Best Cafés in Casablanca — Coffee Culture and Art-Deco Terraces

Coffee is woven into Casablanca life more than anywhere else in Morocco. The city's French heritage left it with grand old café-brasseries and pavement terraces downtown, where locals sit for hours over an espresso or a nous-nous (half coffee, half milk) watching the boulevards go by. Some of these cafés occupy beautiful art-deco buildings, part of the remarkable early-20th-century architecture that makes central Casablanca unique.

A modern specialty-coffee scene has grown up alongside, concentrated in the Gauthier, Maârif and Racine districts. Here you will find third-wave roasters, espresso bars and brunch cafés serving flat whites, pour-overs and avocado toast to a young, professional crowd — a more contemporary café experience than the traditional terraces. These places double as work-friendly spots with wifi and calm interiors.

The traditional Moroccan café is also everywhere: functional, sociable places serving strong coffee and mint tea to a mostly local clientele, where a single drink buys you a long stay. For the classic mint tea ritual — gunpowder green tea with fresh spearmint and sugar, poured from height — any neighbourhood café will oblige, though Casablanca leans more toward coffee than tea compared with inland cities.

Whatever your speed — an art-deco pavement terrace, a specialty roaster, or a corner café for mint tea — Casablanca rewards café time. Pick a spot, order a nous-nous or a flat white, and settle in; the city runs on these unhurried hours at the table.