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

Italian restaurants are everywhere in Cairo but rarely do we see a restaurant that adds a touch of uniqueness to their package. Today we’re bringing to you one of those few unique restaurants in our capital; an authentic Italian restaurant with a 90s era theme.

Manoly Pasta & Pizza Station offers a cosy and relaxing atmosphere, with 90s music playing all the time. It will feel very familiar, and the atmosphere will put you in the perfect mood for a delightful dining experience. On weekends, you can catch their live entertainment shows, whether musical performances or stand-up comedy, you can even present your own talent on their stage.

Every table is topped with the film cover of Egypt’s most popular 90s movies, such as Aboud Alla El-Hodoud, Hamam fi Amsterdam, and many others. We felt that these might have been better served if put up on the walls of the restaurant, but to each their own.

Manoly has a small desk with an old television and old board games such as Snakes and Ladders, Monopoly, and a small videogame console. They also have a library filled with tons of video cassettes and old musical tapes. This was perhaps our favourite part of the restaurant’s interior decoration.

Now for the food, after a quick look at the menu, we found a few unique items that stood out in the otherwise traditional Italian dishes of pasta and pizza. To start, we ordered a few appetisers. The Trio Manoly (75 EGP) looked like a good option to try a few of their dishes, it had mozzarella sticks, nachos, pizza slices, and fries. We liked the mozzarella cheese, except it wasn’t entirely molten on the inside, and the nachos in this dish were quite special. For its price, though, we expected a more substantial portion. We also ordered the Twist Potatoes (23 EGP), which come as twisty French fries on a wooden stick, which, unfortunately, were much smaller than the picture on the menu, and wasn’t adequately seasoned.

As for our mains, we opted for their signature dish, the Pasta Pizza, which is your choice of pasta (penne, spaghetti, or fettuccine) with your choice of sauce (white, red, pink), and served up with pizza toppings. We decided on the Pasta Pizza Seafood Ranch (72 EGP), which looked very appealing, but unfortunately was not quite as tasty as it looked. Next up, we got the Pizza Manoly (43 EGP for the small size), which is a pizza divided into quarters: Pepperoni, Chicken, Hot Dog, and Cheese Lovers. The pizza was very tasty, but perhaps the crust needed a bit more time in the oven to be better cooked.

Thoroughly enjoying the environment, we decided to stay for dessert. We ordered their Fried Banana with Ice Cream (35 EGP) which was very underwhelming. They served us a coated banana with some ice cream and a slight drizzle of chocolate sauce, but there was no special taste in the banana. Disappointed by our first shot, we decided to take another one. The second dessert we ordered was the Sweet Potato with Bechamel and Ice Cream (27 EGP), which was a delicious little dish, with an emphasis on little.

Overall, the restaurant is excellent in its atmosphere, and perhaps they need to do a bit more tinkering since they’ve only recently opened. We were a bit disappointed by some of the dishes, and the general feedback is the unbalanced portion size to price ratio. We see a lot of promise for this restaurant and hope our next visit is much more enjoyable.

Translated by: Sherif Khairy