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

Located
in Giza, Asha’s is the latest Indian cuisine endeavour to open in Cairo. If
the name reminds you of that song ‘Brimful of Asha on the 45’, then you are
spot on. Both the song and the restaurant are named after Indian singer Asha
Bhosle. All the dishes at Asha’s are the personal recipes of this famous Indian
diva.

The
design of Asha’s is impeccable: beaded curtains hang against the windows,
tasteful paintings decorate the walls, and Asha’s has some of the most
beautiful napkin holders that we’ve ever seen. There are cosy booths to sit
in or cute tables with a Nile view. We were warmly welcomed by the hostess, who
guided us to our table and introduced us to our waiter.

Asha’s
has an extremely diverse menu covering lamb, fish and shrimp as well as
fifteen vegetarian dishes. While browsing through the extensive menu, we were
presented with papadums and various dips such as mint and cucumber yoghurt, and
papaya relish, which were refreshing and tasty. We also sipped on a Delhi devil
cocktail (pomegranate, mint and lemon topped with ginger syrup) for 24LE and a
cinnamon mint ice tea (19LE). The Delhi devil is delicious; sweet with a little
hint of sour and extremely refreshing. The cinnamon mint ice tea didn’t tasty
very much like cinnamon with just a single stick floating in the glass, which
didn’t really do the trick.

For
starters we had the Chingli Chaap: jumbo prawns marinated in spicy ginger
garlic yoghurt, breaded and deep-fried for 145LE. This is one of the most
expensive dishes on the menu; other starters like classic samosas start at
35LE. The shrimp were delicious and spicy with a
crunchy breaded crust. However, we were a bit disappointed that our dish was composed of only three
prawns; for 145LE we expected a more generous portion.

We
ordered the Murgh Makhani (105LE), which was a
delicious butter chicken. Its tomato and cream gravy was a bit spicy, and we
couldn’t stop dipping our naan bread (10LE) into it. The chicken was grilled
perfectly, firm and had probably been marinated in spices.

The Muscat Gosht (119LE) was
a boneless lamb cooked in clarified butter and rich tomato gravy. Although it is generally a drier serving of meat than most Indian dishes, the lamb
meat was soft and tender, the tomato gravy was spicy and pleasant but we found
some small hard pieces that didn’t seem to be edible. We suspect that they were pieces of cinnamon sticks, but whatever they were made this otherwise tasty dish a little awkward to eat.

We ended
our meal with apple Jalebi (40LE): apple rings dipped in batter, fried in a thick
sugar syrup and presented with vanilla ice cream. While the apple rings tasted
nice and it was a new dish to try, it wasn’t that exciting.

The
staff is very nice but a bit overly attentive for our liking. It got a bit
annoying when with every two bites a waiter, a manager or the chef would ask
our opinion on the food. However, if that doesn’t faze you; then you should
definitely check out Asha’s to indulge in some wonderful Indian cuisine.