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

Located
on the ground floor of Downtown’s Ramses Hilton Hotel, the Sherlock Holmes Pub
is hidden at the back of the lobby and you have to walk right through the Garden Court café
in order to get there. We almost felt like detectives ourselves when searching
for the pub. The decor of the venue is in the style of an old English pub, and on
the left side of the entrance there are booths that fit up to six people, as well as on the opposite wall.
Stained glass with the silhouette of Sherlock Holmes functions as a division
between the booths. There are also regular low seats and of course you can
always climb up onto one of the bar stools. Entertainment is provided by mute
TVs all broadcasting a different channels. Music is provided by the next-door
café where a live act performs every evening.

The menu
consists of standard choices like local wines starting from 44LE per glass and
local beer starting from 35LE. There are some regular cocktails available such
as a screwdriver, Tequila sunrise and margarita (all 69LE). We selected some
cocktails from the ‘Ramses Hilton Creations’ section. All these cocktails sell for
69LE. We sampled the blue sky, windows of the world and the banana tree.
Unfortunately the Red Kiss was unavailable since strawberry juice – a key
ingredient – wasn’t available.

The
banana tree, consisting of crème de banana with white rum and milk, tasted
delicious but the alcohol was lacking. It had the texture of, and tasted like
tasted milkshake. The windows of the world tasted like a tequila sunrise but a
bit sweeter and minus the tequila. Instead, vodka and Cointreau are used in
this concoction. As the name already gives away, the blue sky was bluer than
blue due on account of the blue Curacao. The end result tasted refreshing but
was a bit on the strong side. We also opted for the Negroni, a mixture of gin, Campari,
red vermouth and soda. The Negroni was mixed very well, and we reckon it could
be a new favourite of ours.

The food
menu reads like a novel. The dishes have themed names such as the Sherlock
burger, Dr Watson’s baked jacks and the I scream ice cream. We had the
‘Something to share’ platter with drumsticks, bruschetta, mushrooms and beef satay.
The drumsticks weren’t all that good and the bruschetta was no more than a
piece of bread with tomato and cheese on it. However, the beef satay was tasty
with a slightly spicy satay sauce.. The best thing that we ate here was
actually the complimentary serving of tehina, which was one of the best that we
ever had in Cairo.

Downing
a drink in Sherlock Holmes Pub is extremely expensive. We paid a total of 450LE
for four drinks and a little snack. When in desperate need for a drink, the pub
is ok but with such prices, you can do better elsewhere.