Taste of Tunisia

This place is awesome, easily me and my ex-gf’s favorite place to go to have our arguments. I recommend getting the Brika, chilling outside on a cold winter day with some mint tea and smoking the hookah. Servers are attentive and very friendly — I’ve always felt some sort of camraderie with them, like I’m some kind of regular. Probably because I lived down the street and would come here weekly. But they do treat their regulars well and do well to earn them.

No doubt– this is an «authentic» experience– at least it felt very much like I was back in Tunisia wishing I had gone to dinner earlier. You’re GOING to wait– and by wait I mean WAIT! If you’re able to go to this place, just keep that in mind, because otherwise you won’t regret it! The restaurant, which resides in an unassuming strip shop with a couple other simple eateries, has a small outdoor area as another dining option. The ambiance of this little nook certainty wouldn’t give much away, but as it turns out the food somehow ended up being freaking awesome! I didn’t want to love it– 45 minutes after ordering our food, I came down with a little case of the «I’m about to starve so I need to kill somebody» syndrome. But as I sit here now (a day later), I’m eating my leftovers and all I can say is that the food is freaking good and you should try it!
Well I wrote this review over a year ago and had it saved to my drafts– guess my laziness caught up with me because it turns out that this place is now closed haha. Sorry.

Last time I checked this place had closed their Arlington location.
I heard they were reopening in DC?
I’m a bit confused, as I loved this restaurant. The food was great and the staff was sweet. I loved being able to walk down the street for some good Tunisian food and hookah.
I’m only giving this place four stars because the hookah wasn’t all that and I have no idea at this restaurant still exists.
If anyone knows any more details please take some time and PM me.

This place is amazing. I’m always going for something I’ve never tried before and I found that here. Even if I didn’t eat a thing, I’d enjoy myself because they play music videos in Arabic. It’s one of the few places I’d ever order an egg. More unusual, I’d say it’s worth the drive from Rockville even if I’m not doing anything else in the area — I can’t say that about anywhere else I can think of right now.
Why four stars and not five, then? I don’t know … something indescribable was missing. I guess that would be ambience. Even though I enjoy the music videos, I’d rather take my food to go and if it’s nice enough, eat it in an outdoor park-​area nearby.

This hole in the wall place is pretty charming! I went here with a Groupon, and was able to try a lot for a great price. The food is definitely different and interesting. The wait staff is incredibly friendly and helpful! I’m glad I tried it because I can see how people would enjoy it. Definitely try the harissa.

A ‘K’ recommended fair value venue in the village of Arlington.
Tunisian food is similar to middle eastern food in general but some dishes are more exotic. open your mind and come here for a meal
This was a good experience. i ordered a 3 appetizer sampler and a morrocan sandwich ($ 12 + 7) for takeout.
The appetizers were (falafel and hummus, something like spring rolls with cheese and a triagular philo dough with egg and meat)
The morrocan sandwich with merguez sausage was excellent. In fact all the food was excellent.
The bread that came along with the meal was also excellent.
Parking was a PITA but i finally found a spot

Four and ½ stars for an unexpected authentic tasting North African meal in a non-​pretentious «mom and pop» casual setting. I see from some of the reviews that some Unilocalers complain about cultural things – small teacups and servers without a sense of urgency. I submit that these are marks of authenticity; if you want American style service, you are usually stuck with an «Americanized» menu. If you want to taste the «real deal», be prepared to have an open mind, ask for a regional specialty you have trouble pronouncing, and then savor the culinary and social differences that ethnic authenticity brings.
Honestly I would never have known this little place existed but for the recommendation of my beautiful and cosmopolitan Syrian friend, Marah. The restaurant is rather small, so I could smell the aroma of onions frying and cumin as it «opens up» when heat is applied wafting from the kitchen into the modest dining area. I was olfactorily transported to a café overlooking the ruins of Carthage in the suburbs of Tunis! I love this part of the world; every conquering civilization from Ancient times until present has left its culinary fingerprint on the collectiveNorth African kitchen as evinced in the diverse spice palate. Hints of empirical influence from French to Arab to Berber to Roman, the threads of its rich history are woven into every bite.
The Taste of Tunisia Couscous was savory with complex flavor layers (cumin, coriander, cinnamon, maybe paprika and nutmeg) and served in generous portions. Mint tea is served in the authentic regional style – small glasses. Our server was friendly and generous with refills. We both took home «zawada» (Arabic for leftovers) and left full and happy.
For those blessed with an open mind and spirit of culinary adventure – or even those who let their taste buds be their passport, I recommend Taste of Tunisia for what it is – simple and unadorned authentic North African cuisine tucked away in an unobtrusive café in Arlington.

We ordered the mix appetizer and it came all fresh and with what looked like roti canai (Malaysian pratha). It was fresh and we walloped the whole dish and ordered another. The vegetarian couscous was not to my liking but my niece liked it, the kabobs were great with Tunisian bread.
Ended with a nice warm cups of Tunisian tea and baklava which was ok.
Service was good.
Will come back.

