Marrakech does not have a coffee culture so much as several overlapping ones, layered on top of each other like the city itself. Inside the medina, the cafe is a public room — a place to sit with a glass of mint tea, watch the square, and let an afternoon go. In Gueliz and Hivernage, the new-build avenues run on espresso and laptops, with international chains and concept stores selling a flat white that would not be out of place in Seoul or Melbourne. And on the back lanes off Rahba Kedima, a generation of younger owners has reclaimed old riads and fondouks as third spaces — Berber kitchens, rooftop terraces, social enterprises. The twelve below are picked across that whole spectrum: a global coffee chain with a polished Gueliz storefront, a medina institution overlooking Jemaa el-Fnaa, a women's-training cafe in the old town, and a handful of new-school spots most guidebooks have not yet caught up with. Hours, addresses and phone numbers are drawn from the OpenStreetMap record for each venue; the editorial judgement is mine.
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1 % Arabica
L07 M Avenue, 40020Single-origin espresso served in a polished Gueliz storefront from 08:00 to 23:00
From 08:00 the espresso machine at % Arabica, L07 M Avenue in the 40020 postal area, is already busy, and the doors stay open until 23:00. Skip the hotel-lobby cappuccinos and start the day here instead: this is a Kyoto-born coffee chain, and the staff treat the espresso as the menu's headline, not its garnish. The shop is a coffee shop — no tagine, no pastry counter trying to be a brasserie, just beans, milk and water. Reservations are not the point, but the phone line is +212 5 24 43 32 02 if you need to ask after a takeaway order. The website (arabica.coffee) lists the seasonal beans by origin.
- coffee shop
Hours: Mo-Su 08:00-23:00
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2 Café des Epices
75 Rahba Lakdima, MarrakechA rooftop terrace over the spice square, open 09:00–23:00 daily
Smoke and cardamom drift up from the spice square below the rooftop at Café des Epices, 75 Rahba Lakdima. The locals know to climb to the top floor rather than sit in the ground-floor room, which fills first with arriving tour groups. Doors are open from 09:00 to 23:00, seven days a week, so the place works equally well as a late-morning anchor and a sundown perch before dinner in the medina. The kitchen is honest rather than ambitious; come for the view and a slow pot of mint tea, not a culinary revelation. The booking line is +212 5 24 39 17 70 and the house website is cafedesepices.ma, though walking up and pointing at a free chair is the way most regulars do it.
Hours: Mo-Su 09:00-23:00
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3 Foundounk Gargaa
9 Rue Koutoubia, 40000A daytime Moroccan kitchen in a restored fondouk, open 10:00–19:00
Behind the heavy door at 9 Rue Koutoubia, in the 40000 postal area, Foundounk Gargaa keeps daytime hours that most medina cafes ignore — 10:00 to 19:00, every day — and the courtyard catches the light most of that window. The kitchen cooks Moroccan, which here means proper tagines and a short, confident menu rather than the everything-for-everyone tourist card you find on the square. Don't bother with the carbon-copy fondouks chasing the lunch coach trade; this one has been restored with care and trades on its calm. There is no website in the traditional sense, only an Instagram account, which is honest about what it is: a small place that prefers its photos to its prose.
- moroccan
Hours: Su-Sa 10:00-19:00
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4 Henna Cafe
93 Arset Aouzal SouikatA social-enterprise rooftop with Berber cooking, served 11:00–20:00
Service at Henna Cafe, 93 Arset Aouzal Souikat, runs from 11:00 to 20:00, and the rooftop is where you want to be: three flights up, with the medina rooftops rolling out in every direction. The kitchen cooks Berber, a register you rarely see written on a menu in this city, and the prices reflect a social-enterprise model the house explains on its own site, hennacafemarrakech.com. The locals head here when they want henna applied by someone who treats it as craft rather than souvenir, and the artists work in the front room while lunch is being plated upstairs. It is small, it is calm, and it closes earlier than most — go for a late lunch rather than dinner.
- berber
Hours: 11:00-20:00
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5 My Kawa
Rue Yves Saint Laurent, MarrakechA modern coffee terrace on the museum strip, 08:00–20:00 (shorter during Ramadan)
By 08:00 the terrace at My Kawa, on Rue Yves Saint Laurent, is already filling with the YSL-museum and Majorelle-garden crowd, and the kitchen runs until 20:00 every day. The locals prefer it to the chain options that have sprung up along this strip — it pours a more careful coffee and doesn't pretend to be a destination restaurant. Hours shorten to 09:00–17:00 during Ramadan, which is worth knowing if you are visiting in the lunar month: the same applies to most of the gallery-district kitchens, but few of them post it. The reservations line is +212 524 31 00 16; the group's own page, 16cafe.com, carries the menu.
