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

Cheese. It’s been over social media. It’s what brought us to Daddy’s Burger – a restaurant that uses it liberally, almost excessively. Not only that, but this is a restaurant that has no issues with throwing, let’s say, jam, bananas and peanut butter, into a chicken sandwich – but more on that later.

Located at Patio New Cairo, Daddy’s Burger offers a nicely-sized outdoor area with wooden seats and tables, with a couple of heaters available for the chilly winter months, while the indoor area takes on a diner-like setting.

After taking our seats we ordered the Crunchy Bacon Mountain (39LE); steak fries topped with a hefty amount of molten cheese (get ready for this to be a running theme) and some crunchy bacon. The fries were phenomenal,  as thanks in part to a paprika-heavy seasoning, which worked wonders with the gooey cheese alongside the nice smoky aftertaste courtesy of the bacon.

We ordered some of Daddy’s Burger’s special dishes including the Gladiator 200gm (65LE) combo with the side of potato wedges (20LE), the Melting Volcano 200gm which came with a free side of fries (79LE) and the Double Chicken Beast (69LE) combo with the side of onion rings (20LE).

Topped with – and bear with us here – mushroom sauce, Swiss cheese, red cheddar, arugula sauce, pickles, lettuce, arugula, bacon, BBQ sauce, special sauce and American cheese, the Gladiator had a lot in it. The BBQ sauce offered a nice smoky sweetness, while the bacon offered more of a beefy smokiness to contrast the sharp arugula, which was a little unusual, but meshed well with the rest of the ingredients.  Having the same seasoning as the fries in the Bacon Mountain, the wedges were cooked to a perfect tender interior.

Coming with a jar of molten cheese on the side –yes, you read that right – the Melting Volcano was topped with special sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onion and BBQ sauce. After spreading the cheese onto the fries, and the burger, we still had enough to put on other sides of different dishes.

Overall, in terms of flavour, the burger was simple, but full of flavour, with the cheesiness, of course, shining through and flowing like lava with every bite, making it one of the messiest dishes on the menu.

And then we come to the the Double Chicken Beast. This, let’s call it experimental sandwich was made-up of two fried chicken breasts topped with bacon, banana slices, berry jam and peanut butter. Although it seemed to dominate the sandwich, the further we dug in, the more the chicken balanced out the sweetness of the jam, though the peanut butter and banana didn’t really come through. While it’s an acquired taste, diners who enjoy the mix of sweet and savoury should certainly at least try it. We ordered the onion rings with the chicken as a side, which had a nice mushy inside with a satisfyingly crunchy shell.

Is this a hollow gimmick? Or is it culinary brilliance? Americans love to put syrup on their chicken and waffles, so maybe this most underrated of poultry deserves to be experiment with more. But the real hook here isn’t even the cheese – Daddy’s Burger has tapped into Egyptians’ love of big, bold flavours and who knows what they might come up with next.