Once you start getting to know a place, you start becoming fiercely protective of “your places”, regardless of if they’re actually the best at what they do. Without further ado (as always, some of these you can find if you can internet; others you can’t) here are my one-month-in recommendations:
Note on prices: I’m putting everything in dirhams; with the current exchange rate, just lop off a zero from the MAD and you get the amount in dollars. Yes, the personal pizza is $1.50.
Note on directions: roll with it.
There’s a pastry shop right between medina Muhammed V and new city Muhammed V, on the right coming from the former, left from the latter. There’s always a swarm of people (and bees) surrounding it, so you know it’s good. It’s like Mike’s Pastry, Rabat style, except everything costs literally 1/10th as much. Actually, the comparison is very apt; like Mike’s in the North End, you have to kind of push to the front and talk to the people manning it or you’ll never get your pastries. Also, don’t let bees put you off pastry shops—it means they’re sweet; besides, where do you think honey comes from?—but do steer clear of ones with swarming flies. Recommended: anything with toasted almonds. Also the pain au chocolates here are the only ones I’ve found so far in Morocco that have two lines of chocolate and not just one!
Coming from the old medina down Muhammed V, take the 2nd left where you’ll see a red and yellow sign for ice cream. Their ice cream and sorbets (nothing guaranteed dairy-free, sorry) are excellent. Best flavours I’ve had so far: raspberry and cotton candy—the former is “framboise” in French; the latter is blue. Full disclosure that my favourite type of dum-dum is also cotton candy, so if you don’t like processed-sugar things that don’t even pretend to be fruit, maybe skip the blue ice cream. It’s kind of expensive for Rabat (about 18 MAD for a generous 2-scoop cone), but worth it in my opinion.
I have made it my life’s mission to find the best (or one of the best) falafel place in every city to which I travel. #vegetarianlife #protein #falafullygood I still have many places to explore in Rabat, but using my best friend TripAdvisor* and the “cheap food” search I found this place, Yamal Asham, located right next to the Bab al-Had (IS THIS IT) tram stop, about a 10-minute walk away from the old medina (aka only use tram if absolutely necessary). The best Boston/Cambridge comparison I have is probably Punjabi Dhaba, not for the cuisine type or the ambiance (Yamal Asham is more upscale, see picture) but for the “let’s see how much ridiculously delicious food we can get for under x ridiculously low price” value. If you can finish $10 worth of falafel here, I will pay for your meal. Recommended (besides the falafel, of course): citron-menthe (lemon-mint) juice.
Coming from Ave Laalou onto Muhammad V, the second pizza place on the left is good. I’ve eaten there three times and have not yet gotten sick; the same cannot be said for all street pizza places. Moroccan street pizza is good, particularly the crust. Recommended: vegetarian pizza. The mozzarella cheese is somehow a bit less flavourful than other mozzarella I’ve tasted, so getting something with onions/olives is good. But go there: it’s a personal pizza for 15 MAD; what more could you ask for?
Hotel Splendid, almost right off Muhammed V in the new medina, was the best budget hotel I could internet on the fly, and it didn’t disappoint: it has padlocks/24-hour-security, a nice courtyard, soft beds without bedbugs, a 90 MAD per night per person bill*, and it’s located in a really convenient area right near the train station, old medina, tram, restaurants, movie theatre, ice cream place, heavily taxi-ed area, etc. The only possible issue with our room is the only toilet was down the hall; the room only had a sink and (oddly-located) bidet. Also, they needed a real passport, not a copy, from all foreigners. Recommended: the couples’ rooms. You get pretty sweet mirrors and romantic pictures, even if you’re not a couple.
Café La Renaissance is located on Muhammed V as well, on the left if you’re walking from the train station to the old medina. It’s a beautiful, airy café that serves decent food and has very good internet, particularly if you go earlier in the day, when it’s less busy. It also moonlights as a movie theatre! Recommended: the internet, the lemon tart.
* if you speak French to the receptionist. Like anywhere, speaking English might make them jack it up/not understand you; and, possibly, speaking darija might get you a discount. I’m going to reiterate what I said again: Please brush up on French before visiting Morocco. As many, and probably more, people speak it than Fus’ha (Modern Standard Arabic), and you’re never going to learn enough darija to survive without living in Morocco for an extended period of time. As courtesy, basic darija phrases are great to know—perhaps I’ll have a post on survival languages in Morocco— people think better of you for at least trying to use them, but they’ll probably respond in French, unless you look Moroccan, like my Indian-American friend who understands about 10 words of Arabic but gets all the questions from strangers. Which reminds me, traveling with three of my friends here is amazing, because we’re of Indian, Chinese, African, and European (blonde) descent, so people get always get confused where we’re from. Something easy to forget about other places, living in the US, is that a group like this isn’t normal in most of the world. It’s something really cool about the US (at least the places I’ve been) that—while we certainly have a LOT of unsolved race issues—that walking in a group like this isn’t anything to bat an eye at.
*Soapbox moment: I’ve been incredibly surprised by the amount of people who don’t know about/use TripAdvisor or HostelWorld for traveling. Yes, sometimes the best things are found by just stumbling across them (the pastry shop, for example!). What also can be stumbled upon are bedbugs and food poisoning. Especially for lodging, these sites are great, especially if you’re a less adventurous adventurer like me.