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

Mohandiseen is officially getting its swag; it was once café and restaurant central before being overtaken by 6th of October City and New Cairo. But with the opening of the likes of Bocca, Desouky & Soda, as well as Nino’s Bakery and restaurant-café Chicago, The Republic is the latest new venue to catch our attention.

Located on Abdel Moniem Riad Street, The Republic is a ‘meat and fresh pasta’ specialist, but its mismatched interior suggests otherwise. The restaurant has a grey colour-scheme with turquoise chairs, chandeliers and writing on the ceiling. The choice of chairs and they’re material, the old school design of the walls, and the randomly hung black and white photos don’t match the street-art-style ceiling – and, most importantly, the meat and pasta concept.

The staff was very welcoming and super helpful. They explained the concept of the restaurant, revealing that everything is freshly made in-house; while some might have found it a little too much, it’s always nice to hear a restaurant’s staff proudly promoting the concept. Moments later, the waiter came with a mini-cup of fresh peach and grape juice, which was a surprisingly great mix, and a bread basket with three dips; delicious garlic butter, zesty pickled lemon and a third bland dip that tasted like nothing.

The variety of the menu is quite limited as there are only two hot appetisers alongside some salads, six main courses and five pasta dishes.

We opted for the Merguez Sausage (70LE) as an appetiser, which consists of a base of very smooth mashed potatoes which worked perfectly with the harissa-based merguez sauce of the sausage, which itself was bursting with flavours and had an amazing spicy kick that was balanced by the sweetness of the red peppers. The quality sausage was perfectly cooked and had a surprisingly smooth inner texture. The only downside was the fact that the presentation was a bit underwhelming; fried onions covered the colourful sausage and the black skillet, the light wood board, and the transparent pan lid were a bit too much and looked like a bad mix-and-match of kitchen props.

Moving to the mains, we opted for a Black Spaghetti Seafood (120LE); a mix of calamari, shrimp, mussels and pasta tossed in a simple lemongrass sauce, which had its ups and downs. The presentation again was poor and didn’t show the beauty of the dish. In addition, the calamari was a bit overcooked and rubbery, the dish lacked seasoning and the spaghetti seemed closer to thick noodles. On the other hand, it was cooked to a perfect al dente, there were a generous amount of seafood in what was already a hugly-portioned dish and, after adding some salt and pepper, the dish came together much better.

We also tried the T-Bone Steak with Blue Cheese and Walnut Butter (200LE). The steak came cooked to a perfect medium as requested, the side of roasted vegetables had terrific garlicky and sweet flavours to them and the blue cheese butter was a fantastic flavour booster to the steak. However, the quality of the meat wasn’t particularly high and was quite chewy, while we couldn’t really detect the flavour of the walnuts in the butter.

Of the limited desserts, we picked the Passion Fruit and Pineapple Trifle (41LE), which consisted of a layer of light sponge cake topped with far too much whipped cream, a drizzle of passion fruit syrup and cubes of canned pineapple. This dessert wasn’t well-thought-out, poorly presented and made us feel like we were dining in 1998.

The end of the meal captured the experience perfectly; there’s potential at The Republic, but there’s also a lack of balance. The presentation of what are complex dishes needs work and the concept needs to be clearer for the sake of the menu. But, at the time of our visit, the restaurant was still in its soft-opening phase, so there’s time and space to fix things.