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

Le Garage is a
favourite among many in the Red Sea resort town of El Gouna for its speedy service, garage-themed decor
(straight down to the waiters’ mechanic uniform) and of course, its creative
and juicy burgers.

While indoor
seating is provided in a brightly coloured space, nine times out of ten you’ll
find yourself sitting outside on the restaurant’s terrace to enjoy the warm
evening breeze of El Gouna.

People come to Le
Garage for one thing; the restaurant’s renowned, juicy burgers. The menu boasts
gourmet ingredients such as intensive-aged cheddar cheese, cranberries,
pineapple and camembert, which probably explains the sky-high prices! Unless it
contains foie gras or very exotic ingredients, 80LE for a burger is still quite
preposterous.

For an appetiser,
we tried the goat’s cheese salad (74LE), where mixed greens drizzled with sweet
vinaigrette were accompanied by lightly grilled pieces of goat’s cheese on a
bed of thin and sweet cornbread. The delicious salad was bursting with
surprisingly complementing flavours, definitely worth the ridiculous price.

Burger-wise, the
chicken burger (86LE) comes with camembert, cranberries and ruccola, a side of
green salad and fat, juicy fries. While the cranberries’ flavour was barely
detectable, the chicken was well grilled and juicy, yet tasted more like a
chicken sandwich and less like a burger.

The beef burger
classic (82LE) came with cheese, tomato, ruccola and intensive-aged cheddar
cheese as well as a side of onion rings. The beef patty itself was thick and
expertly grilled, leaving a smoky flavour and the meat appropriately juicy and
chewy. The forest mushroom burger (86LE) was topped with a mound of pan-seared
mushrooms and melted cheese, yet it failed to excite the taste buds as much as
the Hawaii burger (76LE), a messy but tasty mix of pineapple, cheese and fried
egg on top of a juicy beef patty. Although a little heavy, the pineapple gave a
nice sweet edge to it.

With barely any
room for dessert, we sampled the Bailey’s cheesecake (50LE for a slice), which
sounded great on the menu but disappointed in reality. The cheesecake was quite
delicious with a great crust; but the Bailey’s sauce was too powerful and added
an unnecessary acidic taste to the cake. The blueberry dream (32LE) was exactly
that, a dream. Arriving in a tall glass, steaming hot blueberries and their
sauce melted into scoops of vanilla ice cream. This was definitely the most popular
dessert at our table, and worth a second visit to Le Garage.

All in all, Le
Garage is great for a sinfully indulgent meal of fat burgers, creamy desserts
and excellent salads. Still, some burgers fail to impress and the restaurant’s
prices are quite unreasonable, even by El Gouna standards.