The short answer
Yes, for most visitors, if you choose well. Eat at busy stalls where the food is cooked hot in front of you, watch your orange juice being squeezed, and drink bottled water rather than tap. A holiday stomach upset is more often down to unfamiliar water or raw salad than to freshly grilled food.
In more detail
The square's stalls are set up from about 16:00 and serve until about midnight. The rule that locals and guides follow is turnover. A stall with a full bench and a queue is cooking all the time, so nothing sits around for long. Hot dishes served straight from the pot or the charcoal, such as harira, brochettes, merguez and snail soup, are the safest choices.
Be more careful with raw food. At very basic stalls, salads may be rinsed in tap water, which carries a little more risk for a stomach that is not used to it. If yours is sensitive, stick to cooked dishes for the first few days. Drink bottled or filtered water, and at the juice carts you can ask for your glass without ice or water.
On our evening food tour, the guide takes you to busy, high-turnover stalls and family kitchens they eat at themselves, and bottled water is included. Tell us about any allergies before the evening so the guide can plan the route around them.
If you do get an upset stomach, keep drinking clean water with oral rehydration salts, which every pharmacy in Gueliz and around the medina sells. Most cases clear in a day or two. Get seen by a doctor if it is severe, includes blood or lasts beyond 48 hours.
Good to know
- Pick the busiest stall, not the one with the loudest tout.
- Choose food that is served hot.
- Watch your juice squeezed in front of you.
- Pack rehydration sachets and any medication you normally carry.