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1886 Restaurant
The 1886 is once again the gourmet restaurant in town serving an inventive Mediterranean-French food, and a few Egyptian dishes with a twist, in a grand old-style dining room with very formal waiters. Guests are expected to dress up for the occasion, men wear a tie and/or jacket, and are eyed up by the waiters just a tad too much, but the food is superb and light.
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7 Days, 7 Ways
With roast beef and Yorkshire pudding (Sunday only), this restaurant is not surprisingly a British favourite.
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Abu Ashraf
This large, popular restaurant and takeaway is just down from the train station. It serves roasted chicken, pizzas, good kushari and kebabs.
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Africa Restaurant
On the right just up the hill from the ferry landing, the popular Africa Restaurant, with a large outdoor terrace, serves simple but good Egyptian food - grilled meat, poultry or fish, accompanied by rice, vegetables and salad. A Stella can usually be conjured up.
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Al-Gezira Hotel
This comfortable rooftop restaurant serves Egyptian specialities such as the infamous molokhiyya (stewed leaf soup) and mahshi kurumb (stuffed cabbage leaves), but food needs to be ordered in advance. There are great views over the Nile and the bright lights of Luxor beyond. Beer and wine are available.
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Al-Moudira
In keeping with its décor, Al-Moudira has the most sophisticated food, and the most expensive, on the West Bank, with great salads and grills at lunch time and a more elaborate menu for dinner with Mediterranean- Lebanese cuisine. Call ahead for reservations.
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Amoun Restaurant
Sandwich stands and other cheap-eat possibilities are found on Sharia al-Mahatta and Sharia Televizyon. Two favourites with travellers are Amoun Restaurant, at the end of the souq near Luxor Temple, and neighbouring Al-Hussein.
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Bombay Restaurant
Good Indian restaurant, always filled with Brits, outside the Sheraton Hotel. The lunchtime set menu for two is good value, offering a good choice of basic curry dishes, along with side dishes like dhal and samosas. Good selection for vegetarians.
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Dawar al-Umda
A top-end dining option: a Thousand and One Nights -style garden restaurant at the Mercure Inn. It hosts popular Oriental buffets on Thursday evenings, featuring performances by Sufi and belly-dancers.
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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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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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Kebabgy
Good solid Egyptian fare including kebab, kofta and tagen s (stews) and the usual selection of salads and dips, served on a delightful terrace right on the Nile, with simple wooden tables and a mist machine to cool down on a hot day.
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Kings Head Pub
The king here is Akhenaten in a Tudor hat, and the temperature inside is closer to the cool of an English summer day. This increasingly popular pub provides everything a homesick Brit could possibly need: a teakwood counter, darts, pool table, Sky sports, curries, chips, and on Sundays you can even get roast beef and Yorkshire pud. Beer is reasonably priced and there's an array of cocktails and spirits.
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Koshari Elzaeem
Popular kushari restaurant that also serves an Egyptian version of spaghetti. There are a few tables, but they fill up fast.
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La Mama
The Italian restaurant on the terrace overlooking a little pond with wading birds, at the entrance to the Sheraton, is a good bet, particularly if you've got kids in tow. This is an Italian restaurant in 1970s style with red-and-white napkins, live Neapolitan music and a good selection of pizzas, pastas, and mains, all served in clean five-star surroundings.
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Memnon
Excellent, laid-back restaurant with simple but very well prepared Egyptian fare, and if you want a change from that, there are some equally good more exotic Indian & Chinese dishes on the menu. Afterwards hang out and stare eternity in the face looking at the Colossi, while smoking a sheesha (water pipe). Leave some space for the home-made mango sorbet, it's worth it.
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Mish Mish
A long-standing budget-traveller haunt, Mish Mish is showing its age these days but still popular. Its prices have jumped too. It's a basic café/restaurant with reasonably priced pizza, salads and piping hot tagen s. There is also fresh fruit juice.
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Miyako Restaurant
Luxor's only Japanese restaurant serves rather mediocre Japanese food, but it is still a welcome change from kebabs and stews. You can either sit in the cool and peaceful tatami room or watch the chef's stunts, including the throwing of knives, while preparing the teppanyaki at your table.
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Nile Valley Hotel
A popular rooftop restaurant with a bird's-eye view of the action along the West Bank's waterfront, the Nile Valley has a wide ranging menu of Egyptian and international specialties, but is also a good place to relax with a cold drink and a sheesha . On Sunday nights a buffet is accompanied by Sufi dancing and local music.
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Oasis Café
Set in a renovated 1930s building right in the centre of town, the Oasis is a good place to recover from the bustle of Luxor town, from the heat or from sightseeing. The dining rooms are cool with fans, high ceilings and old tiled floors, painted in soft colours with local artwork on the walls, and furnished with traditional-style furniture.
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Oum Koulsoum Coffee Shop
Next to the Nefertiti Hotel, this is the most popular ahwa in town.
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Restaurant Mohammed
With a shady 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 is attached to the owner's mudbrick house; the charming Mohammed Abdel Lahi serves with his son, while his wife and mother cook together.
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Salt & Bread Cafeteria
Quick, cheap meals, including kebab, chicken and omelettes are served here, on a terrace and restaurant opposite the train station.
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Sayyida Zeinab
This tiny but spotless place is one of Luxor's best kushari joints. Takeaway only.
