In the quest of finding the best couscous and tajine of Paris, we visited the restaurant listed as the number one in Le Figaro‘s Best Couscous of Paris list –Le Zerda Cafe.

Le Zerda Cafe is located in a lovely pedestrian street called rue René Boulanger in one of the nicest parts of the 10th arrondissement. When we had called in advance for the reservation the terrace was full, but upon arrival we got a table outside after a five-minute wait. The street was lively, the weather was hot, and the night was perfect for people watching and exploring a new restaurant.

Open the door and enter the world of North African food.

We ordered “the usual”: couscous for my husband and tajine for me. I am not a big fan of semolina (made of wheat) so tajine with meat, vegetables, fruits and nuts suits me perfectly. (Note: Le Zerda Cafe, as many other North African restaurants, is happy to serve semolina also to those ordering tajine, so do not hesitate to ask for it!)

My husband’s Couscous Zerda arrived with fabulously fine semolina, hearty vegetable stew and a mix meat plate of lamb, beef, meat balls and merguez (spicy sausage). He thought that the merguez and meat balls were a bit tasteless, but he liked very much the lamb served on a brochette and grilled lamb.

My tajine included a lamb shank with pears, almonds, dried apricots and plums.  The dish had a balanced taste (not too sweet) and I also liked the fact that there were no potatoes added (commonly served with tajines). Unfortunately the lamb shank (souris d’agneau) was not the best piece of lamb I have eaten as it was rather greasy. I kept giving pieces of my lamb to my husband who in exchange made me taste his meats.

Is there anything better than the arrival of boiling hot tajine on the table?

To wash all this food down we drunk Algerian red wine Chateau Beni Chougrane from the Mascara region, which was a lovely choice even on a hot summer evening. As I have mentioned before, most North African reds make me very tired. My theory is that these grapes have been absorbing a lot of African sun, making them a good remedy for falling asleep –the same effect spending an entire day under the sun can have on you!

We had a lovely evening, the service was friendly and the food very good, but somehow we had been expecting more. After all, we were visiting the number one couscous restaurant of Paris (according to Le Figaro), so we had all the reasons to expect something out of ordinary! Unfortunately I guess this is a common problem: when something is so highly praised, your expectations grow out of proportion. This is why listings are bad….

This said, I am sure we will return to Le Zerda Cafe. As one of the oldest Algerian restaurants in Paris, it is a real institution and its dining hall very picturesque. To me it looked like the most perfect place to warm the bones up during the long Parisian winter!

Le Zerda Cafe: 15, rue René Boulanger 75010 Paris. Tel. 01-42002515 or 06-28476381. Metro: Strasbourg – Saint-Denis.

Le Figaro list: http://www.lefigaro.fr/sortir-paris/2010/11/22/03013-20101122ARTFIG00674-le-test-des-meilleurs-couscous.php

***

Previous posts about eating North African food in Paris are:

L’Alcôve: finest meat of Paris (also serves couscous and tajine, but the house specialty is grilled meat –delicious!)
Algerian restaurant l’Atlantide in Paris (excellent couscous and tajine –my top choice!)
L’Homme Bleu: Berber hospitality in the center of Paris (reputable couscous and tajine restaurant but I was disappointed during my last visit)
Le Tipaza: refined Moroccan food (a good address near the Eiffel Tower)

Note added in July 2014: I returned to L’Homme Bleu many times but stopped doing so in summer 2013. Why? I was served a glass of champagne that either wasn’t real champagne or was long ago expired (I returned the glass and we were not billed for it). Unfortunately this was not all. The dishes were not as good as they used to be, and my favorite lamb tajine was simply too sweet. The tastes were not balanced. We very very disappointed and wondered was it the “August effect” (many people take holidays and maybe the restaurant was run by nonprofessionals at the time of our visit?). We never learner what it was, but we haven’t been back since summer 2013. There are so many North African restaurants in Paris to visit!! See my list of other restaurants in the end of this post.

***

Paris is an excellent place to discover North African food and one can easily find an Algerian or a Moroccan restaurant in every area, arrondissement, of the city. We must have tried over 20 of these restaurants, but are always ready to try new ones.

Like l’Atlantide (Algerian restaurant l’Atlantide in Paris), l’Homme Bleu is also on Le Figaro‘s Best Couscous of 2010 list. I love tajines with lamb, fruits and nuts, and my husband loves couscous with a mixed meat plate, so going through the menu never takes too long for us. We chose a Seksu Homme Bleu Couscous (kebab, merguez sausage, lamb, chop, meatball) and based on our waiter’s suggestion, I ordered Tajine s’laxrif (sweet and sour lamb with dates, figs, raisins, almonds, orange blossom, cinnamon). We also ordered red wine, Coteaux de Tlemcen, from the western part of Algeria. While waiting for our dishes to arrive, we looked around. There was a group of very fashionable Japanese tourists. Next to them, there was a group of local men discussing Zidane and drinking mint tea. I noticed that decoration is a little bit similar to L’Atlantide: rugs, warm orange-yellow colors, images of Sahara and Tuaregs on the wall. We had a chat with our waiter who confirmed that the restaurant owner is originally from Tizi Ouzou, which is a town in Kabylie in Algeria (like the owners of l’Atlantide).My tajine was delicious and very copious. The main difference to other lamb tajines that I have had was that the lamb was already cut into pieces. Why not! The dish was full of fruits and almonds, and apart from the fact I could have maybe asked for some more chick peas, everything was perfect.

