Yum yum, not a bad way to start the gastronomical day, with Yemeni omelet and beans.
Showing posts with label great restaurants cairo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label great restaurants cairo. Show all posts
Monday, April 7, 2014
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Dokki's Best Koshary
I swear, this Koshary is delicious.
I've recently become a huge fan of this little Koshary cart in Dokki square. I wish I had discovered it forty years ago when it first started (and I was not yet born).
Koshary Ahmed al-Sunni (كشري احمد السني) serves Cairo's masses with delicious, complex, homemade koshary. So far I've eaten from there at least a dozen times, and every time I was 101% satisfied.
I think the best part about this koshary is the variety of the ingredients he uses. Koshary is always composed of rice, noodles, spaghetti, lentils, tomato sauce, and fried onions (You can then add some spicy sauce and garlic sauce if you want too) but usually each ingredient is limited to one type and rather insipid. Here, he uses a variety of noodles, rice, (brown, white, vermicelli) which gives each spoon-full a nice flavor.
The beauty here lies in simplicity: there are two sizes (L.E. 3.5 and L.E. 5) both of which are very filling. Make sure to tell him how much garlic, spicy sauce, and onions you want.
The only downside to this place (which can be seen as an advantage too) is that you either have to eat your bowl standing up (next to the cart), OR at a nearby ahua (there are three coffeshops, all of which you can leave your empty bowls at) OR at home (take away, teeka). I prefer the ahua-option so that I can accompany my koshary with a tea and some people-watching (or them staring at me).
Hours:
He's not usually there on Fridays. Sometimes he takes Saturday off too. During the week he's there from around 11am to 7pm. When he runs out of food, he goes home. Oh, the joys of being your own boss... :-)
As always with almost anywhere in Cairo: Buyer Beware. But for this koshary, I'm pretty sure that his 40-year old reputation is a good guarantee that you'll be safe (just keep off the spicy شطة!). Oh, and Ahmed, the fine gentleman who works there is super honest: once he insisted on giving me 1.5 LE back from a week before when I forgot to take my change.
So, if you're ever in Dokki during the day and find yourself craving koshary, don't go anywhere else but here! By far, it's the best koshary you'll find and at the best price!
I've recently become a huge fan of this little Koshary cart in Dokki square. I wish I had discovered it forty years ago when it first started (and I was not yet born).
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| Ahmed al-Sunni Koshary. (I like how the flower is coming out of the customer's head on the left) |
Koshary Ahmed al-Sunni (كشري احمد السني) serves Cairo's masses with delicious, complex, homemade koshary. So far I've eaten from there at least a dozen times, and every time I was 101% satisfied.
 |
| Here I am, eating away at 'Amr's ahua (see below) |
I think the best part about this koshary is the variety of the ingredients he uses. Koshary is always composed of rice, noodles, spaghetti, lentils, tomato sauce, and fried onions (You can then add some spicy sauce and garlic sauce if you want too) but usually each ingredient is limited to one type and rather insipid. Here, he uses a variety of noodles, rice, (brown, white, vermicelli) which gives each spoon-full a nice flavor.
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| Delicious texture |
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| Vermicelli. Angel's hair. |
The beauty here lies in simplicity: there are two sizes (L.E. 3.5 and L.E. 5) both of which are very filling. Make sure to tell him how much garlic, spicy sauce, and onions you want.
The only downside to this place (which can be seen as an advantage too) is that you either have to eat your bowl standing up (next to the cart), OR at a nearby ahua (there are three coffeshops, all of which you can leave your empty bowls at) OR at home (take away, teeka). I prefer the ahua-option so that I can accompany my koshary with a tea and some people-watching (or them staring at me).
Hours:
He's not usually there on Fridays. Sometimes he takes Saturday off too. During the week he's there from around 11am to 7pm. When he runs out of food, he goes home. Oh, the joys of being your own boss... :-)
As always with almost anywhere in Cairo: Buyer Beware. But for this koshary, I'm pretty sure that his 40-year old reputation is a good guarantee that you'll be safe (just keep off the spicy شطة!). Oh, and Ahmed, the fine gentleman who works there is super honest: once he insisted on giving me 1.5 LE back from a week before when I forgot to take my change.
So, if you're ever in Dokki during the day and find yourself craving koshary, don't go anywhere else but here! By far, it's the best koshary you'll find and at the best price!
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| In front of Hassouna. If you're coming out from the Dokki Metro station, take the "juhaina street" exit |
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| He's located at Midan Dokki, right in front of Hassouna |
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| A better view of Midan Dokki, with the Dokki Bridge in the background |
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| Customers |
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| In the street that goes off to the right of the photo, there's a coffee shop I usually eat at. |
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| A view of Midan Dokki and the cart from the ahua I eat at. |
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| 'Aamr's ahua. Right next to the Dokki Sudanese restaurant (pictured left) |
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| Me, happy, eating. |
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Cairo Kitchen – Restaurant
So both last night and tonight, a friend and I had an amazing culinary experience (twice) at the Cairo Kitchen restaurant in Zamalek. ( blog.cairokitchen.com ) One of the best places I've been to in Cairo. Their food –with koshary, salads, soups, desserts and traditional drinks– simply blew our minds.
