Moroccan breakfast
Best Breakfast in Fes — Fassi Morning Traditions
Breakfast in Fes is a generous medina ritual: griddle breads and doughnuts from the morning fryers, honey and amlou, soft cheese, and the Fassi treat of khlii and eggs. Whether on a riad rooftop or standing at a sfenj cart, it is the best way to start a day in the old city.
- City
- Fes
- Cuisine
- Moroccan breakfast
- Typical price
- 15-80 MAD
The Fassi morning begins with bread and something fried. Sfenj — light, airy doughnuts pulled hot from bubbling oil — are the signature breakfast street food, sold along the medina's main lanes and dipped in sugar or eaten with tea. Alongside them come the griddle breads: msemmen (flaky and layered) and harcha (crumbly semolina), spread with honey, jam, soft cheese or amlou, the almond-and-argan-oil spread. Baghrir, the spongy thousand-hole pancake, soaks up butter and honey beautifully.
A distinctly Fassi breakfast adds khlii — the city's preserved dried meat — scrambled into eggs with its own rich fat, a hearty, savoury start you rarely find outside Fes. Bowls of bissara (fava-bean soup) and, in season, sellou (a sweet toasted flour-and-almond paste eaten by the spoonful) round out the traditional options, especially in the cooler months and during Ramadan.
Riad breakfasts, usually laid out on the rooftop, give you the full spread in comfort: fresh juice, eggs, the bread basket with all its accompaniments, olives, and pots of mint tea and coffee, eaten as the medina stirs below. It is one of the pleasures of staying inside Fes el-Bali. For a more local morning, buy sfenj and msemmen from a cart and eat on the move, or sit at a small café for coffee and pastries.
Mint tea and strong coffee — the nous-nous (half coffee, half milk) is the order to know — power the Fassi morning. Eat early, before the medina fills, and let the breakfast be leisurely; it is designed to be grazed over an hour, not gulped.
How to eat well
- 1
Try khlii and eggs — the Fassi preserved-meat breakfast is a local speciality worth seeking out.
- 2
Buy sfenj doughnuts hot from a morning fryer along the medina's main lanes for a few dirhams.
- 3
Spread amlou (almond and argan oil) on your griddle bread at least once — it's a Moroccan treasure.
- 4
Riad rooftop breakfasts are best early, before the medina heats up and fills with crowds.
- 5
Order a nous-nous (half coffee, half milk) — the classic Moroccan morning coffee.
Frequently asked questions
What is a traditional Fassi breakfast?
Griddle breads (msemmen, harcha, baghrir) and sfenj doughnuts with honey, amlou, jam and soft cheese, often with khlii-and-eggs, bissara soup, olives and mint tea or coffee. It is a generous, grazed spread.
Where do locals eat breakfast in Fes?
At sfenj and griddle carts along the medina's main lanes, at soup stalls for bissara, and at small cafés for coffee and pastries. Workers often grab doughnuts or a sandwich on the move.
What is khlii and eggs?
A Fassi breakfast dish of khlii — preserved, dried and fat-cooked meat — scrambled or fried with eggs. Rich and savoury, it is a speciality of Fes rarely found elsewhere.