Cheap Eats in Nador — Best Budget Food on the Rif Coast

The backbone of cheap eating in Nador is the sandwich. Counters across the centre stuff baguettes with grilled kefta, merguez, maakouda (potato fritters), tuna or fried fish, loaded with chips, salad, olives and harissa for 20-40 MAD — a full meal in bread. Grill carts turn skewers over charcoal, and fried-fish counters, natural in a fishing town, add cheap Mediterranean fish to the mix.

Soups keep costs lower still. Harira (tomato, lentil and chickpea) and bissara (fava bean) are ladled out at small stalls for around 10-15 MAD with bread, filling and warming — welcome on cool Rif evenings. Small canteens (gargotes) serve a plate of the day — tagine, lentils, beans, or kefta with an egg — with bread and salad for 30-45 MAD, aimed at local workers rather than visitors.

Being a fishing city, Nador offers cheap seafood that many inland towns cannot: grilled sardines and anchovies from a cart cost almost nothing, and a plate of friture (mixed fried small fish) gives you fresh Mediterranean seafood for a modest price. Add the produce of the fertile Rif hinterland — cheap seasonal fruit, vegetables and olives from the market — and a budget stretches a long way here.

To eat cheaply and well, stick to the sandwich counters, soup stalls, grill carts and canteens where locals eat, agree prices before ordering, and pay in small notes. In Nador, the humblest counters serve both the best value and, in the fried fish, a genuine local treat.