Rest'o

Last night some of us decided to treat ourselves to a fancy restaurant because we needed a break from regular Tunisian food. We went to Rest'o, which serves international modern cuisine. It used to be owned by Alain Ducaisse, but now it is run by the Tunisian chefs who worked under him, thought you can still buy his cookbook at the restaurant. Our guidebook rated it one of the top five places to eat in Tunisia.
The restaurant located is in Villa Didon, an expensive hotel in Carthage with great views (except when we were there).


To start off we were given the normal Tunisian harissa and olive oil with tuna. Our plate also had a creamy carrot spread very similar to the one at "Its Only Natural" near Wesleyan.



Next I shared a Daurade ceviche and carmelized onions, both in a raspberry vinaigrette. It was pretty delicious and slightly briny which ended up working to balance the sweetness of the raspberries. Maybe ceviche is always briny, but I had never had it before. It came with some kind of whipped mayonnaise which was also really good, thought I couldn't really see how it worked with the fish. I just put the breadsticks in it.



Next came a smoked steaklet of duck with salad. The duck had a great smoky flavor, but the lettuce which I guess was the salad part of the dish could have used a light dressing, or at least some salt.
My entree was Mentholated steamed sea bass with nori and vegetables three ways. The fish below is not sea bass. I am not sure if this is a translation problem or if sea bass means something else outside of the U.S. It was cooked perfectly, though I think mentholated meant steaming it with a few mint leaves, which really did not add much flavor. The fish was stuffed with overcooked chunks of salmon. The restaurant was out of nori, but did not inform us of this until I asked where it was, and the vegetables three ways were good, but I am not sure if they really were three ways. While I wouldn't order it again it was good to have a break from fish that tastes fishy and that you have to debone yourself.


For dessert we had "The Darkest Of Dark" which was a chocolate cake filled with a warm pudding, chocolate tort and chocolate sorbet. The sorbet was probably the best part, but it was slightly too cold when it was served to us so we had to wait to eat it. (well we should have waited)


We also had a fruit torte with orange sorbet. The torte was tasty but nothing special, but the orange sorbet was very refreshing and a great way to end the meal.
Altogether it was a good meal, and I would definitely go back but might stick with appetizers and dessert. Also I learned that its not that easy to take pictures of food, especially with low lighting.