Tunis - Post Report Question and Answers
What typical restaurants, food delivery services, and/or takeout options are popular among expatriates?
There are some good European restaurants, including french cuisine and pizza. Even a few decent asian restaurants. Local seafood can be tasty. There are multiple delivery services. Tunisian cuisine can sometimes leave something to be desired. They put canned tuna on everything: pizza, pasta, you name it, but there are some treasures in the local cuisine as well. I loved the lablabi soup in the winter. - Jan 2024
Founa is a delivery service that works well for groceries, and there are various 'box' schemes for vegetables. Lots of specialist delis. Also lots of apps where you can get quick delivery by bike. Pizza can be great. Restaurants in general are a bit dull with either french-style fish and veg or Tunisian foods, but some good Italians are around. Sushi delivery is popular and not bad. I haven't found a great noodle or curry place yet. A couple if vegetarian/vegan places have just opened. Good patisserie and boulangerie as well. - Jun 2022
Tunisian restaurants are not great and there's not much variety. Good seafood, but if you don't want fish or couscous for every meal you will tire of it quickly. There are a few good pizza and sushi delivery options, and some of the hotels have good restaurants (the best Indian and Thai restaurants are in hotels and the Four Seasons is good but very expensive). - May 2022
Chinese, Japanese, Italian about the only thing I don't have is a good Indian place. - Nov 2020
Food isn't anywhere near European or US standards. You can find a few "adequate" restaurants like Zink, the Kitchen, Doodle Burger, and four seasons. Pizza Hut is available and is ok. - May 2020
Tunis has a number of quality restaurants, most falling into one of the following categories - Tunisian traditional, seafood and steak, and pizza/Italian. There are a number of good sushi places, some trendy burger joints have popped up, and shwarma/kebab shops are pretty common. A few American chains have also opened here - Chilis, Fatburger, Johnny Rockets, Pizza Hut, and Papa Johns come to mind. - Nov 2017
There is very little US fast food -- just Fat Burger. But there are dozens of decent, mostly French-themed restaurants. They can be quite expensive in the hotels, but downtown places are reasonable. - Nov 2015
Shawarma is the favorite fast food in Tunis, and is cheap at about US$1.50 each. Delicious, too! Lots of new restaurants opened while we were there, including a couple of sushi spots. One even delivers! You can get pizza delivered too, but the better places only do pick up. Some good restaurants at hotels, and a few swankier places elsewhere, but it will cost you more. - Jul 2013
None! There are local schwarma stands and pizza places (about $6 for a pizza) but you get what you pay for. - Jun 2013
There are many good restaurants that aren't necessarily known among the ex-pats. It's best to get recommendations from upper class Tunisians. Good restaurants serve filet mignon, fish, pasta, and chicken dishes and range from US$15 to 30 a plate. Moderate range restaurants range from US$8 - 15 a plate. There are also pizza joints, shwarma stands, and sandwich fast food places. There were no US fast food chains. There are a couple new Chinese wok take-out places and two Japanese restaurants. - Feb 2012
Tunisian food is not bad, but the food served in most restaurants can be repetitive and mediocre. To make matters worse, there non-Tunisian restaurants (at least those serving decent food) are few and far between. You can get sick of the endless succession of chorba, tagine, couscous and brik pretty quickly. That said, there are a few restaurant gems in and around Tunis, though, as well as a handful of decent French places. Fast food/street food is mixed. The basics such as roast chicken and shwarma don't hold a candle to those in the Levant. But there are some nice surprises like lablabi, ojja, etc. One exception: The roadside barbecue places selling chunks of lamb that they cook up for you, usually with salad mechouia and some fries. Best fast food in Tunisia! Don't be scared off by the flies and the hanging carcasses! And don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. The little home-cooked food we had the privilege of eating was excellent. There are no major fast-food chains to speak of. If you like sweets, don't miss the pastries -- they are excellent, and go well with a mint tea with pine nuts. - Oct 2011
There are no international chains in Tunisia - it's great. The main form of fast food is a road side shwarma or bowl of lablabli. Restaurants in general were pretty poor, although sometimes they are in a beautiful setting so it's worth going once in a while. Absolutely everything comes with tuna on it, so if you don't like this, get used to saying "without tuna!" in either French or Arabic. In general Tunisians do not tend to eat out, which likely explains the lack of good restaurants. - Jul 2010
Only local stuff, like shawarma and kefteji. These are cheap, too. One or two dinar (approx 70 cents US to the dinar) will get you a good sandwich. - May 2010
Schwarma and pizza is everywhere here, and quite good. You'll find your favorite schwarma spot and stick to it. There's not much in the way of American fast food here however. - Jan 2010
