Sogebi : Café & Restaurant — Restaurant in Essaouira

Spending winter at my home for 17 years in essaouira, this was my first visit today, at lunchtime. The restaurant was full, I asked a solo diner if I could share his table,with 21 people waiting for food. I was told the snack menu was not available, so ordered chicken. After an hour our food had not arrived, lots of unrest and complaints. My sparse plate arrived 90dirham, my fellow diner could not eat the pizza 90dirham, burnt base, ingredients thrown on and tasteless. He complained,asked for it to be wrapped take away for his dogs. The waiter got angry shouting "you have to eat it here" he walked out. I picked at my meal, not the best,and went to pay for mine. I was presented with a bill for the 2 of us, they insisted I paid the full amount. Both the waiter,cashier,and hostile proprietor were shouting. I asked them to speak english or french, the owner waved his fist shouting Arabic. Its a tourist resort,getting busier, customer service requires staff with language skills. I wanted to call the police, feeling threated, but paid the bill, never to return.I intend to contact the tourist office, and lodge...

The food was ok, and the service was too slow for a sandwich and pasta, but the discrimination against Moroccans was shocking. Foreigners were treated with care, having everything brought to their tables, while Moroccans were ignored. To make matters worse, they refused to serve alcohol to locals. This unacceptable behavior completely ruined the experience. We just wanted to have a glass of wine with our lunch before we...

Unfortunately we experienced a 50 minute wait for 2 meals. The restaurant only had 1 other table who also seemed fed up of waiting. The waiter got offended when we asked how long our meals would take? We told him we are happy to pay for drinks & leave as it had been 50 mins but he said we have to pay for both meals even though they hadn’t arrived. What a shame what a hustler...