A quick and personal guide to visitors and locals about what and where to eat in Tunisia.
It’s an open list, so come back for more. Links are in blue.
Keftaji, Carthage
It's important to start with street food. keftaji, leblebi and Tunisian plate/sandwich are the most typical and common. Eat street food while sitting and sharing a table with your new friends.
Keftaji comes from the Turkish profession, the person who makes kefta, minced meat grilled, but keftaji, with time, became a food without meat. it consists of fried vegetables, usually pumpkin, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes. They are fried and then chopped and mixed with fried egg and sauce, which varies from place to place. you can also ask for 'double 3adam', double egg, and you'll get another egg fried on top of the plate. keftaji is usually served with chips and fried hot pepper. eaten with bread.
Leblebi, another Turkish word meaning fried chickpeas, is a thick soup of chickpeas, cooked with garlic and cumin, in rare cases it's cooked with hergma, calf's feet. the ceremony starts with an old bread from yesterday, you have to break it into small pieces in a bowl. Then a half boiled or raw egg is placed inside, along with cumin, capers, olives, tuna, the local special sauce, preserved lemon, more cumin and other additions that vary.
In Djerba, in the Jewish quarter, instead of stale bread, they use a kind of cracker called gallete and it's broken into pieces inside the dish. They also add anchovies.
In Bizerte, the lebelebi dish is served inside a baguette, like a sandwich, very similar to the sandwich eaten in south-eastern Turkey, in Gaziantep, near the Syrian border.
The Tunisian plate is a capsule of Tunisian flavours on a plate. It contains fresh vegetable salad, usually tomatoes, cucumbers and onions, some lightly pickled vegetables such as turnips and carrots (turshi), half a boiled egg, preserved lemon, olives, capers, potatoes and parsley. The Tunisian plate (s7an tounsi) is eaten with fresh bread or inside a baguette and is then called a Tunisian sandwich. the sandwich used to be popular in small shops and was sold alongside other basic items such as shampoo and milk.
My favorite Tunisian plate, Loutfi in Carthage
Right by Loutfi, great keftaji place, also offers Tunisian plate
If in Tunis, behind the marche central, there is what many people claim to be the best keftaji. A Djerbian family.
If in Djerba, in the hara kbira (the big Jewish quarter), ask for Asher for Leblebi and Tunisian plate. he is not on Google maps, but it's hard to miss him.
Legendary Leblebi in Hammam Lif, with photos on the wall of Sadam Hussein. Come also late night and take a bowl to the sea in front.
Tunisian Plate, Loutfi
Another important part of street food, especially in Tunisia, is fried food eaten standing up. The big stars are fricasse, brik, bambaloni, ftira and other little things you can find in Djerba.
Bambaloni is a simple fried dough that is opened by hand to form a large ring, fried and then rolled in sugar. The name suggests a southern Italian origin, but Italian bambaloni are different. In Sicily you can find similar fried dough stuffed with anchovies or ricotta. In other parts of the Maghreb it's called sfenj, also derived from the Sicilian sfinici.
Ftira, very similar to bambaloni but much wider and without a hole, ftira is mostly eaten in the morning and is named after the word ftur, breakfast. in some places they add an egg on top which is fried with the ftira. most ftira places close around 10am and the oil is used for fricassee and brik.
fricassee is simply a few of the ingredients of the Tunisian plate, but inside a bun made of fried dough. The main ingredients are harissa, hard-boiled egg, tuna and olives. but the big traditional fricassee also includes potatoes, pumpkin (tirshi), capers, preserved lemon and even a fresh salad.
The brik is the crown jewel of the fried street food. It consists of an almost transparent dough made from semolina and water, called malsouka or warqa. In Tunis, they add harissa, canned tuna, capers, salt and pepper and raw egg. In Djerba, the Jews add boiled potatoes, harissa, onion, salt and pepper and raw egg. The standard way of eating brik is with half a cooked or almost raw egg, called 3adma mraouhba. Pregnant women and people who don't like egg yolk must ask the brik master to kill the brik.
