Sfax Restaurants

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I suppose I didn't choose the best time to visit La Perla, and with good reason. I was ctching the 01.15 night train to Tunis, so a restaurant that stayed open until the small hours seemed a good option: checking earlier in the day I was told until three.
La Perla has an upstairs room with live music, and when I arrived at elevenish this is where the action was migrating: the downstairs restaurant was winding down. There were two underemployed toughs on the door but only one waiter, and he was mainly concerned with drinks.
The food was ok but nothing to get overexcited about, and the service what yoiu'd expect from one tired waiter on six tables. I ordered seafood salad and fried crevettes: I got octopus salad (well-cooked octopus but an unimaginative salad in a crude dressing) and as soon as I had discovered this and found out that this was because the seafood salad was finished rather than a mistake I was presented with a large plate of crevettes, chips & salad. Ample and well prepared but again nothing special, and much too soon. And I think this was almost the only place where I didn't get a few olives and some harissa to wake up the tastebuds: nor could they do me a coffee. The bill came in a little wallet. I overtipped - I had a plane in the morning and I'd have ordered the octopus if I'd been told the fruits de mer was off - and left Luckily there was a late night cafe opposite the train station!

This is a great restaurant. It's nothing on the outside, letters are falling off the sign, and the interior isn't smart in any way (apart from the above exuberance). This is because what matters here is the food; eating is a serious business and should be done properly. You don't taste the decor. On the other hand the service is perfect. You don't notice it, but if you want him the waiter is there. And everything arrives when you want it.
There's no menu as such. They do a number of starters, and otherwise there is simply a large tray of wet fish. Pick your fish and they'll grill it for you and serve it up with a green salad and chips. Freshly landed fish cooked to perfection, crisp chunky chips, a bit of green. Who could ask for anything more?
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