Best Restaurants in Sidi Bou Said
Five essential tables, ranked by occasion.
$ Under 20 TND | $$ 20–60 TND | $$$ 60–150 TND | $$$$ Over 150 TND
Sidi Bou Said’s Top 5
Le Pirate Restaurant
Le Pirate occupies the cliff edge at Sidi Bou Said — a position of extraordinary natural drama where the village's white walls drop precipitously to the Gulf of Tunis below and the island of Zembra is visible on clear da...
Café des Nattes
Café des Nattes is one of the world's most historically layered cafés. Paul Klee and August Macke stopped here in 1914 on the journey that Klee described as producing his understanding of colour — the watercolours he mad...
Dar Zarrouk
Dar Zarrouk occupies a restored Tunisian palace at the village's highest point — a position from which the entire sweep of the Gulf of Tunis is visible, including the ruins of ancient Carthage on the promontory below. Di...
Le Chargui
Le Chargui occupies a restored village house in Sidi Bou Said's residential streets — the lanes away from the main tourist terrace where the village's actual life continues. It serves the community that lives here year-r...
Restaurant Sidi Bou Fares
Restaurant Sidi Bou Fares sits at the base of the Sidi Bou Said cliff — accessible either by the winding lane from the village above or by boat from Tunis marina. The position at sea level provides the most direct possib...
Café Sidi Chabaane
Café Sidi Chabaane occupies one of the village's secondary terraces — less famous than the Café des Nattes but equally beautiful, and possessed of the specific advantage of being slightly less visited. The mint tea here ...
Dining in Sidi Bou Said
Sidi Bou Said is the most beautiful town in Tunisia and one of the most beautiful in Africa — a clifftop village of white-washed walls and cobalt-blue doors perched above the Gulf of Tunis, overlooking the ruins of ancient Carthage on the promontory below. The village's strict building regulations, maintained since the 1920s, have preserved its blue-and-white aesthetic in a form that Paul Klee, August Macke, and generations of artists have found irresistible. Dining here occurs within this visual framework.
Tunisian Cuisine
Tunisian food is among the Mediterranean's most assertive culinary traditions — defined by harissa (the dried chilli paste that appears at every table in every form), the French-influenced pastry tradition from the colonial era, and the Italian influences that the geographic proximity to Sicily and the colonial history of the north have deposited. The sea bass and bream from the Gulf of Tunis, the couscous of the interior, and the brick à l'oeuf (crispy pastry with egg and tuna) that is the most specifically Tunisian of all preparations constitute the culinary canon.
The Art History
In April 1914, Paul Klee and August Macke arrived in Tunisia and spent two weeks in Tunis, Hammamet, and Sidi Bou Said. Klee's diary records his realisation: 'Colour and I are one. I am a painter.' The paintings he made — including the Sidi Bou Said watercolour that shows the very terrace of the Café des Nattes — are among the most important works of 20th-century European art. The village they painted is unchanged in its essentials.
Practical Notes
Sidi Bou Said is 20 minutes from Tunis by the TGM electric railway or by taxi. Tunisia uses the Tunisian Dinar. The village is compact and best explored on foot. Most restaurants accept cards; cafés require cash. The best visiting period is April to June and September to November; July and August are very crowded with Tunisian and European summer visitors.