Exceptionally pleased by the authenticity of the taste and spicing. The cook is really good! The mint tea is delightful. It’s a no frills, basic layout but the customer service was actually friendly. Go for the food and you won’t be disappointed. I love having this culinary journey in my neighborhood. Food slightly oily, but still exceptionally tasty.
If they wanted to they could dim the lighting and add heavier furniture and plastic flowers all over the place… but the décor is a minor distraction.

The food was excellent. The prices are super reasonable. and the customer service was spot on and the music was nice too. I must say, one thing that I love when I go out to eat is a nice ambiance. This place needs a makeover. It wouldn’t cost much at all. Just some paint color in some deep tones, even in the bathroom, remove the boxes to the back. Add in some traditional looking décor and some nice table or atleast ornate table cloths. Some art work on the wall. I want to feel the essence of Tunisia. Its such a small place so its not that hard to do. Be creative on a budget.
Ok, so I had the
Sigara Boregi for my appetizer… yumm…great yogurt sauce.
The Tunisian salad that was great on top of the Boregi and my entrée.
I had the Vegetartian cous cous… delicious and was nice when I added a little salad and yogurt sauce on top. The flavors are awesome
The mint tea was so good, I have 3 – 4 cups (they are mini cups BTW)
My husband had the Kaftafi Muergez that he loved.
One other downfall is their website is never working. Major no no in 2013. I may not even visit your establishment if I can’t get a good representation of you from your website. Lucky for the Unilocal reviews, I decided to give it a try.
Try them out and enjoy

Get the mint tea! It’s a small glass of hot sweetened mint tea garnished with fresh mint leaves and it is amazing.
My one complaint is that so many of the dishes are oil laden. I know that’s probably how it’s supposed to be, but it’s just a little too greasy for my taste. The quiche thing was dry both times I had it.
There’s an appetizer that sound straight out of a college dorm– it’s like tuna fish, lemon, capers, and egg in phyllo dough. It sounds gross but it’s actually really, really good. There’s another appetizer with seasoned fried cheese in phyllo dough that’s a must try.

Very, very pleased with my girlfirend and I’s first trip to Taste of Tunisia (and will be the first of many to come). We bought the living social deal on a whim and figured we’d give it a go, not really knowing anything about Tunisian food.
We started with the Brika, which was very crispy and delicious. The grilled salad was a bit on the spicy side (I’m a bit of a wuss when it comes to spicy food) but I powered through it and on my way to the entrees.
I got the Musli for dinner; the chicken was very tender and simply fantastic. It came with plenty of potatoes and rice as well, and for only $ 8.95 it’s a really filling dish and well worth it.
My girlfriend got the mixed grill and was satisfied but not ecstatic. We’re admittedly not big lamb eaters, so maybe we aren’t the right people to cast judgment, but it didn’t seem like the lamb was a very good cut of meat. The chicken and kefta were both tasty, and there were again plenty of sides to fill her up.
Taste of Tunisia is a good combination of quality and quantity. I’m glad I didn’t let the fear of the unknown that is Tunisian food keep me away from this place. We’ll definitely be back.
Service was very good… the place wasn’t busy, so the waiter was there to fill up our water when it ran out and was quick to remove finished plates.

i stumbled on Taste of Tunisia on Saturday night when my girlfriend and i who live in Annapolis decided to venture out and try something new and different. What a pleasant suprise to have such an outstanding experience. Great food, very authentic and very different from our standard fare. I scored lots of points with my gf, who is Japanese very particular and demanding of good food and she keeps talking about our experience.
i had the Kaftaji Merguez which was like a ratatouille with sausage but MUCH better than i’d ever had. She had the lamb and couscous which, as i say she is still talking about. The couscous was authentic prepared to perfectin and the lamb, moist tender and superb!
With a couple of beers, great dessert (some type of date and sesame pastry) and mint tea with honey, the total price was about $ 45 which was a real bargain!
Also the young and very attentive owner was there and made our experience even more enjoyable with stories about his youth in Tunis. I was able to share with him some experiences that my father had years ago when he visited there often many years ago.
We have told all our friends about this place and highly recommend to anyone looking for an out of the way find with great and uncommon food at a very reasonable price.
We are coming back for sure! this is a hidden gem!

Raising my hand to say I also had a LivingSocial deal. My boyfriend and I decided to go on a Sunday at a strange time (around ²⁄₃) so we got really good service from our server; attentive without hovering.
We really loved the mixed grilled meats (especially the rice) for our entrees. The lablabi has a sort of strange texture and after you mix it it turns into a starchy brown looking soup. The salad we had without olives and they soaked their raisins so it was really tasty with the slivered almonds. I really have to praise their feta cheese though; good crumble, soft (I hate when feta is rock hard and super dense), and not overly salty. Our appetizer, sigara boregi, was pretty good too. Feta cheese with spinach inside phyllo dough with really awesome yogurt sauce. I get the impression that the ingredients are pretty fresh.
Overall I’m pretty impressed with this place (aside from the lablabi) but wow is it expensive. Without our LivingSocial deal it would have come out to $ 50 (w/​tax but not tip). We definitely enjoyed ourselves and would come back provided we had another group deal coupon.

