
A local's guide to Strasbourg, a "capital of Europe"
Rachel Schnalzer
January 30, 2025
It's 11:55 on a Saturday morning in Strasbourg, France, and we're running up against the clock. I’m at a circular table at Le Jasmin, and across from me is Klifa El Amari, co-owner of the beloved Tunisian restaurant on Rue Schimper. Beside me are two of my colleagues at Eurail. We’re finishing up our interview with Klifa about life in Strasbourg, Le Jasmin’s immense popularity, and the restaurant’s famous dish: couscous.
At the strike of noon, hungry customers pour into Le Jasmin, filling the room with French, English, German, Spanish and a handful of other languages.
“We’re in an area with several embassies, and we serve a lot of clients from around the world,” Klifa explained. “I spent five years of my life in Barcelona and two years in Bangkok. When I’m here at Le Jasmin, I get the chance to speak Japanese with customers, I speak Spanish, I speak Thai sometimes. It’s a pleasure to meet people of all these different nationalities.”
As my colleagues and I watch the lunch rush begin, it starts to become clear that Le Jasmin functions not only as a restaurant but also as a gathering point for the surrounding neighborhood.
“We want everyone to feel at home and at ease here. Around 80% of our clients are regular customers, and they get to know each other,” Klifa continued. “We even have one lady from the neighborhood who comes in every night.”
A few minutes after noon, a mother, father, and teenage daughter slide into the table next to us. Their two dogs, happy to be indoors and away from the cold, immediately settle on the wooden floor under their table. To no one's surprise, the family orders three helpings of fluffy couscous, along with a colorful array of vegetables and meat.
Le Jasmin is, in every sense, a family restaurant. “We opened the restaurant with my brother Badi and my mother almost 12 years ago," Klifa said. "We are trying to provide our customers with the best quality couscous, which is the main dish of Tunisia.”
The El Amari family’s culinary roots in Strasbourg reach back half a century. “My parents opened our family’s first restaurant in 1975," Klifa said. "Since then, we use the same recipes. We work the same way as my parents did, in their style.”
50 years ago, it wasn’t easy to find couscous in Alsace, a region of northeastern France. And in Strasbourg, the region's capital, it was impossible, Klifa said. “My father was the first one to bring couscous to our city."
On Le Jasmin’s menu, I counted at least 10 different couscous dishes, among them couscous merguez, couscous poulet and couscous végétarien. But Le Jasmin’s menu extends further.
“We serve not only couscous but also some starters to help our clients discover our palette of food,” Klifa explained. As for the main dishes, customers can choose to have their couscous with four different types of meat, including Le Jasmin’s speciality: a beef meatball with mint, made with El Amari family’s special recipe.
To visit Le Jasmin, it’s best to make a reservation. As Klifa explained, the restaurant serves a maximum of 70 plates of couscous per weekday and 100 plates of couscous on Saturdays and Sundays. “We are very strict with our bookings – so we can make very high-quality food with not so much waste,” Klifa said. “If you want to have good quality food, as served by our mother, you are more than welcome.”
On a Eurail trip across France, Germany, and the Netherlands, my colleagues and I met up with Klifa to learn more about his family’s restaurant, life in Strasbourg and how travelers can make the most of a visit to his city.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Klifa (left) and his brother Badi grew up in Strasbourg, France. Today, they're proud to continue their parents' legacy of serving Tunisian cuisine to Strasbourg locals and visitors alike.

Couscous, a dish made with semolina, has been voted France's favorite food at various points over the years.


Le Jasmin is located on Rue Schimper, a quiet street near many of the embassies in Strasbourg.

Construction on Strasbourg's cathedral began in 1015 and ended more than four centuries later in 1439.

Strasbourg's Petite-France neighborhood is full of cobbled streets and half-timbered houses.
As a local of Strasbourg, describe your perfect day in the city.
It would be a sunny day, around May or June. I would just walk from Place Kléber to the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-Strasbourg. And after, just walk around the area surrounding Le Jasmin; not so far away you have the European Parliament. And between us and the Parliament, you have a beautiful park called l'Orangerie, with a lake. Many people will go and picnic there.
What advice would you give a friend who is visiting Strasbourg for the first time?
Just walk around. In Strasbourg, you will find one place more beautiful than the next. The heart of Strasbourg is the cathedral – you have to go inside and see it – and you have Petite-France. The area of Petite-France is very beautiful, with smaller shops and smaller restaurants. There, you'll see the river Ill and the bateaux mouches passing by.
Place de la République is very beautiful, with the Bibliothèque and, close by, the Tribunal Judiciaire. You also have the Théâtre national de Strasbourg, you have the Opéra national du Rhin – you have all these beautiful, huge buildings to discover in Strasbourg.
As someone in the restaurant business, what are three foods travelers should try on a trip to Strasbourg?
You have to try the choucroute – the real choucroute – the tarte flambée and, of course, the couscous. Over the years, it has been voted the favorite food of the French people.
What’s an aspect of Strasbourg that many travelers seem to miss on their visits here?
Not eating couscous (laughs). Well, it’s not an easy question. But here in Strasbourg, we are quite good at soccer and basketball. If you are lucky and visit during a match of the European League or something like that, you should go – it’s great to see the atmosphere of, for example, an RC Strasbourg soccer match. The supporters are really famous for the spirit and animation they bring to the stadium.
Where would you recommend travelers go to find community in Strasbourg?
A little bit outside Strasbourg, you have an area called Obernai, where you can try some really typical Alsatian food and really good wine, directly from the producers. You can talk to the producers and learn from them. It's only about 20 or 30 minutes away from Strasbourg by train.
Of course, it depends on the traveler, but if you are passionate about wine, you will easily find some people who share your interest on the Wine Route in Obernai and its surrounding area.

Obernai, just a short train ride away from Strasbourg, is located on Alsace's Wine Route.

The European Parliament meets twelve times annually in Strasbourg, contributing to the city's status as a "capital of Europe."

While working at Le Jasmin, "it’s a pleasure to meet people of all these different nationalities," said Klifa.
If you had to convince someone to visit Strasbourg, what would you say?
In Strasbourg, you have something for every kind of taste. In terms of music, for example, you can go to a techno bar, or a hip hop lounge, or a jazz club, or a piano bar.
And you should also come for the food; it’s famous around France, and there isn’t another region that represents French food and wine as well as Alsace and Lorraine.
What is one of your favorite memories in Strasbourg?
It’s hard to pick one. But every year, on the 21st of June, there’s a nationwide music festival. All around France, anyone can go out and play music or sing.
People gather, and it’s very nice – it’s similar to the atmosphere of the Christmas market in the downtown Strasbourg in December.
If you had to describe Strasbourg in one word, what word would it be?
I'm going to say “Europe.” We are proud to be a “capital of Europe.”

Meet the Interrailer
Rachel Schnalzer is a senior writer at Eurail, based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. This winter, she traveled to Strasbourg as part of an Eurail trip to France, Germany, and the Netherlands to discover the ultimate European Christmas market itinerary.
Favorite place to buy a souvenir in Strasbourg
I found a little shop called L'In Ô Sens, which sells products made locally in Alsace. Since I visited during the Christmas season, I decided to buy two Christmas tree ornaments made by an artist in Colmar.
Change of currency
You cannot change the currency once you have a Pass in your cart. Remove the Pass, and then change the currency on the website header.