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Citadel View
Eating at this gorgeous restaurant - on a vast multilevel terrace, with Cairo's elite seated around you and the whole city sprawled below - feels almost like visiting a luxury resort. Fortunately, though, the prices are not so stratospheric, and the food, all traditional Egyptian grill items, is quite good. Reservations are recommended, particularly on the weekend. If you're not up for a full meal, you can have a coffee (around £E12 ) at the Alain Le Notre Café upstairs.
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Coffee Roastery
Its fast-food menu, blaring music videos and young staff make this an extremely popular meeting place for groups of young locals. The coffee, served in 30 different ways, is surprisingly good. Don't bother with the food.
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Crave
This little black-and-white eatery looks extremely chic, but it has a welcoming (rather than snooty) staff and a reasonably priced menu of pizzas, pasta and the like. Score one of the comfy corner couch setups, and you could find yourself lounging here for quite some time. Many expats think its 'Zombie Burger' (around £E25 ) is the best in town, and the megasize, superrich chocolate fondant dessert will satisfy serious cravings (order it with your main meal, to allow for baking time).
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Da Mario
The Hilton's Italian restaurant is a great spot to recover after a full-on morning trawling the Egyptian Museum. Settle in for delicious pizzas, salads and home-made pastas served on the terrace or indoors. Alcohol is served.
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Dar El Amar
The challenge at this popular Lebanese floating restaurant is to draw your eyes away from the Nile views long enough to make a choice from the 53 mezze on offer. Unlike many other eateries on the river, prices are reasonable and you don't have to be wearing designer glad rags to score a table. A Stella costs.
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Didos Al Dente
A pasta joint popular with students from the nearby AUC, Didos comes pretty close to living up to its claim of making the best pasta in town. It's tiny, so be prepared to wait on the street for a table. There is another branch in Ma'adi, off Sharia el-Nasr and neither branch serves alcohol.
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Egyptian Pancake House
This popular place serves up made-to-order fiteer topped with your choice of cheese, egg, tomato, olives and ground meat. For dessert, choose your toppings from raisins, coconut and icing sugar.
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El Sakya
Dotted with big white umbrellas and jutting over the water, the terrace restaurant at the Grand Hyatt is a great place to take in a view of the Nile - and perhaps some local movie stars, as this is a popular place to schmooze. The menu draws from all the hotel's restaurants, so you can take your pick of Indian, Italian, American and more.
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El Shabrawy
This extremely cheap and popular fuul and ta'amiyya place is one of the best cheap restaurants in the city. It serves up unusual dishes such as egg-fried cauliflower and agah (a cross between a puffed-up omelette and a giant ta'amiyya ), and is almost totally vegetarian. It's signed in Arabic only - look for the red awning. The ta'amiyya stand on the opposite side of the street is also very popular.
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El-Abd Bakery
Cairo's most famous patisserie is always bursting at the seams with crowds of locals ordering its honey-drenched Oriental sweets and pastries, luridly coloured ice cream and wicked-looking European-style cakes. You'll need to fight to get to the counter and make your choice, after which you should pay the cashier and return to the counter to collect your parcel of pastries. There's another branch at Sharia 16th of July and Sharia Sherif.
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El-Mashrabia
Excellent Egyptian food is served at this intimate eatery. Meat lovers will be in seventh heaven (the kofta and tagine s are particularly good), but vegetarians should steer clear. It's opposite the Orman Gardens. No alcohol is served.
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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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Estoril
Tucked down an alley next to the Amex office, this eatery has been serving up traditional Egyptian and French dishes since 1959. It claims to offer its diners an intro into 'the esoteric Cairene's world of art, literature, journalism and the rest' and though we're not sure it delivers on this, it's a great place to linger over a beer and a few mezze dishes.
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Euro Deli
Bright, busy and slick café with free wi-fi and good wraps, pastas and fries. For breakfast, there's chewy Montreal-style bagels - try the local variation, topped with labneh (thick yogurt) and cucumber.
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Fatatri at-Tahrir
Fatatri at-Tahrir ( M082F; 166 Sharia Tahrir; dishes Earound £E8 -16; ; - ). This small restaurant serves sweet or savoury fiteer s.
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Felfela
If you want a cheap but good-quality eatery within walking distance of the Pyramids, try the Giza branch of Felfela or the popular Peace II Seafood Restaurant. Both are beloved by tour groups but also patronised by locals. You'll find them on the main road off the roundabout in front of the Mena House Oberoi hotel (Cairo side).
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Felfela Restaurant
Perpetually packed with tourists, coach parties and locals, Felfela deserves its popularity. A bizarre jungle theme rules when it comes to the décor, but the food is straight-down-the-line Egyptian and consistently good, especially the mezze and grilled chicken. Cold Stella also available.
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Fish Market
After selecting some of the finest and freshest seafood in town from the large display counter here, most guests tuck into delicious mezze while their fish is simply but expertly cooked. With its wonderful Nile views (particularly at night), laid-back feel and efficient service, this place is a real gem.
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Fishawi's Coffeehouse
Probably the oldest ahwa in the city, and certainly the most celebrated, Fishawi's is a great place to watch the world go by. Despite being swamped by foreign tourists and equally wide-eyed out-of-town Egyptians, it is a regular ahwa, serving up shai (around £E3 ) and sheesha (around £E5 ) to stallholders and shoppers alike. It's especially alluring in the early hours of the morning. During Ramadan it closes from till about .
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Five Bells
This old-fashioned place has one of the few outdoor courtyards in Zamalek and is a pleasant spot for a summer dinner. Food is uninspired but quite edible international fare, with pastas, grills and fondue featuring on the menu. It's a bit pricey, but the cute cherub fountain compensates.
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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 very good value. You can sit upstairs or take away from the streetfront counters. There are branches throughout the city, including opposite the Khan al-Khalili.
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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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Greek Club
With its great neo-classical interior, soaring ceilings and outdoor terrace, this Cairene institution oozes faded charm. There's no menu, but the waiter will reel off the dishes of the day, which are likely to include well-cooked Levantine choices such as shish tawouq (marinated chicken on skewers), excellent Greek salad and cold Stella. You'll find it above the Groppi Patisserie (the entrance is on the side street).
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Groppi Garden
Same uninteresting pastries as the other Groppi, but the garden terrace here (with just an around £E10 minimum) is a relatively peaceful place for a cup of tea or sheesha .
