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

On the hunt for food, our expeditions have led us everywhere from narrow side roads to five-star hotels. How delicious the food is doesn’t necessarily have to correlate with how expensive it is in Egypt, and sometimes the hunt to find a hidden gem is the biggest part of the fun.

We had heard rumors about a new Korean restaurant in Maadi whose entire menu consists of fried chicken options. Try, as we did, to find any sort of listing of this restaurant over the internet or yellow pages, however, and you’ll almost believe that it doesn’t really exist.

After a few phone calls to the friends who told us about it, we set out on foot to Roads 218/231, the general area where you find Subway, Stavolta and Tabla Luna. It took us thirty minutes to find Kokio Chicken, and we’re from Maadi, so believe us when we tell you, you will never come across this restaurant by accident. It’s actually on an obscure corner just behind the Metro Supermarket on Road 232.

The venue is very modest in size, with bright pistachio green walls and modern looking decoration that doesn’t look or feel very Korean. There was one Korean family eating there at the time, which is always a comforting sign. As expected, the menu featured three main items, whole chicken/half chicken, chicken strips, and chicken wings, all within the 80-140LE range depending on the full or half portion. Additionally, there are sides of homemade fries, sweet potato fries and cabbage.

The sauces include spicy, soy fried, onion fried, and spring onion. We opted for 20 piece Strips (140LE) and 10 piece Soy Fried Wings (80LE) alongside two orders of Homemade Fries (30LE).

While the prices do sound expensive, the portions are enormous. The plain strips were fried extremely well, retaining a tender and juicy inside, and incredibly crunchy outside. Similarly, the Soy Fried Wings were fried just as well, but were even tastier thanks to the Soy in the batter of the generously sized wings.

The Homemade Fries, unfortunately, didn’t fare up to the rest of the food, with little crisp on the outside to balance their thick cut.

All in all, we found the restaurant to be very clean and needed minimal service, we only saw one waiter, who was more than enough for the size of the restaurant, especially given that only two tables were occupied. The food was delicious, albeit a tad too expensive, but the overall experience was great.