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Coffee Shops & Cafés in Fez
Fez runs on cafés. The medina's coffee houses are social institutions — men (mostly) drinking nous-nous and watching the world go by — while the new town has the espresso bars and the famous Café Clock bridging both worlds.
This guide covers where to drink well: the landmark café, the medina coffee houses, and the modern espresso spots.
Café Clock: the landmark
The one café everyone tells you about — and they're right.
Photo: Frettie, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Café Clock is the landmark — the cross-cultural café in the medina that every guidebook mentions, and for once the hype is earned. Set in a historic building at 7 Derb El Magana off Talaa Kebira, it's where travellers, locals, and the occasional jam session collide. The coffee is good (proper espresso drinks, the famous almond milkshake), the rooftop is the medina's best-known terrace, and the camel burger is a rite of passage.
It's also a cultural venue — live music some evenings, the well-reviewed cooking school upstairs — and open 9am to 11pm daily. Yes, it's pricier than the corner café. It's worth it once, probably twice.
Café Clock
7 Derb El Magana, Talaa Kebira, Fes 30000
The famous cross-cultural café in the heart of the medina: good espresso drinks, legendary almond milkshakes, the camel burger, a superb rooftop terrace, and occasional live music. Also runs the well-reviewed cooking school. Open 9am–11pm daily.
Best for: The essential Fez café experience
- Go before sunset for a rooftop table
- The almond milkshake is genuinely famous
Keep reading: Medina coffee houses and new-town espresso →
Medina coffee houses and new-town espresso
The real café culture is in the hundreds of small coffee houses across the medina and new town — plastic chairs, strong coffee, endless tea, and football on the TV. These are overwhelmingly male spaces in the traditional quarters, which solo women travellers should know going in.
In the Ville Nouvelle, the café scene is more mixed and modern: the terraces along Avenue Hassan II and around Place Florence are where Fez's young professionals drink their morning espresso. The coffee is Italian-style, the people-watching is excellent, and the prices are local.
What to order
Photo: Robert-brook, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Coffee vocabulary for Fez: a nous-nous is half coffee, half steamed milk in a glass — order this. A café crème is the French-style equivalent. Atay is mint tea (gunpowder green, fresh mint, lots of sugar) — accept every glass you're offered; refusing is mildly rude.
The jus stands deserve a mention here too: avocado juice, panaché (layered fruit juices), and raïb are the daytime drinks of the medina, and a panaché from a Boujloud juice stand is one of the city's great cheap pleasures.
Practical tips
- Order a nous-nous (half coffee, half milk) — it's the local default and it's excellent.
- Café terraces are for lingering; nobody will rush you.
- Mint tea is the alternative religion — atay is served everywhere, sweet and strong.
- Prices double or triple on the famous terraces; the side-street cafés are the local price.
In Fez, the coffee is strong, the tea is stronger, and the best seat is always the one where you can watch the street.
What's on in Fez
Coffee first, medina second — see what's happening around town as it's announced:
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