A tagine is a pot, not a recipe: a shallow earthenware dish with a tall conical lid that traps the steam, and the food cooked in it is named after it. London's North African food is concentrated at the top end of Portobello Road, where it becomes Golborne Road, in a few railway arches in east London and Clerkenwell, and along the west London high streets in Hammersmith, Acton and Kilburn.
It is not on Edgware Road. That street is Lebanese, Egyptian and Gulf Arab, and our guide to Middle Eastern food on Edgware Road covers it properly. The confusion is understandable, because the two cuisines share a spice cupboard and a lot of grilled meat, but the cooking is different and so is the geography.
Our guide to Ethiopian and West African food covers the rest of the continent and gives Golborne Road a paragraph. This page is the North African half in full: what the dishes are, where the grocers are, what mint tea involves, and which streets repay the journey.
Where to go, and for what
- Golborne Road, W10
- Moroccan grocers, cafes and pastry counters. Ladbroke Grove or Westbourne Park station, four to six minutes' walk
- Hammersmith and Acton
- Algerian and Moroccan restaurants and a North African supermarket, serving residents
- Kilburn High Road, NW6
- A Moroccan grill among the Irish pubs
- Clerkenwell and Haggerston
- Modern charcoal cooking drawing on Moroccan and Levantine flavours
- To order first
- Harira soup, a lamb or chicken tagine, and mint tea afterwards, not with the food
Tagine, harira, pastilla: what the four main words mean
Tagine. Meat or vegetables cooked slowly in the conical pot with very little liquid, so the steam condenses on the lid and runs back down. The classic combinations are lamb with prunes and almonds, chicken with preserved lemon and green olives, and kefta, which is meatballs in a tomato sauce with eggs cracked in at the end. It arrives in the pot and the lid is lifted at the table. Bread, not rice, is the correct thing to eat it with.
Couscous. Not a grain but tiny pellets of rolled semolina, traditionally steamed three times over the broth of the stew it will be served with. In Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia it is the Friday dish. What arrives is a mound of couscous, a separate bowl of broth with vegetables and meat, and a small dish of harissa to stir in to taste.
Harira. A tomato, chickpea and lentil soup thickened with flour or broken vermicelli, finished with coriander and lemon. It is what breaks the fast during Ramadan and it is the cheapest good thing on most menus. Order it even in summer.
Pastilla (also written bastilla or b'stilla). Thin warqa pastry layered around shredded pigeon or chicken with almonds, cinnamon and egg, baked and dusted with icing sugar. Sweet and savoury in the same mouthful, which surprises people. Usually needs ordering in advance or sharing, because it is made large.
Mint tea, and why it takes so long
Moroccan tea is green gunpowder tea brewed strong with a large bunch of fresh mint and a great deal of sugar, poured from a height into small glasses so that it foams. The height is not showmanship: it aerates the tea and cools it enough to drink.
Two things visitors get wrong. It is drunk after the meal rather than with it, and it is sweet by default. If you want it less sweet, say so when you order, because the sugar goes in the pot. In a cafe on Golborne Road a glass costs very little and buying one entitles you to sit for as long as you like, which is the point of the institution.
Order the bread, then use it instead of a fork. Khobz, the round flat loaf, is what a tagine is designed to be eaten with: tear a piece, pinch the food with it, do not let it touch the sauce twice if you are sharing. Most places bring it automatically and some charge for it, so check the menu for a bread line if you are counting.
Golborne Road, the Moroccan end of Portobello
Golborne Road runs north from under the Westway flyover, and it is the one street in central London where the North African trade has held on. It is four minutes from Ladbroke Grove station and six from Westbourne Park, and it is at its busiest on Friday and Saturday when the market stalls trade.
Two addresses are worth the walk. Le Maroc Supermarket at number 94 is the grocer: preserved lemons in brine by the jar, olives from open tubs, ras el hanout and other spice blends sold loose, argan oil, orange-blossom water, msemen and harcha flatbreads, and tagine pots if you want to carry one home. It was last inspected in October 2024 and holds a rating of 3. Le Marrakech at number 64 is the sit-down option on the same street, also rated 3, last inspected in September 2024, which is at the edge of what we consider current; check the sticker in the window when you arrive.
The Portuguese pastry counters on the same short street are covered by our guide to Portuguese and Brazilian food, and the practical business of eating on Golborne Road on a given day of the week belongs to our Notting Hill and Portobello eating guide. Our Portobello Road Market page has the trading days for the rest of the street.
The west London high streets, where the community eats
North African families in London are concentrated in the western boroughs, and the restaurants follow them rather than the tourists.
