Egyptian restaurants in Africa
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Abou El Sid
Cairo’s first hipster Egyptian restaurant, Abou El Sid is as popular with tourists as it is with upper-class natives looking for a taste of their roots – Omar Sharif has been known to savour the chicken with molokhiyya (stewed leaf soup), but you can also enjoy a sugar-cane-and-tequila cocktail at the big bar, or a postprandial sheesha. It’s all served amid hanging lamps, kitschy gilt ‘Louis Farouk’ furniture and fat pillows. The entrance is on the west side of the Baehler’s Mansions complex; look for the tall wooden doors. There’s another branch in Mohandiseen, on Midan Amman ( [tel] 3749 7326). Reservations are a must.
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Sofra
Sofra remains our favourite restaurant in Luxor. Located in a 1930s house, away from all the tourist tat, it is as Egyptian as can be, in menu and decor, and even in price. The ground floor has three private dining rooms and a salon, giving the feeling of being in someone’s home. There is also a wonderful rooftop terrace, which is also a cafe, where you can come for a drink. The house is filled with antique oriental furniture, chandeliers and traditional decorations, all simple but cosy and very tasteful. The menu is large, featuring all the traditional Egyptian dishes, such as stuffed pigeon and excellent duck, as well as a large selection of salads, dips (E£4) and…
reviewed
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Samakmak
Owned by Zizi Salem, the retired queen of the Alexandrian belly-dancing scene, Samakmak is definitely one step up from the other fish eateries in the neighbourhood. The fish is as fresh as elsewhere, but customers flock to this place for its specials, including crayfish, marvellous crab tagen (stew cooked in a deep clay pot) and a great spaghetti with clams.
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Jamboree Restaurant
A small British-run restaurant, Jamboree serves international fare in its small, rather undistinct dining room or much better, upstairs on a pleasant roof terrace. Lunchtime dishes are limited to good homemade sandwiches and snacks. The menu includes filled jacket potatoes, pastas and the traditional, perhaps not so authentic, Egyptian dishes.
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Funny Mummy
One of the most popular restaurants on the boardwalk, this palm-fringed and pillow-decked spot offers all of your favourite Western and Asian dishes alongside traditional Egyptian delicacies.
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Al-Masry Restaurant
Popular with meat-eating local families, Al-Masry is famous for its excellent fresh kebabs and kofta, as well as pigeon and chicken, all served with bread, salad and tahini.
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Grand Restaurant & Café
A favourite with tour groups, the Grand has a pleasant terrace for mezze and sheesha. It's located just off Sharia Khalid ibn al-Walid.
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Restaurant Mohammed
With an outdoor terrace and laid-back atmosphere, Mohammed’s is the perfect place to recharge batteries in the middle of a day exploring temples and tombs, or to linger in the evening. This is a family affair, the restaurant being attached to the owner’s mudbrick house; the charming Mohammed Abdel Lahi serves with his son Azab, while his wife cooks. The menu is small but includes meat grills, delicious chicken and duck as well as stuffed pigeon, served with fries and excellent simple salads. Stella beer is available (E£10) and Egyptian wine. They can organise a picnic in the desert or on a felucca upon demand. Call ahead.
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Mohammed Ahmed
Under no circumstances should you miss this classic, the undisputed king and still champion of fuul and ta’amiyya, filled day and night with locals downing small plates of spectacularly good and cheap Egyptian standards. From the English menu, select your type of fuul ( iskandarani is good), add some ta’amiyya, and choose a few accompanying salads, such as tahini, banga (beetroot) or pickles – then, sit back and wait for the magic to happen.
reviewed
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El-Mashrabiah
Excellent Egyptian food is served with formality at this intimate eatery. Located a few steps below street level, the dining room is further darkened by ornate carved panelling, deep leather banquettes and waiters dressed in sombre suits. Meat lovers will find themselves in seventh heaven: the kofta and tagen s (stew cooked in a deep clay pot) are good, as is the rabbit with molokhiyya and the duck with starchy taro root. But vegetarians don’t get much to work with. No alcohol is served.
reviewed
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Tutankhamun Restaurant
This top-floor restaurant was the first one here on the riverside just south of the local ferry dock and it’s still going strong. Hagg Mahmoud was a former cook at one of the French archaeological missions, and he and his sons are still cooking excellent tagen s , duck à l’orange, chicken with rosemary and other good dishes. The food is served on the great rooftop terrace with views of the Nile. Very good vegetarian dishes.
reviewed
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El Shabrawy
Locals love this place for its makaroneh – big bowls of noodles with a rich meat sauce – but the place also serves dishes such as egg-fried cauliflower and aggah (a cross between an omelette and a giant ta’amiyya ), most of which are vegetarian. It’s signed in Arabic only – look for the red awning. The Shabrawy ta’amiyya stand on the opposite side of the street is also popular.
reviewed
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Kebabgy
The bestselling novel The Yacoubian Building (by Alaa al-Aswany) has a scene set at this Nileside restaurant when loathsome businessman Hagg Azzam and corrupt politician Kamal el-Fouli strike a dodgy deal - a scene close to reality, for the outdoor terrace here is one of the most popular places for Cairo's political and business elite to meet. The kebabs are particularly good. Go for dinner, when you don't have to see how dirty the Nile is.
