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

Crepes aren’t unheard of in Cairo, quality crepes are though. So, we decided to visit one of few venues that specialize in crepes; Creperie Des Arts. Sporting an unchanged cabin look, the restaurant is very intimate and relaxed featuring off-white walls decorated with Mediterranean paintings and ornaments, while the doors, windows and shelves are all coloured turquoise and feature stained glass.

With an easy on-the-eyes venue and pleasant staff, it was time to focus on the food. The menu features sweet and savoury crepes, but also peculiarly offers main courses, salads, pastas and sandwiches.

We opted for a Normandy Salad (27.5LE) and a Hollywood Crepe (31.5LE), as well as a Beef Fillet (73.5LE) and a Banana Soho (26.5LE).

The Normandy Salad was served first and brought together sliced chicken breast, mushrooms, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, boiled eggs and a honey mustard dressing. The portion was ample and works out to be good value-for-money. The vegetables were fresh and crisp, with all the flavours combining very nicely, especially the chicken which was also generous in amount.

The Hollywood Crepe was quite the creation; chicken, walnuts, béchamel sauce and gruyere cheese. In theory, it sounds delicious, but unfortunately, we found that the béchamel overpowered the dish completely, with the taste of the cheese all but absent. In addition, the walnuts were relatively scarce and th flavour of the chicken inconsistent.

The Beef Fillet, ordered medium with a side of French fries and green beans, was uneven. The fillet itself tasted decent, but was served medium well, which isn’t a disaster, except when you combine it with the average soggy fries and tasteless green beans that weren’t topped with so much as a pinch of salt.

The Banana Soho sweet crepe, which was stuffed with chocolate sauce and bananas, and topped with vanilla ice cream, was the best dish of the night – this despite the fact that the kitchen was out of the promised whipped cream and the chocolate sauce being disappointingly flat. But when combined with the melting vanilla ice cream and generous portion of bananas, it all came together.

Why Creperie Des Arts chooses to serve these items is understandable; the reason there’s so few crepe specialists in Cairo is because it just isn’t a sustainable business in Cairo. We left feeling a little let down; it isn’t what it once was and the Maadi eatery’s non-crepes items are rather uninspiring.