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

The eclectic and unpredictable Cairo dining scene can be unforgiving when it comes to value-for-money; while we have plenty of good restaurants across the city, they all come with a rather hefty cheque at the end of your meal. This is a problem at the end of the month, when cash is low – quite often, standards become low, too.

In Maadi, the brains behind Cuba Cabana have opened sister restaurant, I Mix. With a menu of mostly generic international dishes, the first thing you will notice is it is significantly cheaper than its counterparts.

It’s important to note that I Mix is strictly delivery-only – an increasingly common preference for food entrepreneurs in Egypt – and acts as a cheaper alternative to its sister restaurants.

Of the seemingly rudimentary options, we opted for a Caesar Salad (18.99LE), as well as a Waldorf Salad (18.99LE), alongside or Beef Escalope (39.99LE) and Chicken Pane (32.99LE) and a side of French Fries (8.99LE).

The delivery time was decent and our food arrived satisfyingly hot.

The salads came in round plastic boxes with the dressing packaged separately. The Caesar Salad was the usual lettuce and croutons affair, but with the addition of olives, which overpowered everything, including the already scarce lettuce.

Unfortunately, the Waldorf Salad wasn’t much better. With lettuce, watercress, apples, pineapples, cherry tomatoes, raisins and walnuts, we opted to try one of the restaurant’s vinaigrettes – what came was a strange dressing of ketchup and mayonnaise which didn’t compliment the salad at all. Without the dressing the salad was far too sweet.

So, the salads were a bit of disappointment, but, thankfully, the mains fared relatively better.

The Beef Escalope was cooked well, though unremarkable in taste, while the pasta-with-red-sauce side suffered from a flat sauce despite the use of oregano.

Coming with tasty white basmati rice, sautéed vegetables – including fresh mushrooms seared in butter – and a creamy lemon sauce, the Chicken Pane was a surprising hit. The chicken itself was well-cooked, well-fried – retaining a pleasing crunch – and packed plenty of flavour. On top of that, the portion was ample, especially considering its more than reasonable price.

While the food at I-Mix is unlikely to wow, it’ll definitely impress you in terms of buck-for-bang – keep the number on speed dial for when your wallet is thin.