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Justine's
Resembling a discreet gentleman's club, with panoramic views over the lush gardens of the Gezira Club, Justine's is the perfect place for a romantic dinner or important business meeting. Comfortable leather furniture, subdued lighting and pristine napery set a classy tone that the food more than lives up to. This is one of the best places in town to enjoy beef dishes or quality seafood concoctions. There's an impressive and well priced wine list.
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Nubian House
This laid-back Nubian café and restaurant is the place to be at sunset, with spectacular views over the First Cataract. Sit on traditional wooden benches on the huge shady terrace for a mint tea and sheesha (water pipe). To get here, follow the road past the Nubia Museum for about 1km (15 minutes' walk). Take a right just past a development of upmarket housing (many still under construction), or take a taxi after dark.
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Malek es-Seman
By day this is a small courtyard clothes market, by night it’s an open-air restaurant doing one thing and doing it very, very well: quail. Birds are served grilled or stuffed; both ways are delicious, but we especially like the slightly charred and crispy flavour of the grilled. Orders come with bread and six different salads. It’s a bit hard to find, but look for a painted sign with a small bird. Serves beer.
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Abu Tarek
Abu Tarek ‘We have no other branches!’ proclaims this veritable temple of kushari – no, the place has just expanded, decade by decade, into the upper storeys of its building, even as it has held onto the unofficial Best Kushari title. The line moves fast; it’s worth eating in to get the proper dose of garlicky vinegar, which isn’t packed with takeout orders.
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Dunes Restaurant
With tables set under the palm trees and a large menu covering everything from herbal tea to couscous, Dunes is just another place to hang out and relax. The usual traveller stalwarts (from pancakes to smoothies) can be found here, as well as local specialities such as stuffed pigeon (by special order). Sheesha s are de rigueur and the owner can arrange special evenings with traditional Siwan music.
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Gad
This fast-food eatery is usually packed to the rafters with a constant stream of young Cairenes sampling its fresh and well-priced food. The fiteer with Greek cheese is scrumptious and the quarter chicken with rice and salad is both tasty and good value. You can sit upstairs or take away from the front counters. It has branches throughout the city, including opposite Khan al-Khalili.
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Alfy Bey
In business since 1938, Alfi Bey describes itself as a 'traditional restaurant' and offers a rare Downtown dining experience: old-fashioned décor, age-old waiters and basic, somewhat stodgy food. The plat du jour usually includes dolma, mixed vegetables, rice and some type of roast or grilled meat. Other dishes include kebabs, grilled chicken and stuffed pigeon. No alcohol is served.
reviewed
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Nour al-Waha
A popular hang-out in a palm grove,Nour al-Waha has shady tables, and plenty of tea and games on hand for those who just want to while away the day in the shade. The food is a mixture of Egyptian and Western and, while it couldn’t be called gourmet, it is generally fresh and good. At night sheesha s are available for E£5, and sometimes there is live music.
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Akher Sa’a
A frantically busy fuul and ta’amiyya takeaway joint with a no-frills cafeteria next door, Akher Sa’a has a limited menu but its food is fresh and good. A branch at 14 Sharia Abdel Khalek Sarwat has a fast-food-style set-up downstairs (note the genius giant- ta’amiyya ‘burger’) but glacial table service upstairs.
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Gomhouriya
Stuffed pigeon is the only thing on the menu, but it's splendid, served with salad and all-you-can-drink mugs of peppery, lemony broth. No alcohol, and easy to miss because it's small and there's no English sign; look for the big open oven. Out back are a few tables, along with sinks for washing off the grease when you're done nibbling the tasty fowl.
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Emara Hati al-Gish, Downtown
Carnivores will salivate instantly upon entering this grill palace, where the air is heavy with the smell of charcoal-cooked meat, from a quarter-kilo (around £E18) - up to a full stuffed, roasted sheep on request. The kastileeta (lamb chops) are particularly splendid, and the mouza (shins) good for gnawing. No alcohol.
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At-Tabei Ad-Dumyati
About 200m north of Midan Orabi, this place offers some of the cheapest local meals in Cairo. Start by picking four salads from a large array, then order shwarma or ta’amiyya, along with some lentil soup or fuul. There are also branches in the food court of the Talaat Harb Complex and in Mohandiseen.
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