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

Cairo
will always remain a city filled with surprises and contradictions. Cairo’s backstreets
are filled with hidden gems and it’s often on these hidden streets that you’d
find something unexpected.  Off of Mohy
El Din Abu El Ezz Street in Dokki for instance, Iran Street is home of Fish Inn

As the
name implies, Fish Inn is all about seafood. Apart from serving regular fish
dishes, there is also a sushi bar. The restaurant is very big and meticulously
clean. The interior is subdued with a lot of grey, black and white. They have a
private room that seats more than 20 diners, which makes it perfect for private
gatherings.

The menu
is extremely varied with lots of fish options. Unfortunately, it seems that
fish these days are outsmarting their hunters as not everything on the menu is always
available. The sushi menu is also quite extensive and features popular and
well-known choices.

The
appetizer menu is relatively small and you are best off opting for the
delicious Yaki Turi shrimp (39LE). Presented on a skewer, the shrimp were marinated
in sweet sticky sauce; the spring onion added a refreshing taste and played off
of the sauce nicely. Another good shrimp option is the butterfly style prepared
shrimp with white sauce. Four shrimp cost 48LE.

Most of
the fish can be prepared to your liking. The sea bass can be cooked in the oven
with potatoes, vegetables and white sauce –  the sea bass is 92LE per kilo and one fish is
about 500 grams. One fish comfortably feeds two people, especially if you take
it with the potatoes and vegetables. The fish was well done and the vegetables
tasted fresh; the oven-cooked potatoes went well with the white sauce. The only
downside to this meal was the abundance of dill. Dill is indeed the perfect
herb with fish but its taste is very distinct and tends to be overpowering. Even
a little bit of dill can be too much for a light fish like sea bass.

The
sushi menu has popular rolls like the avocado caterpillar roll (55LE for 8
pieces) and the smoked roll (55LE for 8 pieces). Unfortunately the avocado on
the rolls wasn’t ripe and was therefore very hard and lacked taste. Perhaps
this was because it’s not in season, but other sushi restaurants around town
don’t seem to have this issue. The smoked roll with shrimp tempura, salmon,
caviar cream and smoked salmon tasted a bit too fishy; this is usually the case
when the fish has been deep frozen, and the caviar cream was also nowhere to be
found.

Though
Fish Inn’s location isn’t the most desirable, it does serve good food and the restaurant
is spotlessly clean which is always comforting when it comes to eating fish in
Cairo.