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

Brisket is a piece of meat cooked to perfection over many hours. It is juicy, smokey, buttery and, most importantly, melts in your mouth. The only bad thing about briskets is that they’re scarce in Egypt, with maybe one or two places serving them properly in the entire country. However, our luck seems to be changing little by little as Dickey’s, a barbeque outlet originally from Texas, opened its first branch in Cairo a couple of weeks ago.

We headed to City Centre Almaza, full of excitement because we finally have an alternative to Longhorn Texas BBQ, and were greeted with a simple Texas-style place. We headed straight to order our food, and it was a relatively easy choice since, as you’d expect, there is an obvious dish to order. We ordered ½ a pound, almost 240 grams, of brisket (224) and ½ a pound of sausages (149), and for the sides, we ordered brisket loaded mac and cheese (64) and brisket nachos (84). At first, we thought the quantity of meat wasn’t enough, but we didn’t take long to realise how wrong we were. The brisket was so tender that we didn’t have to chew it at all, and after a few bits, we started the feel full because of the fat in the meat, which can be described as creamy. Surprisingly, the sausages were the highlight of the day. They were perfectly smoked and had a ton of flavour, yet, they were still simple, which is what we loved the most about them.

We started to struggle a little when we got to the sides. The brisket loaded mac and cheese was bland because the pasta was probably cooked in unsalted water, and adding salt to it didn’t seem to fix the problem. The brisket nachos, on the other hand, were amazing and would have been a solid contender for the best dish of the evening award if not for the fact that they were hard to eat. The nachos were mixed with meat and cheese and served on a deep plate. When we tried our forks, we failed miserably, and when we used our hands, it was very messy.

It’s worth mentioning that the ordering process was a little complicated, and despite getting our food in 10 minutes, we could easily see ourselves waiting in line for 30 minutes on a busy day.