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Alexandria's culinary gift is extraordinary seafood, drawing on the best of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The preparation tends to be simple: grilled or fried, perhaps laced with garlic, herbs, or butter, and typically served with tahini (sesame paste) and a couple of salads on the side. The ingredients are so fresh that an
Alexandria's culinary gift is extraordinary seafood, drawing on the best of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The preparation tends to be simple: grilled or fried, perhaps laced with garlic, herbs, or butter, and typically served with tahini (sesame paste) and a couple
Alexandria's culinary gift is extraordinary seafood, drawing on the best of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The prepa
Alexandria's culinary gift is extraordinary seafood, drawing on the best of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The preparation tends to be simple: grilled or fried, perhaps laced with garlic, herbs, or butter, and typically served with tahini (sesame paste) and a couple of salads on the side. The ingredients are so fresh that anything more elaborate would obscure their flavors. Most places display their offerings of fish, shrimp, crab, calamari, and mussels on ice, and you pay by weight or per serving. The price includes preparation and everything else—there are no hidden costs. If you need help choosing, there will always be someone on hand to guide your selection.
Because the focus is on fresh seafood, restaurants in Alexandria (especially the good ones) tend to be informal and quite inexpensive for the quality of what they serve. Naturally, many are near the water, some of them appropriately weathered, while others consist of no more than a few tables in an alley. A few places will levy a service charge, but most will not. In all places a tip of 10% is appropriate. Do not expect alcohol to be served in most restaurants.
Off-season, Alexandrians eat meals at standard times: 1 to 3 for lunch and 8 to 11 for dinner. But in summer dinner often begins much later. There is nothing more Mediterranean about Alexandria than the pace of dinner in the summer: after an evening siesta, have a shisha (water pipe) around 11, arrive at a waterfront restaurant after midnight, then wrap up the meal with an early morning espresso at an outdoor café nearby. You don't have to eat so late, of course, but you might be surprised how seductive it is.
What began as a kosher restaurant in 1940 is now the best place in Alexandria to find felafel and Egypt's national dish, ful (fava beans). International royalty and celebrities have dined here, but on an average day you're likely to be surrounded by locals getting their fill of vegetarian staples like roasted eggplant with tomatoes, tahini, chopped salad, baba ganoush, and pickled vegetables. While ful and falafel are traditionally served at breakfast, Mohamed Ahmed stays open late so you can enjoy them during lunch or dinner. Food comes cheap and is served lightning quick. Try to get a table downstairs since the upstairs dining room can get stuffy when it's crowded.
Little has changed since this stand-up espresso bar opened in 1929, as you can see from the foot-traffic patterns worn into the tile floor. The ancient roasters are visible to the right—if you're lucky they'll be roasting beans when you walk in, and the café will be filled with plumes of aromatic smoke. Lining the walls are the original stunningly painted mirrors showing a map of South America, along with population and coffee-production statistics for Brazil, now endearingly out of date. There's even an enormous Brazilian flag painted on the ceiling. And while this may be the first Brazilian Coffee Store in Alexandria, you can find other outposts around the city.
Delices Patisserie is a great place to pick up traditional Egyptian pastries or stop in for a snack, a drink, or a quick bite. If the weather is nice, skip the indoor dining room and grab a seat on the outdoor patio. The fresh juice cocktails are delicious and the location is prime for people watching.
This is more a pizzeria than a real Greek taverna, but the pizza is delicious, assembled in front of you and baked in an oven to the left of the entrance. The baladi oven to the right is used for fiteer, a kind of Egyptian pizza than can be sweet or savory; it's also often fairly oily—ask them to go light on the ghee (clarified butter) by telling them "semna khafeef." The menu also includes fish and shrimp dishes. The proper seating area is upstairs, but it's even cheaper if you eat at the informal area downstairs, where a shawarma (pressed lamb carved from a vertical rotisserie) sandwich makes a nice midday snack.
One of Alexandria's most stylish institutions and one of its oldest coffee shops is also the city's most gorgeous restaurant, with high ceilings, elaborate carved wooden chandeliers, and swirling art nouveau murals. The food is enjoyable but unspectacular; try avocado salad and gambari konfa (fried shrimp pastry) for appetizers, and main courses of fattah (lamb) or kebab samak (fish with green rice). In the adjoining café where, behind elaborately carved wooden cabinets, a series of Venetian wood-panel paintings of sensual water nymphs will take your breath away.
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