Eat Cairo

A Downtown institution for koshary: rice, lentils, pasta, crispy onions and spiced tomato sauce, served fast over several floors.

A Downtown favourite since the 1950s for ta’ameya, ful and grills in a quirky, plant-filled room.

A busy Downtown sandwich counter famous for meat shawerma and Alexandrian-style liver.

Flaky feteer pastries, sweet or savoury, made to order near Al-Hussein Square.

Classic Egyptian dishes — molokhia, stuffed pigeon, mahshi — in a dim, lantern-lit room in Zamalek.

A loud, beloved Shubra grill house for kofta, kebab, molokhia and liver. Go hungry and order to share.

A tiny Downtown room serving home-style Egyptian cooking from a short daily menu. Arrive early; dishes sell out.

A simple alley restaurant near Al-Hussein, famous for grilled and stuffed pigeon.

Open-air dining in a garden near the pyramids: grilled chicken, baladi bread from the oven and Egyptian breakfasts.

Bright, casual Egyptian home cooking in Zamalek; good for koshary, salads and a quick lunch.

The mirrored café in a Khan el-Khalili alley, open late for mint tea, karkade and people-watching.

A calm, carved-wood restaurant and café in the souq, named after the Nobel laureate; Egyptian dishes and Turkish coffee.

A historic Downtown café from 1908, once a meeting point for writers and revolutionaries.

Cairo’s favourite old bakery for basbousa, konafa and petits fours; the Talaat Harb branch is always busy.

Chef Mostafa Seif’s modern Egyptian cooking with the Great Pyramid in view; No. 1 on MENA’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026. Book well ahead.

Playful Egyptian street food — koshary, hawawshi, ta’ameya — on MENA’s 50 Best 2026. There is also a branch at the Grand Egyptian Museum.