Three stars for food, plus a half-​star bonus for good service that I can’t award on Unilocal.I really wanted to like this place, since we had an awesome LivingSocial coupon and the server was so nice. We just weren’t super impressed with the food. The amount of food that we ordered was the right amount, but it would have been pretty pricey altogether if we hadn’t had the coupon. The menu doesn’t look pricey, but the portions are small.
I preferred the lamb part of the lamb couscous, which was very tender; dining partner preferred the couscous part… we both said the other part was bland. The kofte kebab was two thin, broiled ground-​meat patties with interesting spices. I can’t see how it could have really been on a skewer in this shape, so kebab must mean something else in Tunisia. An agreeable cucumber-​yogurt sauce came on the side of several items.
The Mediterranean salad is a normal salad with adequate (bottled?) dressing as well as feta and raisins, which took it to a new level. The sigara boregi (one order comes with three of them) were good and crunchy, freshly fried.
The place is clean and small (5 tables plus some out on Wilson), a paper-​napkin, no-​tablecloth place. I have no idea if the food is authentic.

I also bought a living social here, and it was expiring so we finally went! The place is quite small. It is also provides hookahs, the smell of which I don’t really like. It’s like smelling small potpourri in a home. Too strong for my taste. So we went to sit outside.
As for the food, surprisingly, quite good. We ordered the hummus, tunisian salad, the sigara boregi, tajine, and lamb cous-​cous. Everything was surprisingly good. The sigara boregi were little rolls of phyllo dough filled with spinach and feta cheese. As for the tajine, I think we waited a little too long to eat it. Once it got cold, it wasn’t that good. Tajine is much like a frittata or quiche with egg, cheese, and spinach. My favorite was the lamb cous-​cous by far! I’m not a fan of lamb typically, but this lamb was very tender and there was no «gamey» flavor. Sumptuous!
The mint teas were delightful. I do believe our waiter was also the owner and possibly also the cook, as he was running around like mad! But he was very nice and accommodating. If we’re in the area, I might return for that delicious lamb cous-​cous!

Wonderfully surprised! I bought the living social here months ago, and since it was expiring in may, figured it was time. And were we impressed. The boy and I tried the hummus with beef and the Mediterranean salad to start w, and the bread used for the hummus was out of this world. It was a cross between injera and pita, and was the best of both worlds.
My cous cous-​Taste of Tunisia was gigantic and worth every bite. The cous cous was slightly crunchy and had great texture, and the giant carrots in the dish… I don’t know what it was, but I could’ve eaten ten of them. I don’t remember what the boy ordered — mixed grill? — but he was very happy with it. We got a little piece of baklava for dessert, which capped things off entirely. Perfect amount of honey, not too sweet, spiced nicely. I plan on returning!

Delicious! The service was excellent. I had never eating Tunisian food before, but the wait staff was wonderful about recommending some of the more popular traditional dishes. My food was amazing. I will definitely go back here!
I do wish the ambiance was a bit more romantic/​café-​esque but I imagine it being a decent place to sit outside during the summer. Also I really like that you can park in the back lot; just make sure to get a ticket/​voucher when you get there.

Excellent little place with unique traditional food and friendly service.
We’ve been meaning to try it for a while and came for lunch today with the ScoutMob deal. I’ve had a sore throat for two days and asked for hot tea to start. I was very pleased to see that what I had ordered was traditional Tunisian mint leaf tea that was made right there in front of me with fresh mint leaves and by pouring boiling water many times through sifters. The tea was very strong in flavor and hit the spot.
We then each ordered the Mechouia (a grilled vegetable salad with a kick of spices). The salad was excellent and unlike anything I’ve tried before. It also came with a generous serving of mlawi bread, which appears to be something between a crêpe and a Chinese pancake (and is delicious). We also ordered the Tunisian sandwich with merguez, which came served on a freshly toasted baguette and with harissa and a Tunisian salad. This was also quite good, although it came with an entire fried egg (which I took out because it was way too filling). Next time I think I’ll get this without the egg, but this is really a personal preference.
We were really stuffed but couldn’t help but try one of the Tunisian pastries, which was also very good and tasted freshly made.
There were many other interesting items on the menu and I can’t wait to come back to try them. This place is a little hidden gem and comes highly recommended.

I’ve been here twice and liked everything I tried! (To be fair, I’ve never had Tunisian food before so I didn’t know what to expect.)
The waiter was very helpful and recommended the best items on the menu for an entrée (and I can’t remember what it was called but it had an egg, sausage, and some spicy herbs, and french fries… it sounds pretty plain but it was so good that I had to go back a week later to fulfill my craving for it again).
My friend and I split a brika, which I wasn’t a huge fan of, but my friend really like — so I think that was a matter of taste rather than a reflection on the food itself. I also have tried every dessert of theirs (I think) and the baklava is great, as is the one that starts with an «s». (I wish they had a menu up online, so I could give better names.)
I would absolutely recommend this place to anyone who wants to try something new. The food was delicious, and the people were extremely friendly.