Grand Cafe de la Place — Restaurant in Essaouira

This was one of the worst restaurant experiences I have had ever. We checked google for a nice dessert place to end our night and were drawn to this horror show by the reviews. We arrived, took our seats and were promptly ignored by all members of staff, some of whom gave us weird looks as though we had suddenly appeared in their front room as opposed to an actual restaurant. After a while we became confused and approached an empty counter to ask for service. This woke the staff up and a lady approached us to ask for our order. An angry older women and a very agitated young man in the back kitchen prepared our meal while our waitress had the occasional taste test double dipping the spoon back into absolutely everything. The manager spoke to us and he was reasonably pleasant and friendly. Eventually the waitress brought our meals: some miserable looking pancakes and crepes that were very underwhelming in flavour and appearance. As one of our drinks she also brought a chocolate shake that she accidentally threw at all five of us. It flew through the air and seemed to quadruple in quantity as it exploded throwing chocolate shake and glass everywhere and covering all of us. This was an accident and not the waitress’ fault, however one of the waiters who stood openly behind the counter began to laugh manically in a high pitched shrill and would not stop throughout our whole meal, until he saw that having all of our clothes stained as we were beginning our night out wasn’t as much fun from our point of view. On realising this he fell back into the surly look that was part of the uniform at this dive. I tried to relax and enjoy my putrid powdered vanilla milkshake but even the rancid taste of that couldn’t rescue the day. Google need to allow for percentages of stars to make this review...

We were lucky enough to stumble upon this little gem on our first day in the medina. We are traveling with teenagers and they were beginning to crave western food. Boringly, we all opted for the burger and chips and I can honestly say it was one of the best burgers I have ever had. Perfectly cooked, hot and very tasty. The kids also really enjoyed their milkshakes. The service was excellent, our waiter Jalil was super friendly and brought us free bread, olives and harissa to start and then also gave us complimentary mint tea and Moroccan pastries to end our meal. The food was very good value and the portion sizes were perfect. The decor is really funky with a very chilled vibe. All in all a great place to watch the world go by and soak up the atmosphere of the medina. If you fancy some western food that won't break the bank, this is the place to come....

The food was delicious, and we even got a second crêpe for free, even though we had only ordered one – a really nice gesture! Outside, there are cute cats, which makes the atmosphere even more pleasant. The prices are totally fine for a tourist spot, and the staff were very friendly – one even set up an umbrella especially for us. Minor points of criticism: Our food was initially forgotten and therefore came a bit late. Also, the music outside was a bit too loud (not from the street, but from the speakers). The tea was okay – not bad, but nothing special. Overall, a very nice café with delicious food and friendly service – we would...