Café Argana
Modern café with superb Jemaa views (b,l,d $$)
The Argana is a café with a view, one of the best views you can get over the Jemaa el Fna.
Really, that view is the main reason why people come here. True, the food isn't at all bad, nor is it expensive, and the service is also good. They do coffee. tea, juices, decent ice-cream, and very passable couscous and tajines (including beef with prunes, at 100dh). They're used to tourists and they have a couple of veg options on the menu. The café is clean and modern, and the waiting staff are attentive and friendly.
Still, what you come here for really is not the food, the service or the ambience, but the view over the square, which is one of the best, although it overlooks the food stalls more than the performers.
Sadly, the Café Argana was the target of an infamous 2011 bomb attack which killed seventeen people. The attack was evidently aimed at tourists; fifteen of the victims were foreigners. Investigators blamed a Salafist paramilitary group called Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, who denied responsibility. One of the convicted perpetrators was executed for the murders; his accomplices received hefty jail terms. The café reopened in 2015.