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Cairo's restaurant scene has really developed over the last decade, breaking out of the five-star hotels and onto the streets. Eating out is now a regular form of entertainment, affordable to the growing upper and middle classes in Egypt. Naturally, Egyptian food remains the local favorite, and Cairo is the place to find the best of the country's specialties. Restaurants compete mainly on quality of ingredients rather than refinement of preparations. However, the range of cuisine options has expanded dramatically to include Indian, Thai, French, Italian, and even Japanese.
Local beers (including Stella Premium, Luxor, and Sakara) are common, and you can usually find a range of drinkable, if unremarkable, local wines (the top-rate Grand Marquis label, then the passable Omar Khayyam, Sheherazade, and Obelisque, and a much less wonderful Rubis).
Egyptians eat late: lunch from 1 to 3 and dinner often starting at 9 or 10. Most restaurants are open daily for both lunch and dinner. Dress is generally smart casual. Local beers and wines are served in many restaurants, but expensive imported alcohol is limited to top-end establishments. Although fancier places levy a 12% service charge, it is customary to leave a tip in inverse relation to the size of the bill, ranging from, say, 8% at expensive places to 12% to 14% at cheaper places.
Home-cooked Egyptian staples are the hallmarks of this side-street restaurant, which is sometimes called Five Ladies, as it's run by five women from the same family. Although the menu changes daily, based on what's fresh and in season, it typically includes molokhia (a dish of braised greens with chicken and rice.
This cozy restaurant, with a highly patterned tiled floor and pale stucco walls adorned with Lebanese crafts, comes alive in the evening. Grilled meats are staples here, as are hot and cold mezze. Wines, spirits, and Lebanese arak (an anise-based liqueur) are also available.
The menu at this modest eatery, run by the same family since the 1960s, focuses on thin-loaf sandwiches with meat fillings, some of which are very spicy, though you might consider trying scrambled eggs with basturma (seasoned, air-dried, cured beef). In the evening, locals flock here to share a meal with family and friends, so you might have to wait to be seated.
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