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

In
addition to their regular menu, Casper and Gambini’s have developed a special
menu for Ramadan. With three different meals to choose from and a delectable
variety of appetisers, soups and main dishes, their fetar option is delivery
only so we ordered in and enjoyed a quiet meal at home.

All meals
come with optional deli desserts and your choice of jallab, karkadeh or ammar el
din, as well as a shisha/dessert coupon to be used in-house. For drinks, we
ordered karkadeh, which was well brewed and thankfully light on sugar.

For our
dishes, we opted for meals one and two. Meal one consists of lentil soup,
deep-fried calamari and goat cheese, raspberry salad for starters. The main
dish includes a mixed grill platter, roasted vegetables and saffron rice with
mushroom gravy sauce. Meal two consists of chicken vegetable soup, Gambini’s
fried mozzarella, and CG special salad. The main dish includes deep fried
chicken escalope and creamy fettuccini pasta. All meals are priced at 120LE,
but the portions are quite large and could have easily fed a third person.

Our
vegetable soup was packed full of delicious freshly cut vegetables and noodles,
although it need a bit of salt and lemon for flavour. The lentil soup came with
celery and onions; watered down and hardly lentil at all, it lacked the grainy
consistency and orange colour so characteristic of this soup.

The fried
mozzarella served with a creamy island dip was was crispy and full; the fried
calamari rings were a bit soggy after being packed and ended up as rubbery and
tasteless.

Fresh,
colourful and varied, the salads were definitely the highlight of this meal;
while the rest of the dishes suffered from not being served hot and fresh
in-house, the salads retained Casper & Gambini’s top-notch quality. The
goat cheese and raspberry salad served with balsamic vinaigrette had cherry
tomatoes, rocket, red lettuce, iceberg lettuce, and chopped hazelnuts and was
crunchy, fresh and overall very tasty.

The CG
Special salad came with iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, corn and baby corn, heart of
palm, beetroot, asparagus and a lemony Dijon dressing. The combination of flavours
and the bite of the Dijon dressing made this salad a delight.

The
creamy fettuccini pasta and fried chicken escalope came in sizable portions.
The pasta’s creamy sauce sank to the bottom, but a quick stir revived the dish.
Although it contained a generous portion of mushrooms, which we always
appreciate, the pasta itself was far too greasy and very heavy. All we could
manage was maybe a quarter of the portion after working our way through our
starters, leaving a lot left over. Stuffed with cheese and turkey, the chicken
was well seasoned and flavoursome.

The mixed
grill with vegetables and saffron rice came with grilled tomato, zucchini and
aubergine. The rice was distinctively yellow and well seasoned with the added
sweetness of raisins. The mixed grill had beef tenderloin, tandoori chicken,
and grilled beef bacon. We found the meat too greasy and rather on the heavy
side, while the chicken on the other hand was delicious.

For
dessert, we ordered the brownie with chocolate fudge sauce, which consists of
small pieces of almond-stuffed brownie served with fudge sauce. The bite-sized
pieces are convenient to avoid sugar overdose after fitar and were quite enjoyable.

While
much of the food was too heavy, the portions are very generous and the variety
is refreshing. Casper & Gambini have filled a void for those wanting something distinctively un-Ramadan.