My husband’s couscous came with a huge portion of vegetable stew (the way he likes) and a variety of grilled meat. His comments were “copious, tasty, enough stew, good-quality meat”, although he added that the merguez sausage was the least interesting meat on the plate.We were particularly impressed by the friendly service. “Berber hospitality”, we said to ourselves. We also noticed that the Algerian wine had a very special (positive) effect on us: we could have fallen asleep in less than a second. The waiter joked with us and suggested we sleep on the pillows of the dining room downstairs. Apparently a coffee-croissant breakfast would be served to us in the morning at no extra cost…

In my opinion, l’Homme Bleu and l’Atlantide have a lot in common: an excellent price/quality relationship, high-quality ingredients, the way of cooking, the variety of dishes, decoration, etc. A dinner of two people with a bottle of wine hardly costs more than 60€. However, since l’Homme Bleu is closer to us (and since they were so nice), we will probably return here the next time we feel like stepping into the intriguing North African world.

L’Homme Bleu: 55bis Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 Paris. Tel. 01-48070563. Metro: Parmentier. http://www.restaurant-lhommebleu.fr/

Le Figaro list: http://www.lefigaro.fr/sortir-paris/2010/11/22/03013-20101122ARTFIG00674-le-test-des-meilleurs-couscous.php?cmtpage=0

***

Previous posts about eating North African food in Paris are:

L’Alcôve: finest meat of Paris (also serves couscous and tajine, but house specialty is grilled meat)
Algerian restaurant l’Atlantide in Paris (excellent couscous and tajine)
Le Tipaza: refined Moroccan food (a good address near the Eiffel Tower)

The moment we decided to have North African food for dinner on Friday night the puzzle begun. Where to go? Even if we know plenty of North African restaurants in Paris, the beauty of eating out is also about discovering new things. My husband had read Le Figaro‘s review of Paris’s top ten couscous restaurants and we used it as our compass. Direction: L’Atlantide, Parc Buttes Chaumont, the 19th arrondissement! I discovered North African dishes when I moved to Paris in 1999 and deepened my knowledge while working in Algeria. My husband used to eat couscous in his childhood once a month. Together we did an amazing trip across the Algerian Sahara some years ago and every night by the fire we were served the most delicious lamb couscous, prepared by our Tuareg guides. So, as you can imagine, a lot of wonderful memories associated with couscous!

Upon our arrival at L’Atlantide I felt right away that the restaurant may be Algerian. The nomad-like style (in comparison to the more common Mauresque-like architecture) reminded me of one of the couscous restaurants in Algiers. The menu pointed toward Kabylie: it is not in many restaurants that one can find a typical Kabylie couscous dish called Ameqful where semolina is steam-cooked with seven different types of vegetables and mixed with olive oil in the end. And my intuition was right: the server confirmed that the restaurant is Kabylie, and specifically from Tizi Ouzou.My husband promised to taste Ameqful the next time and opted instead for Seksu, which is a more common couscous dish of vegetable stew served with lamb, grilled chicken and merguez sausages. I hesitated between a fresh vegetable tajine and a dried fruit tajine, and chose the latter. The accompanying grilled almonds, onion confit, dried raisins and prunes married well with the lamb, and the Moroccan red Guerrouane, Les Trois Domaines 2011, had a hint of the Mediterranean sun in it. Everything was very, very good, and on the top of everything, L’Atlantide is one of the least-expensive top couscous (and tajine) restaurants in the central Paris.

L’Atlantide: 7 Avenue de Laumière, 75019 Paris. Tel. 01-42450981. Metro: Laumière

Le Figaro review: http://www.lefigaro.fr/sortir-paris/2010/11/22/03013-20101122ARTFIG00674-le-test-des-meilleurs-couscous.php

The Michelin review: http://restaurant.michelin.fr/restaurant/france/75019-paris/l-atlantide/40xzl4u

***

Previous posts about eating North African food in Paris are:

L’Alcôve: finest meat of Paris (also serves couscous and tajine, but the house specialty is grilled meat –delicious!)
L’Homme Bleu: Berber hospitality in the center of Paris (reputable couscous and tajine restaurant but I was disappointed during my last visit)
Le Tipaza: refined Moroccan food (a good address near the Eiffel Tower)