Built into the walls of Casablanca's Old Medina, La Sqala is an 18th-century Portuguese bastion that has been reused as a courtyard café and restaurant since the early 2000s. The fortification itself — square stone tower, gun emplacements on the outer side, thick walls cut into the medina's defensive line — gives the address one of the most atmospheric settings in the city. The kitchen has built a reputation over the years for classic Moroccan cooking done seriously rather than for tourists.

The traditional Moroccan breakfast platter is the signature: stack of msemmen, beghrir, harcha, fresh bread, honey, jams, olive oil, butter, olives, two kinds of cheese, eggs cooked to order, and several teapots of mint tea — enough to feed two people generously for around 100 MAD a head. The lunch carte leans traditional with tagines, pastilla, briouates and grilled fish leading; dinners are quieter and the menu narrows. Garden seating wraps a green courtyard with shaded terraces; an interior salon takes over when the weather is poor.

Reservations are recommended for lunch and almost essential for weekend breakfasts — the garden seating fills fast and walk-ins are turned away at peak times. Late morning or a relaxed lunch are the strongest windows; evenings are quieter but the garden is at its best in daylight. The grounds are free to enter; you only pay if you order. A natural lunch stop on the classic Casablanca loop of Hassan II Mosque in the morning, La Sqala for lunch, Old Medina walk after, downtown in the afternoon.