Casablanca Restaurants and Food Guide for the 2030 World Cup

Casablanca's food identity is coastal, urban and cosmopolitan rather than palace-refined. This is a working Atlantic port and Morocco's most international city, so its tables reflect both: fish and shellfish landed nearby, and a broad sweep of Moroccan, French-influenced and international cooking shaped by generations of trade and migration. You will not find the deep imperial cuisine of Fes here, but you will eat some of the best seafood in the country and dine in a city genuinely used to feeding visitors.

For World Cup fans, that means variety and few surprises: from a two-dirham bowl of snails at a market stall to a white-tablecloth seafood dinner on the Corniche, the range is wide and the standards high. The June–July tournament window falls outside Ramadan, so restaurants keep normal daytime hours throughout.

This guide moves through the city's eating zones — the central market, the Corniche, the Gauthier bistros, Habous for sweets — and flags a few landmarks. If your trip also takes in the Red City, our sister guide RestaurantsMarrakesh.com maps 1,400-plus venues there in detail; for the dishes you will meet nationwide, see the Morocco food guide.

The Marché Central, in the heart of the Art Deco downtown, is the most enjoyable place to eat in Casablanca on a budget. Behind its stalls of fish, produce and flowers sit a cluster of no-frills seafood counters where the ritual is simple: you pick your fish or shellfish, it is grilled or fried on the spot, and you eat it at a plastic-topped table with bread and a wedge of lemon. The oyster stalls, supplied from Morocco's Atlantic beds, are a particular draw.

It is fresh, cheap and central, and it is the classic Casablanca lunch — boisterous, unpretentious and quick. Go at midday when turnover is highest, confirm prices before you order since some seafood is sold by weight, and expect a busy, informal scene rather than a polished restaurant.

The market also sits on the natural line of an Art Deco walking tour, so it slots neatly into a downtown morning. Our Casablanca tours and day trips guide shows how to string the market, the Rialto area and the boulevards together.

For seafood with a view and a sense of occasion, head to the Aïn Diab Corniche, where the city's best-known seafront restaurants line the Atlantic. Two names recur in any local's list: Le Cabestan, a long-established fine-dining seafood restaurant perched above the ocean near the El Hank lighthouse, and La Sqala, a beloved restaurant set within an eighteenth-century bastion near the old medina, famous for its garden courtyard and Moroccan menu.

These are the places for a memorable dinner — Le Cabestan for polished seafood and sunset over the water, La Sqala for a leafy, atmospheric Moroccan lunch or breakfast. Both are established institutions rather than fleeting fashions, which makes them safe bets for a special evening during the tournament. Prices sit at the higher end by Moroccan standards but remain reasonable against European equivalents.

The Corniche more broadly is lined with seafood terraces and beach clubs, so it is the natural zone for a relaxed post-match dinner by the sea. Book ahead for the marquee names on match days, when the city fills.

No food guide to Casablanca can ignore Rick's Café, the bar-restaurant themed on the fictional gin joint from the 1942 film Casablanca. Housed in a restored old-medina mansion with arched interiors, a piano and a courtyard, it leans fully into the romance of the movie — and while it is unmistakably aimed at visitors, it is well done, with a solid Moroccan and international menu and live music.

Treat it as an experience as much as a meal: a themed evening, a cocktail and the inevitable strains of As Time Goes By. It is popular, so booking is essential, particularly during a World Cup summer when demand will spike. For film-lovers and first-time visitors it is a fun, slightly kitsch highlight; purists chasing the most authentic local food will prefer the market and the bistros.

Either way, it captures something of Casablanca's outsized place in the global imagination — a city more famous abroad for a film it barely resembles than for the real, gritty metropolis you actually visit.

For contemporary dining, the neighbouring quarters of Gauthier and Racine are Casablanca's most rewarding. These leafy, well-heeled districts hold the city's densest concentration of bistros, wine bars, cafés and international restaurants, from modern Moroccan kitchens to French, Italian, Japanese and fusion tables. This is where Casablanca's cosmopolitan side is most visible, and where you eat if you want variety and a smart, urbane atmosphere.

Because these are residential, upmarket neighbourhoods, the scene is geared to locals as much as visitors, which keeps standards honest and menus current. It is an ideal base for evenings if you are staying nearby; our Casablanca accommodation guide covers why Gauthier and Racine make an appealing place to sleep as well as dine.

We keep specific restaurant names light here beyond the enduring institutions, because independent bistros open, close and change hands quickly. The reliable advice is to explore the Gauthier grid on foot in the evening and follow the busy tables.

For anything sweet, aim for the Habous quarter, the 1920s new medina whose arcaded lanes are lined with pâtisseries and sweet shops. This is the city's best place to buy Moroccan pastries — flaky, honey-soaked and almond-rich cornes de gazelle, briouats, chebakia and the like — as well as European-style cakes from the French-influenced bakeries that Casablanca does so well. Many shops let you buy by weight, so you can assemble a mixed box to take back to your hotel.

Habous is a pleasant, low-pressure place to browse compared with the harder-selling imperial souks, and it pairs pastries with olives, dried fruit and craft shops. A mint tea and a plate of pastries here is a classic Casablanca afternoon.

The quarter features in our things to do in Casablanca guide too, so you can fold a sweet stop into a wider walk through the new medina and downtown.

Beyond the sit-down restaurants, Casablanca has a lively everyday street-food culture. Look for bowls of harira soup, grilled brochettes, msemen and beghrir pancakes from breakfast griddles, freshly fried sardines, roasted chickpeas and, for the adventurous, bowls of snails simmered in a spiced broth at market stalls. Fresh orange juice and mint tea are everywhere and cheap.

Eating this way is how locals actually eat, and it is easy on the budget across a long tournament. Basic precautions apply as anywhere: favour busy stalls with high turnover, drink bottled water rather than tap, and go where you see a crowd of locals. Our Morocco travel budget guide sets out realistic daily food costs across the host cities.

For visiting fans, the practical mix is simple: graze cheaply by day at markets and street stalls, splurge in the evening on the Corniche or in Gauthier, and keep a box of Habous pastries on hand for the walk home.

A few practicalities smooth eating in Casablanca during the tournament. Alcohol is more widely available here than in most Moroccan cities, served in many Corniche restaurants, hotels and Gauthier bars, though it is not universal — check if it matters to you. Tap water is best avoided in favour of bottled; mint tea is the default hospitality drink; and tipping a few dirhams for good service is customary but not obligatory.

On match days, book ahead or arrive early at the Corniche institutions and Rick's Café, which fill fast when the city is busy. Remember the market seafood counters are a lunchtime affair, and that the stadium is out in Benslimane, so plan whether you are eating before you travel or after you return.

Wherever you eat, Casablanca rewards a mix of high and low — the same day can hold a two-dirham market snack and a sunset seafood feast. For where those meals sit in the wider city, keep the Casablanca World Cup 2030 guide close.