Where And What To Eat In Cairo With Kids

Since my husband has family in Cairo, we are treated to homemade meals while in Cairo.  We are very lucky.  All of them are really good cooks.  We enjoy fresh molokheya soup (jute mallow or jew’s mallow – green, slightly slimy), the national dish of Egypt, roast pigeon, roast chicken, various stuffed vegetables – tomatoes, green peppers, eggplants, cabbage, grape leaves, lamb etc.  The desserts offered are no less tantalizing – loukoumades, puffed honey balls – which we had for the first time in Marsa Matrouh and which the girls went crazy over – easy to understand why!, konafa etc..

Our girls' favorite dessert - loukomedes

If you aren’t visiting friends or family in Egypt, well, there are many places to eat but honestly, none can match the quality, flavor and variety of food offered in the homes of Cairo.  Below is a list of some of the places we ate at while in Cairo:

Fateer
Finding food kids like to eat isn’t too much of a problem in Egypt.  Fateer was a big hit with our kids.  It is similar to pratha which is one of our girls’ favorite treats.  We like to eat pratha with sugar in the morning.  It is definitely unhealthy so I only serve it on ‘special’ occasions like first day back at school, birthdays, days we need a pick me up etc… (OK more often than we should eat it.)  Pratha is basically made out of dough and ghee (clarified butter).  Although our family likes to eat pratha with sugar, pratha is also eaten with a savory dish such as chicken curry.  Fateer is similar to pratha but unlike pratha it isn’t flattened and twisted to produce many layers when cooked.  Fateer is often called Egyptian pizza or pancake – but really, it is simply fried flat dough, thus the reason for the children liking it. 

The best fateer (and in my opinion, even the best fateer doesn’t compare to a good pratha) we had was in Marsa Matrouh, at a beach side shack near our hotel.  In Cairo, we had fateer at a restaurant at the perimeter of Khan Al Khalili bazaar.  We like fateer in general but it wasn’t that good and the restaurant wasn’t that clean.  It seems The Egyptian Pancake House is often recommended.  We ate next door to it.  Personally, both places looked the same – a dive and food that was OK, but certainly safe to eat.  I am not sure you can get sick eating fried dough, however, it may be because we wanted it plain with sugar.  You could get the savory kind and have meat and vegetables stuffed in the fateer.

Koshari
Koshari is another kid friendly dish.  It is a poor man’s meal and you can eat koshari for under a dollar.  Koshari is made of small wheel, tube etc pasta, rice, mixed with lentils, chick peas and tomato sauce, usually spicy but not for the kids.  It is topped with fried onions. I love it!  The girls like it too – but without the lentils, rice, chick peas and fried onions – right, that would be pasta with tomato sauce.  Oh well.  You can get koshari anywhere in Cairo but we did not get a chance to eat out at any of the roadside stalls or restaurants that server koshari.  We only had it at ‘home’ at my in-laws place in Cairo.  My mother-in-law did not approve of us taking the kids out for koshari – I suppose because it is considered a plebeian meal. Too bad because I know I missed out!!

Sabaya at Semiramis Hotel
We took some of my husband’s relatives out for dinner at Sabbaya, a Lebanese restaurant located in the Intercontinental.  Is it kid friendly?  It was fine because we ate early and there was no one else in the restaurant besides our group.  The décor was plush, dark, very Middle Eastern – not exactly kid friendly but it was OK.  The service and the food were very good.  We ordered the mezzas and we also ordered meat and fish entrees, mostly because it was Friday, and the fish was good.  The kids like the hummus, the breads, olives, tabouleh etc and so this would be a good choice for a family looking for an upscale place to dine.

Beanos
One evening we met up with my husband’s cousin and his family for dinner at Beanos, a local coffee chain, at its Zamalek outpost.  I didn’t particularly want to eat there because I like Middle Eastern food but it was a kid friendly choice.  The café is clean and well lit.  There are many sandwich options and of course drink options.  The food was decent.  However, the service was horrendous.  Because it was Ramadan, Beanos refused to serve us food until it was sunset.  Since we weren’t observing Ramadan and the café was open, it made no sense.  Despite our pleas they refused to serve us until the predetermined time.  I don’t think they would have refused service if we were all unmistakably foreign looking (I’m Asian…not sure if they count me as a foreigner in their minds) and if we weren’t with locals.  We gave up and waited.  If you are missing a western café I guess you can give it a try.  Apparently Beanos serves great coffee – but I can’t say for sure since I don’t drink coffee.

Maison Thomas
Located in Zamelek, Maison Thomas has an inviting storefront.  We decided to give it a try since it was recommended by family and by the Lonely Planet.  The storefront may look inviting but the seating available isn’t.  There aren’t many tables to start and the chairs are all very high with no backs.  There was a wait but we decided to stick it out and managed to grab a table when a couple left.  We ordered pizza and waited and waited.  It seems there was a mix up in the kitchen, but no one bothered to come by to let us know that the wait would be long.  No one bothered to apologize.  We asked a couple of times about our pizza and they never had a good answer for why our pizza was not ready.  It finally came and the pizza was good.  The best to be found in Cairo.  I don’t know what came over me…perhaps the French name, but I ordered the tarte tatin for dessert.  It was fine…but let’s face it, why would you order pizza at a restaurant with a French name in Cairo and finish off with a French dessert…because you don’t have too many options.  No matter, our girls enjoyed their pizza and wanted to go back for another meal.

Naguib Mahfouz Café
If you are in Khan Al Khilli and you don’t feel like eating fateer in a place that looks less than clean, have lunch at the Naguib Mahfouz Café.  It is named after the Nobel Prize winning Egyptian author who frequented the café.  The atmosphere is nice and it is clean! The food is fine but that’s not the reason you dine there.  It’s in Khan Al Khilli and you are hungry and you want a nice quiet clean place.

Le Pacha 1901- Piccolo Mondo
My mother-in-law wanted to host a family get together in a nice restaurant that would also be kid friendly.  She asked for recommendations from her family and decided on La Pacha 1901, a large boat docked on the river near the Marriott Cairo.  La Pacha boasts 10 restaurants!  One of the hippest is L’Asiatique.  Naturally, that’s not where we dined…my mother-in-law chose well and we had a fun dinner at Piccolo Mondo.  The food is fine and you can see the boats and feluccas go by on the Nile while you enjoy your dinner.  The most important criteria for my mother-in-law for the evening?  The restaurant had to be clean – and it was.


Mandarine Koueider
We were looking for sweets to take back to the US from Egypt.  One of our favorite sweets is malban or Turkish Delight.  Our Egyptian driver recommended Mandarine Koueider in Zamalek that has been in business for years.  There is a long line of customers waiting to buy its sweets - especially during Ramadan.  The sweets are sold by weight.  My husband and I bought three 1lb boxes of the malban.  The texture of the malban was soft but dense with lots of pistachios inside.  The malban is displayed like ropes in the store.  If you tell them how much you want, they just cut the right amount for you.  We shared the malban with our family but honestly, we ate most of it.  It was incredibly delicious!!  My mouth is watering just thinking of it.  Perfect with a cup of tea!