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

Nothing beats the smell and taste of freshly baked pastries coming right out of the oven with a cup of cappuccino; which is why we headed over to Zack’s in Rehab City, Located inside Smiley’s Grill takeaway restaurant – a location which caught us off guard — we entered what was a small, six-table shop, furnished with leather sofas, chairs and bookshelves filled with old books with some euphonious jazz music playing at the background.

Excited to try out some fresh bites, we checked the menu which had a selection of some typical bakery eats such as sandwiches, loaves, cakes, pies and cookies. It caught our attention that some of Zack’s displayed items – especially the croissants— were still missing from the menu. We kicked things off with a brown bread tuna sandwich served with some salty chips (23LE).

Enveloped in a multigrain, crunchy and savoury brown bread, our tuna sandwich infused with vegetables was quite tasty and the salty chips on the side complemented it perfectly.

Looking to try Zack's desserts, the diversity of sweet bites including brownies, pies and cookies; we went for Zack’s signature chocolate biscuit cake (18 LE). Comprised of small pieces of biscuit blended smoothly with chocolate and coated with a thin yet rich chocolate layer, our chocolate biscuit cake was perfect.

We concluded with a refreshing Ice Latte (24LE) and a Heart Beet cocktail (25LE) – a vegetable and fruit blend – which was among several other large and healthy energising drinks. A mix of Cabbage, half lemon, half orange and a green apple, the Heart Beet cocktail was a match made in heaven; a guiltless cocktail drink which was both tasty and quite fulfilling – the perfect end to our breakfast.

Perhaps Zack’s location is somewhat unconventional – some might even think it’s a turnoff – but the food, the music, the reasonable prices and the attentive staff  made our experience quite pleasurable and all the more worthy.