Dar El Jeld - Franceville

I have been to Dar El Jeld several times because the rooftop view is lovely, but I will never be going back. This summer their service has been awful. When we entered the hotel 2 days ago, we were told there was no room on the rooftop. We went up to see the view, and the whole rooftop was empty with only 2 tables occupied. The waiters let us sit down but then scowled and ignored us. They did not bring a menu. I ordered three cocktails for us without a menu and it took 40 minutes for the cocktails to arrive. The waiters continued ignoring us so we did not eat. We asked for the bill 3 times and it did not come. When we walked inside to pay, we were told the till was broken. A very disappointing experience.

For the restaurant- We are a family travelling in from London. Food was decent but the service made that hardly worthwhile. On entering we were seated away to a side. We don't speak the language, so understand there is a barrier but the waiters were dismissive and rude. No effort made for even so much as a smile. During the rushed meal, we witnessed waiters rush back and have an argument near where we are seated- away from their clearly more important customers seated in the middle and in front of us. They had their backs turned to us the whole time whilst serving other guests in a completely different manner, didn't bother to give us a drinks menu and even took a plate away from me whilst I was in the middle of eating! Imagine- bread in hand, still chewing and having your plate moved away?! And then placed our meals there. It felt as though the experience and respect received was dependant on your background. We thought it best to ask for the bill, and even here where we were visibly diaspointed and asked if there was something wrong with us as to why we where receiving such poor treatment the response was a shrug rather than genuinely looking to see what had gone wrong or concerned at the poor experience. I just find for a restaurant that has a whole street named after them and such glowing recommendations from locals, it is a shame that they presented the Tunisian hospitality is such a poor way to first time visitors and left such a negative impression on us.

I ate at the roof top restaurant. It is not easy to get there if you are with family and kids. The Atmosphere is good if you are European and looking for something different. The food was not tasty even though we tried 4 different dishes. The food compared to quality and quantity is very very expensive. 90 TD for a normal plate of Cuscos!!!, You can get very delicious Cuscos in a 5 star restaurant with only 30 TD, and 15-20 TD in public places with better taste. It is not recommended.

Ate at the rooftop restaurant and with full confidence, I honestly believe this was the worst food experience I’ve had in Tunisia. The staff are nice but extremely pretentious and barely want to communicate with you if you’re not European. They don’t speak Tunisian even when you speak to them in their own language. Our waiter never came to check up on us once, but went to the tables around us multiple times to refill people’s wine glasses. Their “Tunisian” food was quite literally terrible. The couscous was so sweet it tasted like dessert, they should be embarrassed to serve this. Our appetizers also seemed to have recycled bread from another table that didn’t finish their food. Cheap quality appetizers and ingredients. Shameful to see a restaurant in Tunis treat it’s own people with less respect than the tourists.

Such a bizarre experience. Or how to get rid of paying customers.