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

Dessert-dedicated venues have been popping up across Cairo at a huge rate over the last few years; Not only are new venues opening, but existing ones are opening new branches at a rapid pace as they race to prove that they are at the top of the dessert game.

Dixie Cream is one of the former, with a new branch opening inside Cairo Festival City at one of the entrances leading to the food court, giving it a unique location catching the attention of visitors going into or out of the area.

With a small venue, it boasts a simple seating area best suited for short visits, with a wide variety of sugary options, ranging from their signature donuts, Italian styled gelato and frozen yogurt, to a mix of hot and cold drinks made in-house.

After taking a seat at one of the available tables, we noticed that it wasn’t clean and had traces of juice and sugar from previous guests and with the absence of tissues we couldn’t do anything but wait, only for the waiter to arrive a few minutes later and wipe down the table after we told him about it.

We opted for the house special Chocolate glazed donut (11LE), Red Velvet filled donut (16LE) and Mini Apple Fritter (14.70LE), while also ordering a latte (17LE) with hazelnut flavour (7 LE) and a Berry Smoothie (15LE).

Unfortunately, the chocolate glazed donut wasn’t fresh and had a stale aftertaste; on the other hand, the red velvet filled donut had a creamy white filling which was quite good overpowering the again stale dough.

While it would have been better hot, the tender apple fritter was served at room temperature; having a cinnamon-tinted centre and a very subtle apple aftertaste which was almost undetectable, with an overpowering sugar glaze while.

The Berry smoothie was refreshing, but very sugary, with an artificial aftertaste rather than a fruity one. As for the Latte, we were brought a double shot of Turkish coffee which was strange but with all the issues that we’ve had during our visit, we ended up not correcting the waiter and  leaving shortly afterwards.

Overall, there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed with competitors like Dunkin Donuts and other dessert specialist to contend with, particularly when considering the fact that there is a priority problem (at this branch at least). The staff were happy to talk up a lot of the items, but while neglecting the thing Dixie Cream is most know for – donuts.