Restaurant Rafiq — Restaurant in Agadir

Additional point: having read some of the highly negative reviews, I am surprised and would encourage would be customers to take such reviews with a great big pinch of salt. I am not a moroccan and my standards are quite high coming from a British background; I have to remind myself that standards cannot always be the same as in Europe when eating out, but that's what I love about Rafiq's, I don't have to compromise. Staff make every effort to ensure a clean environment, menu options cater to many tastes and service is good and always prompt - they take pride in their work and I believe this stems from management seemingly taking good care of its staff as well as its customers. So staff turnaround is minimal, which helps to build good relations between customer and staff, year after year, holiday after holiday. Original review, pre added point: I think I have already reviewed this place a few years ago, but here I go again. This place is still one of my top places to go to dine in. A casual, easy-going place where the staff are great, very welcoming, polite and accommodating, particularly Wisal and one other whose name I will insert when I learn what it is the next time I go go. Management seem to always be on top of things, and the facilities are clean. The menu is varied and always well presented, and delicious (it's rare to get a meal that wasn't a good standard), which is why whenever I'm on holiday in Agadir I always return to this restaurant/cafe because I know compared to other places in Agadir, this place doesn't disappoint. The prices are fair and inexpensive and it's nice as its popular with both tourists and locals. Breakfast, lunch and dinner have been enjoyed here (not all on the same day mind you), both alone and with family the experience is pleasant and comfortable either way, which isnt always the case in other Moroccan establishments for females dining alone. They also offer take out, which is what I have started to do more of during lunch times, especially of their meal of the day, which tend to run out by dinner time - they're so popular! Hard to pick a favourite meal, but their tacos and émincés de poulet are delicious. The crush cocktail (mocktail) is lovely and refreshing. You must try this place out when in Agadir! At least once and make up...

We went here for a late lunch / early dinner.

It was quiet and gave us a nice walk to and from the restaurant too.

✅️Upon arrival, we were seated promptly with menus. We decided to have mixed kebabs with fries and two fruit juices - one orange and one vitamin cocktail - with a bottle of water ending with mint tea.

✅️Service was friendly and welcoming 🙏 😊

❌️We were a little underwhelmed with the food as we went with all the TripAdvisor reviews we had seen in mind. The kebabs were very plain - no marinade, spices, or herbs. The meat wasn't basted very well, so the chicken, for example, was quite dry and took a bit of work to pull off the skewer.

✅️The side serving of carrots and courgettes were nice - steamed and tossed in garlic and herb butter.

✅️The fries were nice and crispy on the outside and fluffy inside. ❌️The mixed fruit / vitamin cocktail was really not quite to our liking - strong floral taste - jasmine like, so that wasn't quite for us. ✅️The fresh orange and apple juice were great.

✅️The mint tea was exactly what we wanted to digest our food before heading back.

✅️Our waiter was lovely in putting on quite a theatrical performance in pouring the tea from a height and challenging us to have a go 😄

❌️It was quiet, and they only had indoor seating. Again, they 🪰 plagued us, and we were forever waving hands around.

❌️They seemed busy in the kitchen, and we weren't sure if this was for takeaways as there were less than ten tablecovers for food there when we went late in the afternoon and most were outdoors having drinks.

Reasonably priced with good service but unfortunately nothing to write home about for us. Nice for a quiet couples meal and close to the plage for an evening stroll if you cross over and cut through by...

TL;DR: Amazing food, like my mom cooks. RECOMMENDED.

Been to many places. From high end where you pay European prices to the more local food spots. This is an in-betweener: definitely OK prices and great food.

We’ve ordered basically all staple Moroccan dishes (see pictures): meat tajine (m9alli), chicken tajine (the one with citron), couscous, and - ok this may not be staple - tajine with just vegetables. Perhaps if we also had bestilla we’d have had them all.

The m9alli (the one I had), was really good and a must eat. The food was smoking hot when served, the onions were perfectly caramelized and the number of raisins and prunes were perfect. Enough sauce to dip with bread and the meat fell of the bone instantly. YES the meat had a LITTLE bit more fat than I would prefer, but that is me really nitpicking. All in all 9.9/10. Oh yeah and portion size was GOOD.

Won’t go into much detail for the other ones, but taste was on point. Only take the vegetarian tajine if you really like vegetables. That one didn’t have much sauce (mer9a) to dip from, so please be aware. I’d never take that one as I love meat too much.

The chicken one COULD use a bit less vegetables, but that’s just personal preference. You can ask them to reduce; they’re service is accommodating like that.

The couscous was good, big portion and all 100% eaten.

Service also friendly! Even though we broke a glass (sorry...