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60°F / 16°C
(Passing Clouds. Cool.)
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The Tunisian cuisine is combination of Mediterranean and North African cuisine, based on fresh products, olive oil and spices. As everywhere in Maghreb, couscous is one of the most common dishes served in restaurants. It varies according to different recipes, featuring most commonly chicken or sheep. In coastal cities, including Tunis, the Fish Couscous is a specialty and a true delight. It can be found in most of the local-food restaurants of the capital city. Among the other classics of the Tunisian cuisine that can be found in Tunis, are some starters such as the Tunisian Salad, the Briks, the Fatma’s Fingers, The Mechouia Salad and the Tajines. The Salade Tunisienne is made of diced vegetables, including tomatoes and onions, dressed with olive oil and lemon. It is often served while customers are waiting for their other courses. Don’t leave Tunisia without having tasted the Briks ! Classic Briks are made with egg (ask for “Brik à l’Oeuf in French) or with tuna (ask for “Brik au thon). The preparation involves a thin and crispy leaf of pastry, fried with olive oil and served hot. The Fatma’s Fingers are a version of this recipe: the preparation is rolled in the shape of a finger inside a Brik pastry. The Mechouia Salad is another classic starter. It is a baked salad with tomatoes, peppers, garlic and olive oil. The Tunisian Tajines have nothing to do with their Moroccan namesakes. It basically consists of thick eggs incorporated with meat and vegetables. Briks, Tunisian or Mechouia Salads and Couscous are easy to find on any menu in the area. However, many Tunisian specialties, such as for example the Mosli (oven-baked lamb shoulder) or the Laglabi (chick-pea puree with an olive oil trickle and a little bit of harissa that can be eaten for breakfast) will only be present in the menus of gastronomic restaurants (for the Mosli) or in little local-food restaurants (for the Laglabi). Also if you avoid the touristy areas you're more likely to taste the delights of the Harissa! This very strong pepper sauce marinated with olive oil is ever present in Tunisian cuisine. As for the Tunisian Salad, it is very often served with bread before the serving of the dishes. The little Tunisian sandwiches with egg, tuna, potatoes and olives (named Fricassé) are strongly deviled with harissa if you don’t watch out. To end up with this quick culinary introduction, the fact that Tunis’ city and suburbs are on the Mediterranean coast should be emphasized, because the opportunities to enjoy very fresh and delicious fish (grilled most of the time) and seafood are plentiful.
In all the restaurants French is spoken most commonly, but the higher class and touristy eateries will often have at least one English speaker.
Medina
A few great eateries are nestled in the medina. Those restaurants have made the judicious choice of enlightening Tunis’ heritage, both through culinary and architectural efforts: there is of course the Dar El Jeld which is the most famous, but also its neighbor the Dar Hamouda Pacha (Restaurant & Salon de Thé), along with the Dar Bel Hadj and the Restaurant Essaraya. All those restaurants offer great Tunisian cuisine cooked with great care by women (this is the rule at the Dar El Jeld and at the Essaraya) and served in restored former palaces and mansions dating from the Ottoman times.
There are also a few quaint restaurants spread among the Souks of the medina. They are open only at lunchtime and enable people to eat simply and cheaply, such as the Mahdaoui.
New Town
The greatest tables of Tunis’ agglomeration are not in the New Town (namely Tunis’ downtown). You will find here the most convivial restaurants. Those restaurants are notably worth the price for the special atmosphere that characterizes the capital city of Tunisia, namely a mixing of Mediterranean pace and flavors with a quaint European charm which is engraved in the service as well as in the building façades dating from the colonization times. Most of the menus offer a choice of Tunisian food classics as well as French-inspired dishes.
One of the benefits of the smaller restaurants is that they serve cheap and fair cuisine, such as the restaurant Abid, the Carcassonne, the Capitole (Restaurant) or also the Le Malouf. In any case, each suburb in the downtown area features its own little restaurants open at lunchtime and selling Fricassés (you can also find those sandwiches in certain bakeries).
Tunisian and European flavors also meet in the menus of the good restaurants in downtown, such as the Le Carthage, the Le Bolero, the L’Orient, the Andalous, the Chez Nous, or the Le Malouf. The specialized restaurants are finally the exception more than the rule in the downtown, such as La Mamma which serves excellent Italian food, or Chez Slah which is famous for its cooking fish and seafood.
La Goulette
The most popular fish restaurants are in La Goulette, even though their prices have risen in the last few years. Tunis’ city-dwellers like gathering in one of the many fish restaurants of the main avenue of La Goulettte, Franklin Roosevelt Avenue, and enjoy a “Complet Poisson, namely a portion of grilled fish covered with various toppings such as French fries, eggs, grilled peppers and baked-with-garlic tomatoes. It is a common practice to choose the fish before it’s cooked, which can be useful considering the fact that the price of the fish depends on its weight. A very famous restaurant in La Goulette is the Café Vert.
The Jewish-Tunisian cuisine is also to be found in La Goulette, with restaurants such as Mamie Lily or the Club Les Jasmins.
Carthage et Sidi Bou Said
Much ink had been spilled on the opening of a Spoon restaurant by the famous French chef Alain Ducasse at the boutique-hotel Hôtel Villa Didon in 2004. However it closed in 2005, and even though its successor, renamed Le Rest’ô, remains an atypical eatery in the restaurant panorama of Tunis, the attempt of Ducasse has not turned Carthage into a culinary destination.
Because of certain restaurants of Sidi Bou Saïd, they have acquired a solid reputation, testified by the warm welcoming of the reopening of the Restaurant Dar Zarrouk by many Tunis’ gourmets. But it’s the restaurant Au Bon Vieux Temps which is probably the most famous of the little village. Out of the historical center of Sidi Bou Saïd there are also very good restaurants, such as the chic Le Pirate or the trendy restaurant Le Tam Tam.
La Marsa and Gammarth
The most delicious fish restaurants of the Tunis’ coast are here! Moreover they feature wonderful terraces with great views of the Mediterranean Sea, like in the Restaurant La Falaise and in the Restaurant Le Golfe, both settled in La Marsa, or in the Restaurant Le Grand Bleu and the Restaurant Les Ombrelles in Gammarth. - Najda Laroussi
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