Restaurants in Algeria
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Dar Lahlou
Dar Lahlou is doing the seemingly impossible: serving upmarket couscous. Yet, it works. But then this isn’t just any old couscous. The family is from the Kabylie where they and women in surrounding villages still make couscous by hand, for which they won the gold medal for the best couscous in the Mediterranean in 2005, a source of national pride. If wheat couscous is hard to digest, try the barley, corn or rice couscous, though Dar Lahlou also serves tagines and roasts in a place that the owners have made look like home.
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Le Magelan
There’s a line of fish restaurants along the Rampe de la Pêcherie, the passage that leads from beside Djemaa el-Djedid to the port (or used to until the lower gate was blocked during the 1990s). All have the same sort of product and prices: choose a fish from the display and say whether you want it grilled or fried. Le Magelan (formerly the Sirène de Mer) also does a fine fish soup, but no alcohol is available.
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La Caravelle
The coast west of Annaba has a series of beautiful coves, where the hills fall right into the sea. The best beaches start at Ras el-Hamra, also known as Cap de Garde and include La Caroube, Toche and Ain Achir. There are few outstanding restaurants along the coast, the exception being La Caravelle, an old-timer with plenty of fresh fish. It’s reputedly the best of the lot.
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Le Vivier
On the coast between Cherchell and Algiers is the resort, Sidi Ferdj. Formerly Sidi Ferruch, the resort has a range of restaurants. If you can’t wait for the city, try Le Vivier, a fish restaurant tucked away from the main drag and overlooking the sea, serving Algerian dishes including couscous and brik. The restaurant serves alcohol.
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Brasserie des Facultés
The food side of this popular and often smoky bar fills up early and for good reason. It isn’t the cheapest place in town, but it is consistently good, with a well-priced plat du jour. Tables alongside the window are referred to as front de mer, overlooking not the beach but the passage along busy rue Didouche Mourad and the entrance to the university.
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La Maison de Couscous
Up by the concrete Sacré Coeur Cathedral, high up rue Didouche Mourad, this local no-frills place serves what its name says: couscous. Algerians don’t often go out to eat couscous – it’s the sort of dish your wife or mother cooks best – but they come here in numbers. No alcohol is available.
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Le Corso
On the coast between Cherchell and Algiers is the resort, Sidi Ferdj. Formerly Sidi Ferruch, the resort has a range of restaurants. If you can’t wait for the city, try the central Le Corso, serving Algerian dishes including couscous and brik. The restaurant serves alcohol.
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Tontonville Café
The entrance is on the side street by the theatre. Inside this high-ceilinged canteen, popular at lunchtime, take a tray and choose from a range of dishes – perhaps a tagine, a lamb stew, or a couscous – and have drinks served. Afterwards, you can go out front and have a coffee on the terrace.
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E
La Vague Bleu
The owner is a fisherman who sells whatever he has caught on his boat in this dark little restaurant under the city rampart, across the road from the port. There’s not a lot of ambience and no alcohol, but the fish couldn’t be fresher and the prices are reasonable for the quality.
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Le Corsaire
The restaurants by the Pecherie serve some of Oran’s best fish, but none match the Corsaire, its motto on y est bien en famille (you are among family here). Chose from the display and have it cooked the way you want. Paella, a speciality, is best ordered in advance. No alcohol.
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Restaurant Nina
Round the corner from the Hôtel Ilamane, this is a very popular place whose outside tables fill up at lunchtime. It serves a tasty range of Algerian dishes including kefta (meatballs made from seasoned, minced lamb) , tagines, grilled camel and homemade harissa.
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Dar Elsoltane
Up a staircase in a narrow alley, the ‘Sultan’s House’ is a lot more reputable than its entrance suggests. It’s still nothing to write home about – a good restaurant at reasonable prices – but given the dearth of competition this one stands out.
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L’Arc en Ciel
This place is particularly busy at lunchtime, when the small room fills with people from the town hall and other nearby offices, who look as though they have been coming here for years. Service is fast, food is unfussy and fish, couscous and paella are the specialities.
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Le Brussels
A cool café that runs all day on a Belgian theme, it serves hot chocolate and pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant) for breakfast, sugar and savoury crepes for lunch, and good coffee all day to a young crowd, most of whom come from the nearby university.
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Restaurant SafSaf
It’s hard to fault this simple restaurant, on the 1st floor of Hôtel SafSaf. Clean, air-conditioned and run by a meticulous maître d’, it serves simple, well-prepared dishes including lamb shoulder and grilled fish. There is often a good-value lunch menu.
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Restaurant le Faubourg
Down a flight of steps off place Audin, this restaurant is a simple place that serves straightforward meals of soup and roast chicken on plastic tables, either in the main room (with TV) or salle familiale (family room). No alcohol is available.
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Le Dauphin
Don’t be fooled by the faux Greek exterior or the Muzak inside, this is one of the city’s best, where the freshest fish and the best wine is enjoyed by well-heeled locals and oil workers. Alcohol is served and it has a terrace.
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Grand Café Riche
The name is misleading: not a big, bustling café, but the restaurant of Hôtel Residence le Timgad. Food is standard French, the cloths are crisp white, the room curtained and service is friendly and efficient. Alcohol is served.
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Restaurant Familiale
On a row of several simple restaurants, this place serves excellent meals of harira thick meat, lentil & chickpea soup and rotisserie chicken with vegetables, inside or out on the covered terrace. Recommended. Near Bab Sidi Boumediene
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Restaurant Tassili
This place has tables outside as well as an interesting dining room decorated with carpets, Tuareg swords, mini deer heads and even a pair of skis. It serves roast chicken, chips, harissa (red-chilli paste) and the like.
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Restaurant Tassili
One of several identikit restaurants in the town centre selling grills, stews and couscous. At least this place has the advantage of opening out onto the main square, making it a good place for coffee and people- watching.
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Restaurant Atlas
A reliable air-conditioned restaurant just off the Cours de la Révolution, it serves grilled steaks and merguez (spicy seasoned lamb or goat sausages), calamari rice and fresh fish. It also serves alcohol.
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Bar
Serves drinks and some snacks, although the availability of anything more than packets depends on luck and the season - the more visitors, the more likely you are to get fed, assuming they haven't run out.
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Restaurant Yulmaz
This small, bright place just off place Audin is a little more expensive than others in the alley, but it is a cut above the rest with good grills and tagines, although there’s no alcohol.
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Restaurant Kimel
This is the fanciest place in town (which isn’t saying much). It advertises banquet sur commande (feast on command) but can usually be relied upon to serve a good steak or roast.
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