The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Dining is more than just eating. When we dine out, we look for delicious food, amiable service and a comforting
atmosphere. When a restaurant has none of these features, it makes you wonder
why it’s still in business.

Caribbean is
more like a den than a dining venue. As soon as we walked in, we wished we
could turn on our heels and walk out. The lighting is dim bordering on dark,
adding a dodgy feeling to the venue. The grey seats are stained and torn,
showing the padding.

Once we were
seated, we only found the beverages and desserts menu on our table. We had to
ask the waitress twice for the main courses menu. We only got one menu for a
group of six people, so we had to ask for another.

The menus
presented to our table were sticky to the point where you have to yank the
pages apart and stained with black fingerprints. We didn’t want to picture how
our food would be and could only hope that the kitchen was better taken care
of.

We also made
the terrible mistake of visiting the restroom. We guessed if any cleaning had
been done there in the past month, it would have looked better than it did at
the time of our visit.

The service
at Caribbean was sluggish. We would have understood had the venue been crowded,
but given the fact that we were among five groups of patrons, we couldn’t
understand what the delay was all about.

Out of pure hunger,
we ordered the smoked turkey with molten cheese sandwich (27LE) only to have
the waitress return after thirty minutes to announce that the sandwich was not
available. So, we switched orders to the spicy crunchy chicken sandwich (30LE).
Described in the menu as a spicy crispy chicken breast with smoked turkey and cheddar
cheese served on French baguette, the sandwich didn’t even include the
slightest trace of turkey. The chicken’s crispy outer layer had grease
underneath.

We also
tried the chicken mushroom sandwich (28LE): chicken breast, mushroom,
mozzarella cheese and mayo served on French baguette. We could prepare
sandwiches at home that taste better than this one.

We also had
the chicken parmesan sandwich (26LE), which was about the only thing that
tasted good. Served on a big white porcelain plate with a handful of
deliciously crispy French fries, the sandwich alongside the fries didn’t even
take up half the plate, leaving it looking empty.

We also had
the barbecue chicken pizza. We got lucky with that one. Topped with sliced
chicken, green pepper, olive, mushroom, onion and mozzarella cheese, the pizza
wasn’t anything special, but was definitely an improvement.

We wanted to
give Caribbean one more chance, so we ordered dessert. The waitress
apologetically said that they have no desserts available. We gladly gave in and
ordered our cheque, only to find that they charged us for four dishes that we
didn’t order.

We don’t
know whether or not this was a one-time thing, all we know is that we won’t be coming
back to find out.