Rick’s Café gives Casablanca the movie fantasy tourists still chase: white tablecloths, piano music, arched rooms, and enough old-Hollywood drama to make you straighten your spine.
It could have gone wrong in ten cheap ways. A movie-themed restaurant in Casablanca? That sounds like a gift shop with cocktails.
Instead, Rick’s Café takes the idea seriously enough to make it work without turning it into a theme-park joke.
Why Rick’s Café deserves a stop
Kathy Kriger deserves the credit. A former U.S. Embassy commercial counselor in Morocco, Kathy looked at a fictional bar and decided Casablanca deserved the real thing. She left government work and built what she called a tourism-themed project focused on preservation, food, music, decoration, and entertainment. She also founded The Usual Suspects, a sly nod to the film.
She opened Rick’s Café on March 1, 2004, after turning the fictional bar from the 1942 film Casablanca into a real restaurant and piano bar inside an old courtyard-style mansion near the Old Medina. The movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman was never filmed in Casablanca. Warner Bros. shot it in Burbank, California, which somehow makes Rick’s Café even more brazen.
The Dining Room at Rick’s Café
The room does not pretend to be subtle. The whole place arrives wearing a dinner jacket.
Rick’s Café knows what visitors come hoping to feel, and it serves that mood with linen, candlelight, a straight face, and servers who know the room has a reputation to uphold.
We landed in the center dining room, where the space opened up, and the room could do its work: arches, candlelight, polished service, and just enough theater to make dinner feel like an event.
What to order at Rick’s Café
Start with seafood
The menu behaves like the room: classic, polished, and a little theatrical. Seafood, pasta, meat, and starters like prawn salad, smoked salmon, and Champagne Oysters all make the list. The oysters come gratinated with Champagne-creamy sabayon and Parmesan, which sounds like Casablanca by way of a tuxedo. We didn’t order an appetizer because we knew the entrée would be big.
Main course
You might go for the Grilled Sea Bass with curry sauce, served with basmati and black rice. Sea bass makes more sense here than steak. Casablanca has the Atlantic at its shoulder. Order accordingly.
If you want the full old-school steakhouse mood, the menu also lists a Char-Grilled Ribeye with herb butter, roasted tomatoes, potatoes, and sauces. The ribeye looked grand enough to require its own passport, but ours was tough despite good flavor. My husband and I shared it, and I spent part of dinner wishing we had ordered from the sea.
Dessert
Rick’s Cheesecake has stayed on the menu since day one. That tells me someone had the rare, good sense to leave dessert alone.
Do they play music at Rick’s Café?
Yes. Music gives Rick’s Café its pulse. The official site describes live piano performances by Issam Chabaa, jazz sessions, and Arabic music performances. The music gallery also lists Latin music, Arabesques, and jazz sessions.
If music ranks high on your list, book dinner. Lunch may feed you, but dinner gives the room a better chance to perform. Ask about that night’s schedule when you reserve, because “live music” and “your exact dinner hour” do not always happen without planning.
“Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By,’” Ilsa said in the movie. I put my fork down when the piano player started “As Time Goes By,” the most famous tune from Casablanca. I imagined standing beside him as he played. And I didn’t even have to ask.
Dress code
Rick’s Café asks guests to dress in smart casual attire. Think polished, not stiff: nice pants, a dress, a skirt, a blouse, a collared shirt, clean shoes, or a jacket, if you enjoy looking like you might be meeting a spy.
Skip beachwear, gym clothes, and the “I just fought my suitcase and lost” airport look. I did see one guest in a tank top and shorts who clearly had not received the smart-casual memo. He still got in. The room survived, but barely.
Know Before You Go
248, Bd Sour Jdid, 20110, Casablanca, Morocco
Phone: +212 5 22 27 42 07
Lunch: noon to 3 p.m.
Dinner: 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. and 9 to 11:30 p.m.
During my planning, the website did not feel fully up to date. The staff responded promptly by email, so confirm details before you go.
Why I Went
Go because Casablanca has swagger, but Rick’s Café gives that swagger a room, a drink, a piano, and a staircase.
It is touristy, yes. So is the Eiffel Tower. The question is whether the place earns the attention. Rick’s Café earns the attention because it respects the fantasy without cheapening it.
Come hungry. Dress like you meant to leave the hotel. Order seafood. Listen for the piano.
And for heaven’s sake, don’t ask the pianist to play it again unless you can survive the look you deserve.
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