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

Impressing customers since 1965, El Mohamady has been a crowd pleaser for Mansoura residents for more than 40 years. The chain of restaurants excelled in Levantine flavours and even some international dishes like spring rolls and pasta. Deciding to bring their fantastic service and varied menu to Cairo has created quite the buzz, and we had to find out for ourselves what all this fuss was about. El Mohamady found an impressively beautiful venue to open at The Gate Plaza on one of Sheikh Zayed’s inner roads. The restaurant boasts a spacious outdoor open-air area and an air-conditioned indoor area. 

Once we arrived, the place was packed; it was around lunchtime on a Friday, so it was definitely expected. We were greeted and shown to a table indoors straight away. As we took our seats, we decided to order everything to share. While browsing through the starters, one dish caught our attention: The brain braised in butter (LE 90); we were sold, of course; the dish sounded adventurously delicious. We also ordered one Tabula Salad (LE 50) – parsley, tomato, and onion mix. The brain dish is a must-try if you like to expand your food horizons and flavours. The buttery creamy brain tasted like perfection, but if you’re not generally a fan of tender textures, skip it, even though this dish had the perfect textured mix of firm yet creamy and delicate. The tabula was also well seasoned, and it’s imperative to mention that the portion was huge – big enough for four people. 

We also had decided to get a plate called El Waleemah (LE 240), meaning the feast. The dish is mainly mutton marinated in Arabic spices cooked in the wood oven served with rice, nuts and potatoes. Our server also suggested that we can substitute the rice with Fattah, and we were convinced. Our order came in impressively fast and tasty; the sauce of the Fattah was delicious and acidic, and the mutton was fork-tender and melted in our mouths. Funnily enough, they also got us the rice with nuts and the Fattah, so we enjoyed both alongside our other dishes. The only downside was that the mashed potatoes didn’t seem to fit the dish’s flavours and weren’t as creamy enough to our liking. The staff were nice enough to bring us complementary Morta, which is basically the solid layer that stays at the bottom of the pan after butter or ghee has been melted. This morta dish was the highlight of the visit, it was salty, creamy and absolutely delicious – it really spoke to the quality of the butter used in their dishes. 

Our visit was nothing short of excellent; the food, service and ambience was inviting and enjoyable. Their selection is mind-blowing, and prices are excellent. El Mohamady has shown us that you do not need to splurge to get a good quality meal; we were both satisfied and full with almost LE 500 which can be considered a bonus. Of course, we wanted to try their other dishes like the Asian selection of woks but were very full by then. El Mohamady has overachieved, and we will definitely try more dishes and exciting flavours.