When eating the brik, position the brik parallel to your body, start eating from the top and when you reach the yolk, suck it quickly.
Brik is known to be eaten in the Hara Kbira, the large Jewish quarter of Djerba, where you can also eat kfita, a kind of ball made of a mixture of herbs, eggs, meat and semolina, fried, or banataj, boiled potatoes stuffed with egg, herbs and chicken, fried.
Undoubtedly, the best bambaloni is also in the most touristic spot in the country, Sidi bou Said
To get a ftira, go to the small place by the baladiya (municipality) of La Goulette. After 10am, get a brik there
You can get brik in any fish restaurant in La Goulette
We love to go to this place in Bardo for both brik and fricasse
And of course, the Hara Kbira in Djerba, it can be Yishak or Yona. Ask also for banataj or kfita
brik at flouka,
La Goulette
Sidi Bu Said, bambaloni
brik wagon, mehdia,
by the big rotanda
brik Ishak, Djeba
The next set of addresses is very general, Tunisian food, in any form, whether it's a luxurious place or a 'sha3bi', more popular. I'm going from north to south. Not enough space here to explain on every dish, there are so many. Next batch are the Djerba Jewish options.
Greater Tunis ~
Chez Slah is a great fish and seafood place, serves alcohol.
His cousin, Sadri in Dar Slah, right in the Kasbah, serves modern Tunisian cuisine.
La mama might be defined as an Italian restaurant, but there are no big differences really. Spicy red pasta with sea food vibes.
Hotel Majestic was the headquarters of the Nazis during ww2. their balcony is overlooking the rue Paris and serves cold beer.
Well done traditional Tunisian cuisine, few meters from a great vinyl records shop.
A great Djerbian restaurant for lunch, where the shop owners of the medina eats. The mother of the owner cooks and the whole menu is great. Ask for the klaya.
L’orient is an old school, dive bar style place in Tunis, great for fish and sea food.
Another old-school place downtown.
Menzah area, great Tunisian classics, especially the fishermen bowl (in front there is mdm rekik, check the sweets comments later).
Another Menzah place, for meat.
One of the best fish/seafood places, Carthage by the Punic port, a bit pricey. Serves alcohol.
New place, more contemporary that focuses on local ingredients, in Carthage. Very tasty and also serves coffee in the morning.
Another great place, in the middle of the fish places in La Goulette, a traditional-modern Djerbian cuisine.
La Goulette is full of great fish places, I like to go to razgalla and petite sicile.
Fav pizza in sidi bu.
Fancy and great resto by the sea in Sidi bu Said.
Place to take a friend to eat couscous, which is not at your mother’s, but at Gerard.
Best Japanese ramen in town.
Super fancy and tasty place in what is called, marsa of marsa, marsa cube. Tuesday and Wednesday they have private Japanese, Tunisian inspired dining by Dar Nikkei. Order in advanced.
Great place to get boutargue and other Tunisian delicacies.
Another good deli.
The Marche Central of Tunis is a must visit. with great small eateries around it.
Out of Tunis ~
Great fish by the sea at Porto Farina. You can bring you alcohol if you give 10% to Ahmed.
Best market in the area, with great bread stalls in the entrance.
On the highway, the entry to Grombalia.
At Huwariyah.
Great Souk in Nabeul and a must stop for fish and slata meschwia (grilled pepper salad) next to the fish market.
One of the best fish places along the Tunisian sea.
Another great fish on the beautiful sea of Hergla, Slim, the master.
Great sandwich in Soussa.
Mahdia has an amazing food. These are the favorite 3 places, first two for lunch: Naima, oklet zaman and Lido.
In El Jem go to eat here. On the roundabout there don’t miss the tea man.
In Sfax go to Cercina and around the central market, many small great places there.
