North African restaurants in paris

[Siharris28]

Keen to try some North African cuisine on our trip to Paris in July. Which restaurants are recommended? Saw a reference to "Wally le Saharien" on another post, which is quite near our hotel. That a good bet or should we try somewhere else?

Cheers.

[Ptipois]

North Africa is one third of a continent, which cuisine interests you most? Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian? Ethiopian if we wish to stretch it a bit to the Southeast?

(I do not know of any Lybian restaurants so far, and our Egyptian cafés are mostly focused on chicha-smoking.)

Wally le Saharien (Algerian) has only one dish, couscous méchoui, but it is perfectly made.

L'Atlas (Moroccan, fassi cooking) on boulevard Saint-Germain serves what is IMO the very best hand-rolled couscous in Paris.

If you don't mind holes-in-the-wall, Chez Hamadi (rue Boutebrie) is also the best, in a different style (Tunisian).

Neighborhood couscous joints (there is one in every couple of streets or so, depending on the area) can be pretty good and should be tried.

For Jewish-Tunisian couscous (a distinct genre, very rich, with slow-cooked garnishes like tfina loubia, tfina bkaila, tfina arissa, etc., or "complet poisson"), two quartiers: the top part of rue du Faubourg-Montmartre around rue Richer, and boulevard de la Villette. Try La Boule Rouge and Chez Chalomé.

[Siharris28]

North Africa is one third of a continent, which cuisine interests you most? Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian? Ethiopian if we wish to stretch it a bit to the Southeast?

(I do not know of any Lybian restaurants so far, and our Egyptian cafés are mostly focused on chicha-smoking.)

Wally le Saharien (Algerian) has only one dish, couscous méchoui, but it is perfectly made.

L'Atlas (Moroccan, fassi cooking) on boulevard Saint-Germain serves what is IMO the very best hand-rolled couscous in Paris.

If you don't mind holes-in-the-wall, Chez Hamadi (rue Boutebrie) is also the best, in a different style (Tunisian).

Neighborhood couscous joints (there is one in every couple of streets or so, depending on the area) can be pretty good and should be tried.

For Jewish-Tunisian couscous (a distinct genre, very rich, with slow-cooked garnishes like tfina loubia, tfina bkaila, tfina arissa, etc., or "complet poisson"), two quartiers: the top part of rue du Faubourg-Montmartre around rue Richer, and boulevard de la Villette. Try La Boule Rouge and Chez Chalomé.

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Hmm, apologies for the generalisation. Jewish-Tunisian is sounding interesting, might try one of those...

Many thanks.

[eurorocket]

North Africa is one third of a continent, which cuisine interests you most? Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian? Ethiopian if we wish to stretch it a bit to the Southeast?

(I do not know of any Lybian restaurants so far, and our Egyptian cafés are mostly focused on chicha-smoking.)

Wally le Saharien (Algerian) has only one dish, couscous méchoui, but it is perfectly made.

L'Atlas (Moroccan, fassi cooking) on boulevard Saint-Germain serves what is IMO the very best hand-rolled couscous in Paris.

If you don't mind holes-in-the-wall, Chez Hamadi (rue Boutebrie) is also the best, in a different style (Tunisian).

Neighborhood couscous joints (there is one in every couple of streets or so, depending on the area) can be pretty good and should be tried.

For Jewish-Tunisian couscous (a distinct genre, very rich, with slow-cooked garnishes like tfina loubia, tfina bkaila, tfina arissa, etc., or "complet poisson"), two quartiers: the top part of rue du Faubourg-Montmartre around rue Richer, and boulevard de la Villette. Try La Boule Rouge and Chez Chalomé.

←

Just a quick point on La Boule Rouge:

Having eaten there on a couple of occasions I thought it would be an interesting experience to take my elderly mother. We sat down and the usual array of salads was put in front of us (this is something my wife deprecates, believing it to be wasteful. On this occasion she wasn't with us) and a bottle of wine was poured. Then we ordered a couscous and I made the point that we wanted to share the couscous (my mother does not eat a great quantity, especially carbs) and have additional protein (merguez) en plus.

The waiter was incredibly rude and showed his displeasure at us ordering only one main course including by gesturing with his fingers about how little money he was making out of this and that somebody has to pay for the array of salads he produced, gratuit, at the beginning.

Now I understand a bit about restaurant economics and I understand a bit about customer service and this guy's ungracious and obnoxious behaviour leads me to recommend to all my friends to avoid the place like the plague.

A different sort of couscous place is L'orientale on Ave Trudaine. I recommend it heartily!

Edited May 26, 2009 by eurorocket (log)

[Ptipois]

You should consider yourself lucky to have asked to share a couscous at La Boule Rouge and come out of the restaurant alive

Waiters there are notoriously snappy with the newcomers. And kind to the regulars. That sort of thing.

Kemia (the small salads served as appetizers) is a regular feature and supposed to be free, but of course its cost is ventilated into the dishes à la carte. Claiming that they serve it at no charge is naturally part of the local mise en scène.