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

While most
gaming lounges will bring you a coke or water, and a few cafés in Cairo offer a
console or two, Maze Café successfully straddles both worlds with its fully
decked out private gaming rooms, all equipped with sleek black couches and
PS3s, and its extensive café menu that offers not just a few standard soft
drinks; but cocktails, shakes and a number of desserts as well.

You’re
welcome to linger in Maze’s open café where you’ll have a number of
comfortable seating options, a TV and free internet. If you’ve come to play,
though; there are five private rooms available, the largest of which can
accommodate up to eight people. Every room is decked out with a 50-inch plasma
HDTV and the original PS3. You have the option of playing with regular controls
(25LE per hour) or the new Playstation Move (30LE per hour) – charges are 10LE
more for a multiplayer.

The game
selection at Maze isn’t earth-shattering and neither PES nor the latest FIFA
instalment were offered to us though we’re sure they’re stocked. Instead, some
of the games available included Smackdown vs. Raw, WTA Tour Tennis, Call of
Duty: Black Ops, and Street Fighter.

The rooms
here are also available to rent for screening films or football matches, both
of which run at 25LE per hour. In
situations like these, the café might be a little more useful, but it also becomes more
apparent how limited the café’s menu is. You won’t find any pizzas or what some
might consider traditional gamers fare here; so eat beforehand or bring your
own if you plan on making a party out of the next football match.

If you’re
already full, the drinks are quite tasty and we recommend the Oreo vanilla
shake (22LE). However, if you plan on having anything with fresh fruit, we
should warn you that the smoothies (19LE) are a bit watery and you’re probably
better off just having some fresh juice or the electro, a juice and sprite
combo (22LE).

The
desserts are also hit-and-miss, and as with many cafés, not everything on the
menu is actually available. Given only three choices out of the twelve or so
listed, we were not disappointed by the cheesecake, but despite our hopes that
the chocolate cake would taste as good as it looked, the relatively tasteless
chunk just wasn’t very chocolaty.

Maze offers
a classy gaming experience and, save for the lack of actual food; we can see
ourselves lounging around there all day enjoying the plush couches and the 50-inch
screen.