Evaluation of tissue fiber architecture is important for optimally engineering tissues. We present a non-destructive reflection mode optical fiber system that is sensitive to the orientation of tissue fibers within the same plane as the surface of the tissue. Our system uses a single 1000 micron diameter optical fiber that is bifurcated to separate emitted from collected light. The face of the 1000 micron fiber is polished at a 65 degree angle to the central axis of the optical fiber for two reasons: to eliminate effects of specular reflections from the tissue/fiber-face interface and to give directionality to the light emitted into the tissue. We present results using this fiber system to measure 15 micron thick cross-sections of in vitro porcine heart muscle and full thickness ( ∼ 2 mm) digested aortic elastin rotated 360 degrees in 15 degree increments. These results are correlated to concurrent transmission measurements of small angle light scattering (SALS) recorded using a CCD camera to conclusively determine the orientation of the fibrous architecture of each tissue type. We show a 14% peak-to-peak change in reflection signal on the heart muscle tissue and a 6% peak-to-peak change on the digested elastin.