- Azou, 375 King Street, Hammersmith. An Algerian and Moroccan dining room with the low seating, lanterns and long cooking times the format calls for. Currently rated 5. Fifteen minutes' walk west of Hammersmith station, or a bus along King Street. Our guide to Hammersmith and Barnes covers the area.
- Marrakech Supermarket, 140 Churchfield Road, Acton. A North African grocer on a residential shopping street, rated 4. Useful if you are staying in west London and cooking, as our page on self-catering in London explains.
- Sky Marrakech, 338 Kilburn High Road. A Moroccan grill on one of London's longest high streets, rated 5 and inspected in March 2026. See Kilburn and Queen's Park for the surrounding street, which is more Irish than Moroccan and is the better for it.
The modern version: charcoal, mezze and a bar
A separate strand of this cooking has grown up in London since about 2015, in railway arches rather than on high streets: charcoal grills, flatbreads, whole cauliflower, lamb shoulder for the table, and a cocktail list. Berber & Q runs a grill house in an arch off Acton Mews in Haggerston, currently rated 5, and a shawarma bar at the Exmouth Market end of Clerkenwell, rated 4.
These are restaurants rather than community cafes, priced accordingly, and they are the easiest introduction if you want the flavours with a wine list and a booking system. Moro, on Exmouth Market a few doors from the second one, has cooked Spanish and North African food side by side since 1997, and our guide to Spanish food and tapas covers it. For the wider arches-and-grills scene, see Turkish food in London, which owns the ocakbasi grill.
Algerian and Tunisian, which are not Moroccan
The three cuisines share couscous and harissa and differ after that. Tunisian food is the hottest of the three and uses more fish, tomato and egg: look for brik, a deep-fried pastry triangle with a whole egg inside it that has to be eaten carefully, and merguez, the thin spiced lamb sausage. Algerian cooking sits between the two, with more French influence in the bread and the pastries.
Tunisian Street Kitchen at 12 Lower Marsh, behind Waterloo station, is the most central place to try that end of it, currently rated 3. Lower Marsh is a weekday lunch street and quiet at weekends; our guide to eating near Waterloo covers what else is on it.
Friday lunch is couscous day, and it is the best-value meal on these streets. The tradition of serving couscous on Friday survives in London's North African kitchens, often as a large plate at a set price with the broth and vegetables included. If a cafe has a handwritten sign on a Friday, that is what it says.
Alcohol, fasting hours and vegetarians
Many of the community cafes and grocery-cafes are unlicensed, and some serve no alcohol at all as a matter of principle. The restaurant end almost always does. Nobody will mind either way, but check before you plan an evening around a bottle of wine.
During Ramadan, opening hours on these streets change substantially: some kitchens close during the day and open late into the night, and harira sells out. Our guide to London for Muslim visitors covers prayer facilities and fasting-month practicalities, and halal food in London covers the certification question. Most North African meat in London is halal.
Vegetarians do well here. Vegetable tagine is a dish in its own right rather than a substitution, zaalouk and taktouka are cooked aubergine and pepper salads, and couscous with seven vegetables is a classic. Check whether the broth is meat-based, because it usually is. See vegan and vegetarian London.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the Moroccan area of London?
Golborne Road in North Kensington, the northern continuation of Portobello Road, four minutes' walk from Ladbroke Grove station. Smaller clusters exist in Hammersmith, Acton, Shepherd's Bush and along Kilburn High Road. Edgware Road, often named in error, is Lebanese and Gulf Arab rather than North African.
What is the difference between a tagine and a stew?
A tagine is cooked in a shallow earthenware pot with a tall conical lid that condenses the steam and returns it to the food, so almost no liquid is added. The result is concentrated rather than soupy, and it is eaten with flat bread rather than with rice or a spoon.
Is Moroccan mint tea sweet?
Yes, by default, and heavily so, because the sugar is boiled in the pot rather than added at the table. Ask for it with less sugar when you order if you prefer. It is served after a meal rather than with it, poured from a height into small glasses.
What should I buy in a North African grocer in London?
Preserved lemons, olives from the open tubs, ras el hanout and other loose spice blends, argan oil, orange-blossom water and flatbreads such as msemen and harcha. Tagine pots are sold too, though they are heavy and need seasoning before first use.
Is North African food in London expensive?
The community cafes and grocers are among the cheapest food in west London, and a glass of mint tea costs very little. The modern grill restaurants in the railway arches are priced like any London restaurant of that kind. We have not quoted menu prices on this page because we could not read them on a source we would cite.
Sources
- Food Standards Agency - food hygiene ratings search (checked September 2026)
- Food Standards Agency - establishment register, open data API (checked September 2026)
- Food Standards Agency - food allergy and intolerance (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - journey planner (checked September 2026)