Great grill behind Touzer market.
In Djerba, when you enter with the boat, on your left, great fish place.
Two places in Homt Souk, Essofra and El Hanout. Or go to the great fish market, get fish and take it to the small places next to the market, they will grill it for you and you’ll just pay for the salads.
Fish market in Djerba
Ras Jbel market
Punic, Carthage
About Jewish Djerba. Many people think that the Jews there are just waiting for other Jews to come and take them in. The answer is absolutely not. The Jews of Djerba live their lives and don't wait with tiny Tunisian flags for American Jews who don't eat spicy food. If you want to join the prayers on Saturday, get a hotel close enough to the Jewish quarter so it does not look like you drove there on Shabbat. You can also buy food in advance at one of the Jewish-owned restaurants, or you might get lucky and someone will invite you to their home, but don't count on it.
In general, there are 3 places. The Homt souk, by the sea. There is a small restaurant there run by Gabriel, mainly for the Jews who work in the market and don't want to go back to the Hara to eat. Gabriel has brik, other fried things, a grill and also cooked dishes like pkaila and couscous. You can also ask him about food for Shabbat or special dishes he can offer for another day.
Another location is the Hara Kbira, the large Jewish quarter. There are 11 active synagogues and most of the island's Jews live there. There are no restaurants, but there are street food stalls that are usually open from the afternoon until late at night. Except for Friday after sundown, of course. There are brik stands, grilled meats, pizza, leblebi, Tunisian sandwiches, and you can also order from anyone, some special dishes if you ask in advance. It's also a good idea to buy smoked harissa from one of the stalls, which takes 1-2 days to prepare.
The last place is Hara Sghira, the small Jewish quarter. It's one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. No active synagogue, only on Saturday mornings in the large Alghriba synagogue, which is within walking distance. There are 2 places to eat. I know Yaffa Trabelsi and her mother Tefaha. Yaffa makes all the fried stuff every day, brik, fricassee. Her father makes excellent grilled meat, on palm sticks, and her mother makes homemade boukha. This is an alcohol distilled from figs or anis. You can also order food for the Sabbath or special dishes in advance.
Brik Ishak
Asher
Yaffa Trabelsi
Sweets in Tunisia vary between street ones like makroud, manicuti (debla), yoyo and more refined ones like those based on almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts and pine nuts. This is a list of a few places, including cafes, around Tunisia. The last ones are for small jewelry, like sweets that you want to take home as a gift.
Garza is an old school place, Italian style, in Tunis center, early in the morning you can find the good stuff.
Also in the center, Memmi is great for sweets but also for the signature Memmi pizza.
in Sidi Bu Said, two great cafes. one is Bleue, which I contributed to their menu and Ben Rahim.
In front of iconic Safsaf in Marsa, great coffee and tea and most important, jaou.
Good place for a French style patisserie, to take and go to a good cafe.
Great Tunisian samsa here.
A bit posh, but great quality of sweets, by Madam Bouzguenda.
In Soukra, a great new findings, specializing in samsa shape.
If in Soussa, and old school sweets like yoyo and debla plus great lemonade.
Makroud of Kairouan at Omrani.
Sfax is the home of the big madams of fine sweets, based on almond and pistachio. They have shops all over Tunisia, so just put in Google maps, according to your location, Madam Rekik or Madam Masmoudi.
Few recommendations for sleeping along Tunisia. Everyone also offers a great breakfast, especially Salma in Sfax.
In Marsa, Dar El Kif.
In Tunis, Dar Ben Gacem, right in the Kasbah.
Not a hotel, but the new medina in Sousse offers olive oil tasting and is located in the middle of the big market.
In Sfax, there are not many options, but Salma have a small Maison d’hote and cooks great Sfaxian food.
In Djerba I always go to Dar Dhiafa, to feel close to my ancestors.
Rekik
Omrani, Kairouan
Masmoudi
Chez Ahmed, Porto Farina