I recently returned from a 5-week trip to Morocco. I was mostly in Agadir, but I visited other cities including Marrakech, Essaouira, Casablanca, and Rabat.
I have personally visited each place described below. The pictures were taken either by me or my friend. All the food shown below is vegan.
Useful Arabic and French Words
| English | Arabic | Arabic Pronounciation |
French | French Pronounciation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| without | بدون | bee-doon | sans | sah-ns |
| egg | بيض | ba-eed | oeuf | oof |
| milk | حليب | ha-leeb | lait | lay |
| butter | زبدة | zoob-da | beurre | brr |
| cheese | فرماج | fro-mah-ge | fromage | fro-mah-ge |
| honey | عسل | ah-sal | miel | mee-elle |
| meat | لحم | la-him | viande | vee-ahnd |
General Advice
Use HappyCow to find vegan options in Morocco!
One of the most common inexpensive and quick food options is places that sell sandwiches, “tacos,” and pizza. Most of these places have a vegetarian pizza that you can order without the cheese. If they do not have a vegetarian pizza on the menu, you can always ask them to make one for you. At one place I ate at, they didn’t have a vegetarian pizza on the menu but offered to make it for me. Then I saw the man go out and buy eggplant, bell pepper, and onion from the shop next-door and that was what was on my pizza :)
For breakfast, it is common to have bread with a spread of dips, which can include olives, amlou, honey, jam, olive oil, cheese. If you are traveling with non-vegans, it is safe to order one of these spreads and just eat the olives, jam, olive oil, and potentially amlou (if it is made without honey). You can also get fresh meloui (ملوي), msemen (امسمن), or harsha (حرشا).
My local host told me that most foods in bakeries and restaurants are made with “natural butter” (in other words, vegetable margarine) because it is less expensive than butter made from animals. This may be true, but it was too complicated for me to try to ask so I just avoided all kinds of butter in general.
Agadir
Supermarkets
Carrefour - Boulevard Mohammed Cheikh Saadi, Agadir 80000 (Talborjt neighborhood, next to Aswak Salam)
This supermarket has a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, spices, pickled foods like olives, etc. They even have multiple kinds of soymilk (unsweetened, sweetened, fortified, chocolate, etc.). They sell alcohol downstairs but that area closes before the rest of the supermarket (at 8pm) so get there early if you want to buy alcohol.
Marjane - Avenue Mohammed V, Agadir 80000 (Founty neighborhood, next to McDonald’s and Mr. Bricolage)
Another large supermarket. Unlike Carrefour, they also sell clothes and more household items. They also have a huge wall of plant milks :)
Marrakech
Jemaa el-Fna
Earth Cafe - Vegetarian with vegan options, Rue Riad Zitoun el Kdim, Marrakesh 40000.
This restaurant is down one of the narrow alleys in the Jemaa el-Fna. The easiest way to find this restaurant is to use Google Maps. After you make your way to the main alley you will see signs above you leading you to Earth Cafe. The menu is in English and has a vegetarian section and a vegan section. There is a lot of cozy seating inside and it’s a great place to have a respite away from the bustle of the market.
Website HappyCow
Zeitoun Cafe - Serves meat but has vegan options, 107 Place Jemaa El Fnaa، Marrakech 40000.
We came here by invitation from our contact at the US embassy so I was not expecting this restaurant to have vegan options. Surprisingly, they had multiple vegan options and the menu (which was in French and English) clearly labeled items that were vegan! Their menu is also on their website. Our table shared the vegan Moroccan salads and I had the vegetable couscous. They also had vegetable tagine. This restaurant is in the center of the busy market and has a nice view if you sit upstairs outside. It did seem like every table had tourists or foreigners. But the food was great and was expensive by Moroccan standards, but not too expensive.
Website HappyCow
Rabat
Rabat has a lot of Syrian restaurants so falafel and hummus are abundant.
Diour Jamaa
Yamal Al Sham - Serves meat but has vegan options, 5 bis, 5 Avenue Al Maghrib Al Arabi, Rabat 10060.
I found this restaurant on HappyCow and it turned out that my local Moroccan friends had been to this restaurant before and liked it! We went here twice over the three days we were in Rabat and it was busy both times. The first time, we waited about 20 minutes for a table for 7 people and the second time we ordered our food to-go.
Website HappyCow
