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

Be it a freshly cooked Egg Benedict with Hollandaise sauce for breakfast, a platter of chicken pasta infused with pesto sauce and pine nuts for lunch, there are few restaurants that strike as good a balance between variety and quality than Casper and Gambini’s – which is why when the chain introduced sushi into their menu, we were expecting big things.

Choosing the Cairo Festival City branch to try the new Japanese additions, the restaurant has a cosy, modern indoor with a spacious outdoors area that’s almost always packed – even on the chilliest of days.

Casper and Gambini’s sushi menu involves 15 different types of Uramaki, with 6 pieces costing 65LE, 9 pieces costing 97LE, 12 pieces  costing 129LE and 18 pieces costing 183LE.

Starting with Boston Roll – made of fresh salmon and tuna— we really loved the quantity of the rice and the freshness of the salmon and tuna; the only missing ingredient –one that was promised in the menu—  however, were the avocadoes, which could’ve added a complementing creamier taste.  

A combination of crab mix, salmon mix and panko crispy, the Alaskan Roll  was just as good, with fresh salmon on top, and an incredibly tasty crab mix stuffing; only we felt the crispy panko addition was a little out of place, among the other noticeably fresh ingredients.

The Flying Salmon, meanwhile, boasted salmon and a shredded crab and carrot combo filling, with the carrots adding a delightful sweetness that complimented the overall flavour. We highly recommend trying this roll with a generous amount of wasabi in the soy sauce.

Moving to the fried section we opted for the Spicy Crunchy Sake which was the highlight of our sushi experience, with perfectly fried salmon complimented by spicy mayonnaise sauce, not to mention the panko, shredded crabs and carrots addition, as seen in the Flying salmon.

The Crunchy Ebi Roll, on the other hand, had unbalanced flavours due to the overuse of cream cheese which overpowered the fried shrimp and the panko crust flavours.

Expecting something unique from the C&G Roll, the roll was a combination of shrimp tempura and panko crust, topped with teriyaki-flavoured mayo and wasabi flakes, which, compared to some of the other rolls, was flat and unremarkable in flavour.  

The final roll we tried was the Crispy Crazy Roll and with the combination of shredded carrots, crab and panko crust – again — it was simply too similar to some of the other rolls, with the slight variations not really having enough of an impact to really distinguish it.

Although Casper & Gambini’s sushi menu is small – and the flavour variations within it even smaller—some of the rolls definitely stood out; enough so that should the restaurant choose to expand it, it would be a great addition to an already popular chain.