Restaurants in Egypt
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Salahadeen
Salahadeen offers a set menu of Egyptian dishes, served as if it were an Egyptian home – knives and forks are offered but guests are encouraged to eat in the Egyptian way by dipping bread in the various dishes. There are two choices, the ‘platter’ (E£85), which includes three courses with14 dishes of fresh home-cooked food to share, or the ‘Feast’ (E£125) with five courses including 25 different dishes. Most dishes consist of vegetables, and the vegetarian options are not cooked in a meat broth as in so many other places. The bar opens for pre-dinner drinks at 6pm, and alcohol is available in the restaurant, too.
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Abou Shakra
Abou Shakra is where to come for a skewer or two. It's been serving up its kebab-and-kofta plates and shwarma sandwiches at this main branch since 1947 and locals love it to bits. There's a takeaway at the front and a dining room behind it. Believe it or not, on Fridays an Imam reading from the Quran is posted next to the toilets. No alcohol is served.
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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. With jazz softly playing, smoking and nonsmoking rooms, the New Yorker to read and friendly staff, this is the perfect place for lunch, to linger over a good morning latte or to spend the afternoon reading. The place is very Western, but in a nice way like your favourite cafe back home. The food is good too, with an extensive brunch…
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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…
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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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Chef Khalil
Popular fish restaurant, just along from the train station, serving very fresh fish from Lake Nasser and the Red Sea, charged by weight, grilled, baked or fried to your choice and served with salad and rice or French fries. It’s a small place, but worth the wait if it’s full.
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Panorama
With its pleasant Nileside terrace, this is a great place to chill and sip a herbal tea or fresh juice. It also serves simple Egyptian stews cooked in clay pots, with salad, mezze and rice or chips, or an all-day breakfast.
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Greek Club
About the only thing that's still Greek about this private club is the bazouki music playing on its outdoor terrace, where cats clamber on a shady pergola. But it's a nice place to have a beer and a light meal; the menu is standard Egyptian, with a few Greek items, such as tzatziki, thrown in. If you can convince the door staff of your Hellenic heritage, you can skip the E£5 cover charge.
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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.
reviewed
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Salah Ad-Din
This is the best of the Nileside restaurants, with several terraces and a freezing air-conditioned dining room. The menu has Egyptian, Nubian and international dishes, a notch better than most restaurants in Aswan. The service is efficient and the beers are cool (E£12). There is also a terrace to smoke a sheesha.
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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 E£24.
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Snobs
Popular and well-managed Western-style restaurant that has gained an excellent reputation for its great salads, pastas, pizzas and steaks, cooked by a young and talented chef. There is no alcohol but you are welcome to bring your own discreetly.
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Maison Thomas
A little slice of Europe, with loads of brass and mirrors, and waiters in long white aprons serving crusty baguette sandwiches. But this institution is best known for its pizza, with generous toppings. There’s a branch in Heliopolis.
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El-Abd Bakery
For pastries head for Cairo’s most famous bakery, easily identified by the crowds of people outside tearing into their sweets and savoury pies. There’s another branch on the corner of Sharia 26th of July and Sharia Sherif.
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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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Nirvana Indian Restaurant
Dahab's best Indian food will please vegetarians and carnivores alike, especially if you're a fan of spicy curries, fluffy rice pilaffs and flaky naan.
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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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King Chicken
Half a chicken with rice and all the trimmings can be yours at this local favourite, which lures in penny-pinching backpackers in the know.
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Andrea
Take a trip to the country at this restaurant 1.5km north of Pyramids Rd on the west side of Maryutia Canal. At the entrance women pat out bread dough and tend the spit-roasted chicken the place is justly famous for. There’s little else on the menu aside from this and salads, but everything is slow-roasted, which gives you ample time to enjoy a few Stellas. Weather permitting, seating is in a large garden with playground equipment and a swimming pool that is great for the kiddies. But with greenery come mosquitoes, so lay on the repellent beforehand. A taxi from central Cairo should cost about E£25, or E£10 from the Pyramids/Mena House area. Make sure your driver doesn’t…
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Cilantro
This popular, sparkling-clean cafe – part of a locally owned chain – does excellent Italian-style coffee and coffee drinks alongside exotic teas and fruit blends. Downstairs, order to go and grab a packaged sandwich, cake or salad from the open fridge; for table service head upstairs (smoky but with a couple of outside balcony seats). While some readers justifiably complain about the high prices and fairly indifferent service, Cilantro is beloved by locals as a bastion of peace and calm. There are other branches just about everywhere you turn: Zamalek, Heliopolis and Doqqi, to name a few. All offer free wi-fi, strong air-con and a stash of magazines and newspapers.
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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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Jewel of the Nile
Laura and Mahmud offer traditional Egyptian food using organic vegetables from their own farm, as well as well-prepared British food for homesick Brits including steaks, cottage pie, apple crumble and an all-day English breakfast (E£25). On Sundays a traditional lunch is served all day with roast beef and Yorkshire pudding (E£50), and on Saturdays and Wednesdays at 5.30pm there is a popular quiz night in aid of local charities. The menu features a good selection of vegetarian dishes. You can dine in the small outside sitting area or the air-conditioned interior dining room. Alcohol available.
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A Taste of India
A small British-run Indian restaurant in neutral colours with plain wooden tables and chairs. On the menu are European versions of Indian dishes such as korma, masala sag (spinach) and jalfrezi (marinated meat curry with tomato, pepper and onion) dishes, as well as original Indian specials such as madras and vindaloo curries. For those not too fond of spice, a few international, read British, dishes such as steak and chips are available. The place is popular with expat Brits and vegetarians who come for spicy vegetable dishes.
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