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

If there’s anything Cairo shopping malls pride thmesleves on, it’s being able to boast about their dining options, and every mall needs good cafés; sanctuaries to rest your legs after trundling around hundreds of shops at least twice. On the fourth floor of Sun City Mall in Heliopolis, Froots – playing on the word ‘fruit’, obviously – uses it’s bright red and lime green decor to draw in thirsty shoppers. Underneath their brightly lit name, ‘fresh smoothies, salads and wraps’ proves our first impression to be a little incorrect; apart from smoothies, they also serve up light meals to help rejuvenate a tired shopper. 

We picked up a colourful, laminated menu from the counter and sat down to mull over our options. A wider selection of food is available than we initially thought, as the menu includes a range of soups (13LE-25LE), all kinds of salads (24LE-37LE), wraps, toasties and sandwiches (35LE-47LE) along with a number of pasta dishes (33LE-55LE).

The large display counter and refridgerators along the side of the restaurant displayed a couple of desserts and some fresh salad ingredients.

Not wanting a large meal, we opted for a Kansas city beef wrap (28LE) complete with smoked beef, tomato and cheddar cheese as well as two smoothies; one milk chocolate, banana and fat free yoghurt Chocolate Time (15LE) and a Strawberry Smile (16LE) – also fat free yoghurt based, but with the additions of strawberry and kiwi juice, strawberries and bananas.

The beef wrap was soon delivered to our table and looked a little unimpressive; it came cut into two small halves, served with a handful of fresh crisps and potent pickles. The sandwich itself was tasty but by no means exceptional; the smoked beef was strong and salty, complimented by the melted cheddar cheese. The tomato was virtually none-existent and as a result, the wrap was a little on the dry side with a lot of doughy bread.

The strawberry smoothie was delicious and tasted fresh; it was thick, creamy, frothy and refreshing. On the other hand, our Chocolate Time was fairly disappointing. The chocolate and banana mixture left a very artificial after-taste in our mouths, so much so that we decided to leave it after just a couple of sips.

We enquired about the delicious sounding desserts on the menu, only to be told that the only two available were cheesecake (19LE) and chocolate cake (27LE). We decided on the latter, only to be disappointed by the stale sponge. Although the slice was more than generously sized, it left much to be desired – even the chocolate mousse layers and lashings of chocolate sauce couldn’t totally save this piece of cake. 

Froots serve up a wide variety of snacks, as well as a limited number of fruit smoothies. This place might be good should you find yourself on the fourth floor of Sun City, desperate for a sit down and a light bite.