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

Road Nine in
Maadi offers a wide range of eateries, but most are either recognizable
fast-food chains like McDonald’s and KFC, or proper sit-down restaurants like Mermaid and Lucile’s. A short
one-minute walk from the Sakanat Maadi Metro station, Man’oucheh tries to
occupy the middle ground, selling dressed up Lebanese bites and attentive
customer service at a cheap price. 

The
restaurant only consists of a few tables, and the employees often outnumber the
empty chairs. The staff makes a good effort to keep the place clean; so much so
that it actually has a kind of sterile feel to it. That being said, the waiters and cashiers are
friendly, and the wall-mounted TV adds to the casual environment.

Yet even
Man’oucheh seems unclear on whether it is a fast food stop or genuine sit-down
experience. While some customers wait
for an available waiter to take their order, most awkwardly walk up and order
at the cash register and then pay afterwards. 

The main
dishes are divided into omelettes (19LE to 22LE), shawerma (25LE) and mana’eesh
with cheese (16LE to 21LE), as well as mana’eesh with meat (13LE to 26LE),
pizzas (22LE to 37LE), and specials (28LE to 32LE). While these prices might be slightly higher
than those of the same dishes elsewhere, be assured that the portions are quite
large. The chicken and beef shawerma sandwiches
are especially delicious and cut into four pieces, each of which is easy to
handle and could make for an entire lunch.

Like most
of the dishes at Man’oucheh, the shawerma sandwiches are cooked in a brick-oven
directly behind the cashier, and the thin toasted bread is definitely one of
the restaurant’s highlights. For an
extra kick, ask for spicy sauce to complement the garlic sauce that comes on
almost all orders.

The tuna
special (29.25LE) is even larger than the shawerma sandwich, and actually
arrives on your plate in two halves, each of which could be a hearty meal unto
itself.  Particularly with such a big
entrée, there is little need to add an optional order of fries.

For
dessert, try one of the baked goods under the minioucheh section of the
menu.  Their version of halloum, a sweet
pastry with Lebanese cheese in the middle, is particularly good, although it
only lasts for a few bites. The spinach
pastries and safiha also looked fresh. 

As its
food is oven-baked, Man’oucheh is less greasy than its fast food counterparts
in Cairo, and the cheap meals are great value for money. If nothing else, it is a relaxing place to
eat a shawerma and catch a few scenes of Gladiator or Indiana Jones.