THE
WEATHER
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Algerian-american Community Bussinesses

This section of our website will showcase local Algerian-American bussinesses and will regularly publish reviews of their establishments.
You may contribute reviews by sending an email to webmaster@aaagw.org

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A Visit to Couscous Café (September 2008)
by Yassine Belkhodja

Couscous Café is a family-owned Algerian restaurant in downtown Washington DC. It prides itself in serving fresh home-made cooking from Algeria and the Middle East. After a long experience in the food business, brother and sister, Aziz and Ghania, launched their own place in 2005. They are helped by their mother as well as Ghania’s son, Badrou, when school is out.

Couscous Cafe is located in the middle of Washington’s busiest business district. This 30-seat restaurant with an outside seating area is a solid lunch alternative to the more common “Corner Bakery” and “Potbelly’s” establishments in the area. The staff is very friendly, and often delivers your meal to your table themselves. This friendliness and dedication to customer service is in stark contrast with some of their surrounding competitors.

Upon entering the restaurant, you immediately notice the calm and cozy ambiance of the place. The walls are painted in a very soothing yellow with touches of green and orange. The décor is subdued with North African artwork hanging on the walls. There is Algerian or Middle Eastern music playing softly. All these make Couscous Café a welcome break for its patrons. Free wireless internet also attracts laptop users who seem to enjoy sipping their delicious mint tea while working.

Couscous Café serves both breakfast and lunch and is open from 8:00am to 5:00pm. While the breakfast menu includes your typical morning staples, it is worth mentioning the French crepes with marmalade as well as large variety of traditional North African sweets.

The lunch menu includes an extensive choice of salads, platters, sandwiches and entrees. The restaurant’s namesake dish, “couscous”, is offered in multiple versions. Couscous is a semolina-based dish served with stewed vegetables and/or meats. Couscous a la Royal consists of chicken, merguez, lamb, chickpeas, squash, carrots, potatoes, and turnips on a bed of couscous with a tomato sauce. The couscous entrée can also be served as vegetarian or accompanied with salmon, lamb, or chicken. B’stilla is another popular choice. It is a pie made of roasted chicken, almonds, spices, and peanuts wrapped in phyllo dough, baked and sprinkled with ice sugar. I would personally recommend the Merguez sandwich. Merguez is a spicy Algerian lamb sausage. It is served with lettuce and tomato on French baguette with a touch of Harissa (hot sauce).

Couscous Café also has a refrigerated case filled with appetizing vegetarian side dishes like hummus, Baba Ghanouj, ratatouille, lentil salad, beet salad, and carrot with garlic and spice. The restaurant only uses fresh ingredients and the food is cooked with care by Ghania or her mother, and served with a smile usually by Aziz or Badrou.

Couscous Café often delivers large orders to surrounding offices. During my visit, Badrou went to deliver an order of couscous, grape leaves, hummus, baba ghanouj and a dessert of baklava to a neighboring office.

Additionally, Couscous Café offers catering for, corporate or private parties and special events, weddings on evenings and week-ends. Their website ( www.couscouscatering.com) offers a sample of their menus, along with photographs and testimonials from past customers and events.

If you would like to prepare your own couscous dish at home, Couscous Café provides a small retail area for rare-to-find imported Algerian couscous, harissa, coffee, tea and other delicacies. The staff will even share some of their tricks to get your couscous just perfect!