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Dimly lit and decorated with brass lamps and Oriental paraphernalia, Abu as-Sid serves up Cairo’s most sophisticated Egyptian food. This is home cooking gourmet-style. Specialties include sharkassiyya (chicken breast with walnut sauce) and molokhiyya, a notorious green vegetable soup. At weekends it’s one of Cairo’s more atmospheric drinking spots, crammed with movers and shakers. Unfortunately, while Abu as-Sid offers Egyptian food at its best, it also showcases Egyptian service at its worst—sloppy and slow. It isn’t helped by a management that routinely tries to shift foreigners mid-meal, from the good table they were offered to get them to come in, in order to make space to entice more foreigners through the door. Make reservations, don’t let them move you and be firm with the waiting staff—the food will be worth it.
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Nestled amidst the lush greenery of Al Azhar Park, the lakeside café serves topquality Lebanese fast food in addition to a few Western favourites. The juxtaposition of tasty salads, mezze and grilled meats with cream-cheese steaks and burgers complicates the decision-making process. After lunch (or dinner) enjoy a pleasant stroll through the park, admiring the verdant foliage and the impressive view of the citadel.
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Yes, that is a giant coffee cup and pot sharing Cedars’ garden with you. Ignore this bizarre aberration and turn instead to the menu of excellent Lebanese food. Grilled meats are delicious here and the mezze are impeccably fresh. Try the tabouleh and fantastically creamy hummus. Cedars’ shady outdoor terrace is a good place to while away a summer afternoon sipping fresh juices (try mango or lemon), nibbling at mezze or puffing on a shisha. A sophisticated spot with prompt, courteous service.
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A fun, relaxed environment for an evening of eating, talking, sipping and smoking, Cuba Cabana is half indoors and half outdoors. The shisha here is some of the best in town—the tobacco is placed inside a hollowed-out apple, giving it a fruity flavour. International favourites like fajitas, burgers and steaks feature on the menu. Spend a hot summer’s night enjoying cool (non-alcoholic) cocktails and juices in the outdoor jungle garden.
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Pushing open Estoril’s heavy wooden doors, you enter a cavernous, dimly lit eatery seemingly trapped in the mid- 1950s. The mostly Egyptian menu sticks to grilled meat and standard Middle Eastern mezze, which are decidedly hit-and-miss (avoid, at all costs, the cheese-and-tomato mix). Cheese or spinach sambousek are, however, delicious. Service is apathetic to the point of indifference, but the beer— when it arrives—is cold, the atmosphere inimitable and it inspires an exasperated fondness in its large regular clientele.
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