About Graham Cornwell is a writer and historian who specializes in the history of modern Morocco. He has a PhD in History from Georgetown University, and is currently working on a book about the history of Moroccan mint tea.
It’s a hole in the wall that has been widely touted by guidebooks and TV shows. At peak hours the wait can be long for its tiny dining room. There’s only one drink–a fresh fruit juice served in rustic clay mugs. There’s only one menu and it’s basically the same every single night.
Restaurant Populaire Saveur du Poisson – very literally “Popular Taste of Fish Restaurant” – is a Tangier institution and one of my favorite places in the world to eat. I cannot imagine a trip to Tangier without it. The courses go like this: barley bread and harissa, fish soup, baby shark cooked in greens, a mixed fish grill, dessert of nuts and honey and berries. It’s all hyper local, all prepared in a tiny kitchen separated from the tiny dining room by a half wall and a curtain. I can’t even remember if there’s a bathroom, although I know there is a sink.
The whole meal runs about $30. You can certainly find cheaper meals in Tangier. You can definitely find less rustic ones for less money, but I don’t think you can beat this one. On our first trip there, we took my parents and our 1 year old son, who, lacking any semblance of control over his limbs and any semblance of a restraining high chair, knocked a bowl of soup onto my wife’s lap. Fish soup. It was not ideal. But it all seemed so promising that we went back a week or so later with friends, and we’ve been back every time since, and I really cannot imagine ever having a night in Tangier without eating there. In 2020, I had been very sick for days but sucked it up on my last night in Tangier to make sure I got to eat at Saveur du Poisson.
You must go.
How to get there: There's no website. The address is 2 Escallier Waller. It's a tough little spot to find for the first time. If you're in the Grand Socco, turn and face the Cinema Rif. Take the street to the left of the Cinema up the hill. You'll pass a handful of clothing stores. At the top of the street, don't turn sharp left but kind of continue straight on the Rue de la Liberte. You'll go half a block, passing the Pharmacie Maghreb on the right. There's a staircase on the left; take it down a 30 meters or so and look for the Saveur du Poisson on the right.
