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

Hotel restaurants in Cairo often adopt diverse, international cuisines – none more so than the Cairo Marriott Hotel’s Roy’s Country Kitchen; as it’s name suggests, the rustic diner brings patrons a taste of America.

The walls are adorned with vintage ads, while the waiters are dressed in plaid shirts and jeans – all they’re missing is the cowboy boots and hat.

The kitschy theme continues with its menus, too; shaped like chopping boards, the three menus at Roy’s split service into breakfast, lunch and dinner, boasting a broad selection of mouth-watering American and international dishes.

We ordered a plate of salad from the salad bar (65LE) along with a Super Platter (95LE) for starters. For our main courses, we enjoyed both a grilled chicken breast platter (90LE) and a seafood burger (105LE).

Conveniently tucked in a corner of the restaurant, the salad bar offers a plethora of ingredients that taste every bit as good as they look. Tubs of fresh vegetables – including cherry tomatoes, shredded carrots, lettuce and cucumbers – are on one side, while the other holds interesting variations of potato, beetroot, cheese and mushrooms salads. All the options are kept fresh and crisp and are of the highest quality – including the dressings.

No American diner is complete without a range of appetizers and the Super Platter was by no means disappointing, if distinctly unexceptional.  Fried cheese, halloumi with tomato, onion rings and potato wedges were accompanied with three dips of blue cheese, fresh country salsa and honey mustard.

Moving onto our mains, the chicken breast dish came with a mix of grilled vegetables and a wonderfully sautéed serving of spinach. The chicken itself was grilled perfectly, thick and tender, and a dash of barbeque sauce only made it more succulent.

Garnished with a flavourful tartar sauce, the seafood burger, served with a green salad and fries on the side, tasted of a pleasantly generic seafood mixture, although it was hard to pinpoint what seafood critters had been grounded into the patty.

We couldn’t leave without indulging in one of Roy’s Country Kitchen’s four desserts; blueberry cheesecake, apple almond pie, walnut praline sweet potato pie and banana bread pudding with caramel sauce – each for 60LE. Torn between the apple almond pie and banana bread, the tempting caramel sauce made us settle on the latter. Shortly after ordering we were informed that the venue was out of the accompanying ice cream. Regardless, the pudding was warm and soft in its texture and, even with without ice cream, tasted wonderful. The viscous caramel sauce drenched the banana bread and gave it the perfect sweetness. The only downside was that the portion was rather small.

 Last time Cairo 360 visited Roy’s Country Kitchen, we came away with a regretfully poor dining experience. After a recent hiatus, however, the restaurant has re-emerged with good food and high quality service that is recommended to anyone out for some good ol’ American cookin’.