Ray Charly - Tangier, Morocco

Rating:  6 / 10

Locals and tourists alike ram into Ray Charly due to it's proximity to the necessary resting spots in Le Petit Socco.

After you've spent an afternoon crowd-gazing, the pangs of hunger appear like a thin line on the horizon. If so, fear not! Ray Charly opens their veritable wooden shutters offering respite from the sun and a stool to park your posterior on.

Though it may resemble a trough at feeding time, looking down the bar counter at hungry faces stuffing chicken and chips into their grinding mouths, the food here is pretty good. I went for the spicy chicken sandwich with chips inside, which was unremarkably hot but had decent flavour. The temptation to look away when the owner stuffs naked hands into bowls of raw chicken and slaps them on the hot plate is palpable, but in Morocco sometimes whats seen is better than what goes on in dark kitchens.

Twelve hours later the gospel was spoken in the deep truths of a safe toilet visit, so the fears of yesterday were unfounded. Food poisoning was avoided once again, and I could safely accept that despite culinary treachery in terms of food sanitation, the after-effects were gentle. 

These recommendations are just personal opinions based on my palate, things change, chefs get fired or replaced, places open-close, relocate, so take it all with a pinch of MSG  and discover your own gems too. But please do try a few of these, they have been researched exhaustively.