Taghazout is small enough to walk end to end in fifteen minutes, and most of what you'll eat sits on two strips: the main road that runs through the village (Route d'Essaouira), and the seafront that curls from Hash Point round to Panoramas. The rule of thumb is simple. Up on the road you eat cheaper and faster. Down by the water you pay a bit more for the view, and on a good evening it's worth every dirham.
The list below this article shows who's open right now. This part is the stuff a list can't tell you.
After a dawn session
You come out of the water starving, and the answer is a Moroccan breakfast: msemen or baghrir, eggs, olive oil, amlou, bread, a glass of orange juice and a pot of mint tea. Cafe Tayoughte does exactly that, cheaply, at little tables looking at the surf. It's one of the best-value meals in the village and it doesn't pretend to be anything else.
If you want flat whites and a brunch bowl instead, Teapot on the main road is where half the laptops in town end up by ten o'clock, and Red Clay does the best speciality coffee in the village. Red Clay is fully vegan too, and their baked stuff goes early.
A quick, cheap lunch
The cheapest good lunch in the village is a takeaway. Bread Pitt does grilled chicken stuffed into Moroccan bread for well under 50 dirhams, and yes, the name is the reason half its customers stop the first time. The sandwich is the reason they come back.
For a sit-down lunch with a tagine, Chez Titrite on the main road mixes Moroccan and French cooking and has been feeding surfers for years. Aftas and Cafe Yoba cover the same ground: pasta, burgers, omelettes, tagines, no fuss.
Dinner with the sea in front of you
Sunset is the whole point of eating by the water here. Panorama has one of the best terraces in the village, and it's the place for seafood tagine or a plate of grilled fish. Café Surf Berbère has a wooden deck right over Hash Point, so you can watch the last surfers of the day while you eat. Windy Bay is on the beach itself, big and busy, with Moroccan food next to pizza.
Service at the seafront places can be slow when a whole surf camp turns up at once. Order your tea while you read the menu.
When you want something a bit nicer
Dar Josephine is the village's grown-up dinner: French-Moroccan food around a terrace full of plants, with good vegetarian options. Expect roughly 100 to 150 dirhams a head. Kitchen Club at Dfrost Almugar is the other one, with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern plates and a proper bar.
And if it's a birthday, or you just need a break from tagine, the resorts along Taghazout Bay are ten minutes south. At the Fairmont there's Paper Moon for Italian, Morimoto for Japanese and Tapa Wine Bar for a glass of wine over the bay. These are hotel prices, several times what you'll pay in the village, so book ahead and bring a card.
Something sweet at night
Aziz's Crêpes is a little stand that comes alive in the evening. Nutella, chocolate, banana. It's the kind of thing you plan not to do and then do every night of your trip.
Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free
Vegetarians eat well here: vegetable tagine, lentils, salads, omelettes, msemen, and most menus have a few choices. Vegans have Red Clay, which is fully plant-based, and plenty of places will make a tagine without meat if you ask. Gluten-free is harder, because bread comes with everything. Say it clearly, and if it's serious, eat somewhere with a written menu rather than a street stall.
Beer and wine
Most of the village is dry, and that's normal here, not a quirk. A handful of places are licensed, including World of Waves on the beach and Kitchen Club at Dfrost, and the resort bars in Taghazout Bay all serve alcohol. There's no shop selling it in the village. Please don't drink in the street.
What it costs
- Street food and cafés: under 50 dirhams a head.
- Most village restaurants: 50 to 100 dirhams for a main and a drink.
- The nicer places: 100 to 200.
- Hotel restaurants in Taghazout Bay: 300 and up.
Carry cash. Plenty of places don't take cards, and the ones that do sometimes have a machine that "isn't working today".
Ramadan
During Ramadan the village changes rhythm. Many local cafés stay closed through the day and open for ftour at sunset, when the whole place fills up at once. Places aimed at visitors usually keep serving, just more quietly. Eat and drink inside rather than walking down the street with a sandwich, and go out after sunset at least once: the evenings are the best part.