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6 Ayaso Concept Store
6 Boulevard Mohammed Zerktouni, Marrakech, 40000Concept-store coffee in Gueliz, open 09:00–21:00
Doors open at 09:00 and stay open until 21:00 at Ayaso Concept Store, 6 Boulevard Mohammed Zerktouni in the 40000 postal area. The space is a coffee shop, but that undersells what is going on: it doubles as a small concept store, with the coffee bar pulling double duty as a slow-browsing anchor. Avoid the rush around midday, when the office lunch crowd from the surrounding Gueliz blocks rolls in; the late afternoon is calmer and the light through the front is at its best. The phone line is +212 5 24 43 41 45 if you want to check what is on the counter before walking over — the bakery selection rotates and they sell out of the better items.
- coffee shop
Hours: 09:00-21:00
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7 Showtime coffee Shop
Boulevard Al Mouzdalifa, 40000An early-to-late neighbourhood kitchen on Al Mouzdalifa, 07:00–23:00
The shutters at Showtime coffee Shop, on Boulevard Al Mouzdalifa in the 40000 postal area, go up at 07:00 and don't come down until 23:00, every day of the week. The locals eat here because the menu is unfussy and broad — arab, moroccan, pizza, sandwich — and the kitchen turns each one out without pretending any of them is the headline. Skip the social-media coffee bars trading on aesthetics and come here when you want food that is meant to be eaten, not photographed. The phone line is +212 5 24 05 91 92; takeaway is the way most of the neighbourhood uses the place, and the morning sandwiches are the thing to order first.
- arab
- moroccan
- pizza
- sandwich
Hours: Mo-Su 07:00-23:00
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8 L'empreinte
40130 Avenue Essaouira طريق الصويرة, MarrakechA 24/7 roadside kitchen on the Essaouira road
Service at L'empreinte, 40130 Avenue Essaouira طريق الصويرة, runs 24/7, which is what you want from a roadside kitchen on the way out of the city toward the coast. The menu spans cafe, pizza, sandwich, burger and tajine, in roughly that order of competence; don't bother ordering across the whole card, just pick the lane you came for. The locals know it as the rare place that is genuinely open at 03:00, not the kind of late-night listing that quietly shuts at 22:00. The phone is +212 8 08 53 12 08 — useful if you are driving in from out of town and want to make sure the kitchen is firing rather than coasting on its hours.
- cafe
- pizza
- sandwich
- burger
- tajine
Hours: 24/7
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9 Rahba Kedima
168 Rahba kedimaA counter sandwich stop on the spice square
At 168 Rahba kedima, the small counter trading as Rahba Kedima specialises in one thing — sandwiches — and does not pretend otherwise. The locals prefer it to the sit-down places ringing the square; you order, you stand, you eat, you go, and the queue moves. Skip the menus written in four languages a few doors away; this is a one-line kitchen, which is the point. There are no posted hours, so the safest move is to ring ahead on +212 5 24 37 83 90 if you are planning the visit around it, particularly during Ramadan when daytime trade pauses across the medina. Eat it on the square; the spice stalls in front are the view.
- sandwich
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10 Café de France
Jemaa el-Fnaa, MarrakechA balcony seat over Jemaa el-Fnaa, 07:00–23:00
From 07:00 every day, the terrace at Café de France catches the light over Jemaa el-Fnaa, and the last orders go in close to 23:00. It sits at 31.6263 latitude — the north edge of the square, where the snake charmers set up — and the venue is a coffee shop rather than a full restaurant, which is the right frame: you come for the view, the mint tea, and the geometry of the square shifting from market to food stalls as the sun drops. Don't bother with the dinner card; eat downstairs in the square instead and let this be your aperitif. The phone is +212 5 24 44 23 19 if you want to ring ahead for a terrace table at sundown.
- coffee shop
Hours: Mo-Su 07:00-23:00
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11 Café Dar Touareg
Rue Tougma, 40000A small Moroccan kitchen on Rue Tougma in the southern medina
Tucked onto Rue Tougma in the 40000 postal area, Café Dar Touareg cooks Moroccan in the register the medina actually eats — tagines, brochettes, mint tea poured from a height — rather than the version of Moroccan tuned for the coach trade. It sits at 31.6195 latitude, a few minutes' walk south of the square, which is far enough off the main tourist axis that the room fills with regulars at lunch. The locals swear by it for a midday plate when the souk has worn them down. Hours are not posted, so ring +212 5 24 42 75 43 before you make the walk; the kitchen can close early on quiet afternoons, and the staff will tell you straight if the day's tagine is still on.
- moroccan
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12 KASER LOUBNANE MARRAKECH
rue Bata Avenue Yacoub El Mansour, Marrakech, 40000A Lebanese kitchen on Avenue Yacoub El Mansour
On rue Bata off Avenue Yacoub El Mansour in the 40000 postal area, KASER LOUBNANE MARRAKECH brings a Lebanese register to a city dominated by Moroccan kitchens — mezze, grilled meats, flatbreads pulled hot off the pass. It sits at 31.6388 latitude, on the northern edge of the new town. Skip the international hotel buffets serving a watered-down version of the same food and come here for the actual thing. The house keeps its updates on Instagram rather than a traditional website, which is honest about how the place runs — daily specials, not a fixed seasonal menu. Ring +212 7 10 10 06 06 for a table; the back room is the calmer half once the front fills.
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