Food
Let's start with the best part, the salad bar. Health-freaks and vegetarians will love this. You can choose from about a dozen different in-season vegetable/salad pickings (changes every day) such as balady salad, beets, humus, babaganoug, salad, cauliflower, stuffed peppers, etc... Every one of which was fresh, delicious, and beautiful. This by far was the best part because every item tasted amazing; switching from delicious flavor to delicious flavor makes for an amazingly varied experience. Every time you bite into a different crudité, your mouth explodes again and again with awe. and all of this for a very reasonable price.
We tried the 'Healthy Being' koshary and the regular koshary both which were nice. Not quite as mouth watering as the salads, but still a very decent koshary. Each table has a special, fresh hot sauce (very hot, possibly with a hint of carrot in it) and garlic sauce. Koshary served in classic metal bowls with covers and big handles.
Portions were also very generous: after a small bowl of salads, we could only finish a little more than half of our small-sized bowl of Koshary.
I need to go back to try the soups, desserts (my friend said they're great), and other kinds of koshary and salads.
Drinks
Cairo Kitchen offers a large variety of traditional Egyptian drinks. Hibiscus, citrus mint rosewater, lemon. For 8 L.E. you get unlimited refills of any of them. All very good.
Decor
The decoration is amazing. I think the idea is to mimic the warm colorful style of traditional fuul street carts. While very colorful, it's not at all tacky. Rather charming. The whole place was spotlessly clean. The bathroom was spacious and clean.
Service
Right from the beginning, a waiter opens the door for you, and all the waiters are friendly (you get the feeling their actually being paid a decent wage), welcoming, but not too much as can often be the case in other restaurants. They did a meticulous job at serving the food in a very presentable way. Even though things are rather straightforward as far as the menu is concerned, they were very helpful with our questions.
Non-smoking, (enforced) although you can go outside on their large sidewalk for a cigarette.
Children/Family-friendly (two boys sitting with their parents received free plastic Cairo Kitchen watches, they were also very pleased with their experience there).
You can ask for a free Cairo Kitchen sticker.
I've heard that they have cooking classes which are very fun and educational.
Overall, Cairo Kitchen is an awesome experience and I look forward to going back there very often (hoping that they don't reduce the quality as they begin to get a good reputation).
It feels like the owners took a good hard look at everything that was wrong with other restaurants (even the better ones) and made sure to get theirs just right. :-)
Food
Let's start with the best part, the salad bar. Health-freaks and vegetarians will love this. You can choose from about a dozen different in-season vegetable/salad pickings (changes every day) such as balady salad, beets, humus, babaganoug, salad, cauliflower, stuffed peppers, etc... Every one of which was fresh, delicious, and beautiful. This by far was the best part because every item tasted amazing; switching from delicious flavor to delicious flavor makes for an amazingly varied experience. Every time you bite into a different crudité, your mouth explodes again and again with awe. and all of this for a very reasonable price.
We tried the 'Healthy Being' koshary and the regular koshary both which were nice. Not quite as mouth watering as the salads, but still a very decent koshary. Each table has a special, fresh hot sauce (very hot, possibly with a hint of carrot in it) and garlic sauce. Koshary served in classic metal bowls with covers and big handles.
Portions were also very generous: after a small bowl of salads, we could only finish a little more than half of our small-sized bowl of Koshary.
I need to go back to try the soups, desserts (my friend said they're great), and other kinds of koshary and salads.
Drinks
Cairo Kitchen offers a large variety of traditional Egyptian drinks. Hibiscus, citrus mint rosewater, lemon. For 8 L.E. you get unlimited refills of any of them. All very good.
Decor
The decoration is amazing. I think the idea is to mimic the warm colorful style of traditional fuul street carts. While very colorful, it's not at all tacky. Rather charming. The whole place was spotlessly clean. The bathroom was spacious and clean.
Service
Right from the beginning, a waiter opens the door for you, and all the waiters are friendly (you get the feeling their actually being paid a decent wage), welcoming, but not too much as can often be the case in other restaurants. They did a meticulous job at serving the food in a very presentable way. Even though things are rather straightforward as far as the menu is concerned, they were very helpful with our questions.
Non-smoking, (enforced) although you can go outside on their large sidewalk for a cigarette.
Children/Family-friendly (two boys sitting with their parents received free plastic Cairo Kitchen watches, they were also very pleased with their experience there).
You can ask for a free Cairo Kitchen sticker.
I've heard that they have cooking classes which are very fun and educational.
Overall, Cairo Kitchen is an awesome experience and I look forward to going back there very often (hoping that they don't reduce the quality as they begin to get a good reputation).
It feels like the owners took a good hard look at everything that was wrong with other restaurants (even the better ones) and made sure to get theirs just right. :-)
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| Regular Koshary |
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| Healthy Being Koshary |
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| Extra sauces |
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| Salad Platter |
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| Drink Bar |
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| It is non-smoking in Cairo Kitchen, smokers are invited to go outside :-) |
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| our bill for the first night |
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| One of the Ahua workers eating some street Koshary in the ahua (was playing with my camera settings) |
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| Typical fuul cart - Photo Credit to Safy |
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| See the similarities in the style of writing and the colors? - Photo Credit to Safy |
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