Belleville - Food
Although there is a thriving Chinese community in Belleville, with all the usual Chinese restaurants offering some classics such as the crispy duck, we recommend you try some of the North African restaurants if visiting Belleville. You can try the Chinese restaurants if you visit the main Chinese district in the 13th.
On a Sunday you will see a lot of locals sitting in and outside cafes enjoying some traditional North African dishes (with some modern western touches like fries!). The food is generally of good quality at a very reasonable price. Expect to pay no more than 20-25 euros per person, including drinks.
We highly recommend some of the kemia (aperitif) they have to offer for starters. Our favorites are salad Tunisienne and the delicious grilled tomato salad Mechouia. The Mechouia being particularly yummy! You eat this accompanied with bread. If you order a main, these are often included free of charge. You can also try the couscous of course, which is very popular in France.
Most of the locals were eating either a fish main accompanied by some smaller plates of salads etc or they were eating a combination of smaller plates, which is what we recommend. The Brochettes and Merguez sausages we tried in the above restaurant were not really very nice. The Fish however was delicious and the starters were extremely tasty.
For the most part, a lot of the locals ate a combination of the smaller dishes, so we highly recommend you do the same. Alternatively, why not try some of the local North African food on offer in one of the numerous bakeries. The one below, which happens to be our favorite, offers a particularly nice pan-grilled bread stuffed with tomatoes, garlic and peppers called Mtabga. They also offer a spicy version with green chili included..
Delicious!
Delicious!
Below you can see a map of the location of the bakery in the photo to the right. The address is 106 Rue du Faubourg du Temple.
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