe terraces. Each suits a different night. For the tea-and-coffee side of the same terraces, browse the Fes cafes and coffee guide, and if the medina's lanes defeat you on the way, the Fes medina navigation guide helps you find the door.

The Fes rooftop view has three signatures. The first is the roofscape itself, an endless tide of flat and green-glazed roofs stepping down the medina's bowl, punctuated by minarets and the green-tiled pyramids of the great mosques and medersas. The second is the tanneries: several rooftops around Chouara look straight down onto the honeycomb of stone dye pits, a spectacle by day that few cities can match. The third is the frame of hills that rings the medina, catching the last light at sunset.

Which view you get depends on where you sit, so it is worth choosing your terrace for the panorama you want. Tannery-overlook terraces are dramatic but pungent, and most belong to leather shops where a drink buys the view; the medina rooftop restaurants and riad terraces trade the tanneries for the wider roofscape and a quieter, more comfortable dinner. The best all-rounders combine a broad roofscape with a glimpse of a lit minaret for the after-dark hours.

The most quintessentially Fassi rooftop evening is dinner on a riad terrace. Many of the medina's converted courtyard houses, from simple guesthouses to grand riad-hotels, lay out candlelit tables on their roofs and serve a set Moroccan menu, a parade of cooked salads, pastilla, a tagine or couscous, and pastries, often with the medina spread out below and a lit minaret nearby. These are quiet, intimate evenings, frequently with only a handful of tables, and they suit couples and special occasions.

Because the riads run their own kitchens, the cooking is usually home-style and generous rather than cheffy, and the atmosphere is the main event. Budget two to three hours and arrive hungry, since the courses keep coming. Many of these houses hide down unmarked lanes, so save the location offline, note a nearby landmark, and expect the last few minutes to be on foot; most will meet you at a gate or the nearest square if you call ahead. The city's wider dining picture is in the Fes food and restaurants guide.

A newer wave of medina rooftop restaurants serves updated Moroccan cooking, reworked tagines, lighter salads and grills, and sometimes international plates, on multi-level terraces with the roofscape as the backdrop. These are the places for a modern dinner with a view rather than a traditional set feast, and they suit travellers who love the flavours but want something beyond the riad menu. Long-established cultural addresses like Cafe Clock also run popular rooftops that welcome mixed and foreign crowds.

At the upper end, the medina's luxury riad-hotels run polished rooftop terraces and bars, the places to dress up a little and order a cocktail or mocktail as the light goes, and among the few spots in Fes licensed to serve alcohol. These pair naturally with a special-occasion stay. Whichever level you choose, the terrace and the sunset are doing much of the work, so book the view and keep the food expectations matched to the setting. To bookend a rooftop dinner with the medina's cheap eating earlier in the day, see the Fes street food guide.

Sunset is the whole game, so plan around it. Aim to be seated 45 to 60 minutes before sundown: you get the golden light on the roofs, the sky show, the call to prayer, and the switch to lamplight without scrambling for a table in the dark. Sunset in Fes ranges from around 5.30pm in midwinter to past 8pm in high summer, so check the day's time and work backwards. The table below sorts the main rooftop types by what they do best.

Season matters as much as the hour. Spring and autumn are ideal, warm, still evenings made for lingering. High summer is hot even after dark, so go late and hydrate; the medina bowl traps the day's heat. Winter days deliver crisp, clear roofscape views but the nights turn genuinely cold on an exposed terrace, so bring a jacket. During Ramadan the rhythm shifts entirely, with terraces quiet by day and busy after the sunset iftar, so plan around the fast if you visit then.

On the view-first terrace cafes, keep it to tea, coffee and fresh juice, that is what they do well, and the medina roofscape is the reason you are there. At the riad and restaurant rooftops the menu is Moroccan first: slow-cooked tagines, couscous on the traditional Friday, cooked salads to start, and pastilla, the sweet-savoury Fassi pigeon or chicken pie that is the city's signature dish and worth ordering at least once. Modern kitchens add lighter, more international plates for anyone tagined-out after a few days.

Save room for the sweet finish. Fes is Morocco's pastry capital, and a plate of chebakia, briouats or almond pastries with mint tea is the natural end to a rooftop dinner; the national context is in the pastries and desserts guide. Alcohol is the one thing to plan for: it is served only at licensed riad-hotels and restaurants, not at most medina cafes, so if a glass of wine matters to your evening, choose a venue that advertises a bar. Everywhere else the default is superb, mint tea poured from height, fresh juices, and increasingly good alcohol-free cocktails at the design terraces.

Book ahead for any sit-down rooftop in season, and specifically request a sunset table; good terraces fill from the best-viewed seats inward. Give yourself buffer time to find medina addresses, which hide down unmarked lanes, save the location offline, and note the nearest gate or landmark. A petit taxi will only get you to the medina's edge at Bab Boujeloud or R'cif, so the last stretch is always on foot, and it is worth arranging for the restaurant to meet you if you are unsure.

Dress smart-casual and bring a layer: rooftops that bake at 5pm can be breezy and cool by 9pm, especially in spring and autumn. Watch your step on the narrow, often steep and dimly lit stairways up and down. For comparison with the country's most famous rooftop scene, the Marrakech rooftop restaurants guide covers a busier, glossier version of the same idea, while the Fes museums and medina guide helps you plan the daytime sightseeing your rooftop dinner caps off.