Libyan cooking draws on Amazigh (Berber), Arab, Ottoman, and Italian influences — the Italian colonial period left a genuine mark on the coast, and you will find pasta and espresso alongside couscous and mint tea.
The national staple is couscous, typically served with lamb, vegetables, and a spiced sauce. It appears at family gatherings and celebrations and is the dish most visitors eat most often. Bazin is an unleavened barley bread, dense and doughy, often served with a meat and vegetable stew poured over it — you tear pieces off to scoop up the sauce. It's distinctive to Libya and worth trying. Shakshuka — eggs poached in a spiced tomato, onion, and pepper sauce, often with lamb — is a common breakfast and a thoroughly good one.
Along the coast, seafood is excellent and cheap: grilled fish, fried calamari, and shrimp are staples in Tripoli's restaurants. Lamb and mutton dominate inland cooking. Pork is not available; Libya is a dry country with no alcohol sold legally.
Asida — a sweet porridge of cooked wheat flour topped with butter and honey or date syrup — is the traditional dessert. Dates, figs, and olives are grown throughout the country and sold fresh in markets.
Street food is simple: grilled meats, flatbread sandwiches, and ful medames (stewed fava beans with olive oil, lemon, and cumin) are reliable and filling. Tea culture is strong — the Libyan version is sweet, very strong, and served in small glasses, sometimes with mint or peanuts. Refusing tea is slightly rude; accepting it is a small but genuine social gesture.
Restaurants in Tripoli are reasonable in quality if limited in variety. Outside the capital, options shrink fast. Sebha has enough places to eat for a week's stay without repeating yourself, according to travelers who made it there before 2011. In smaller towns, guesthouses often provide the only meals available.