101 Best Restaurants in Egypt

With excellent food prepared by Swiss chef Markus Iten, a cozy indoor dining area with a fireplace, and an outdoor terrace with show-stopping views of Qarun Lake, this is the perfect place to fuel up before, during, or after a day of exploring Tunis Village's pottery workshops. The restaurant also offers both pottery and cooking classes.

Kadoura is a nationwide chain that got its start in Alexandria in 1950, and lucky for hungry visitors, it's every bit as good as its reputation. Fish is grilled with a delicious fresh tomato, garlic, and herb purée; calamari come lightly fried, tender, and tasty. Pick your seafood downstairs, grab a wood-block number, and sit upstairs. Everything else that comes to you—salads, tahini, drinks—is included in the price. It's very popular for lunch, especially on Fridays, when space is at a premium.

Overlooking Maydan Sphinx (Sphinx Square), Kandahar serves North Indian food. Consider ordering one of the set menus that include the highly seasoned mulligatawny soup, appetizers, a delicious stewed dal, a lamb or chicken curry, and rice and bread, as well as dessert. This will give you a chance to try a bit of everything. If you like your food heavily spiced, make this known—the heat has been turned down for local tastes. This is not a sign of a lack of authenticity—chili pepper is only one of the spices in the Indian culinary palette. Service is good but prices here are on the high side for quite toothsome but standard Indian fare. You can also order from the menu of the adjoined Lebanese restaurant, Raouche.

Dig your toes into the sand at this gorgeous restaurant that's painted in bright colors and dishes up Nubian delights. It specializes in tagine dishes, which are slow-cooked in large clay pots.

One of the best restaurants in town allows you to go on the rooftop terrace, shaded by date palms that rise up through the floor, or to recline on pillows in the downstairs den by the fireplace. Either way, you'll enjoy traditional fare served up piping hot. The eclectic menu also includes delicious crepes, lamb casserole, and a chicken curry that would pass muster in Mumbai. The staff are friendly and attentive. Give them enough notice and they'll prepare a stuffed lamb for your party.

Not only is this a great Italian restaurant, serving arguably the best food in El Gouna, but it's also a hip hangout. Kiki's opens at 8 pm to serve great plates of pasta plus grilled meats and seafood, but it really comes alive around 11—and keeps kickin' through the night until the last person leaves.

As its name suggests, this restaurant specializes in koshary, the street-food favorite that generally consists of macaroni, rice, lentils, and chickpeas topped with a spiced tomato sauce and crispy fried onions. Sit outside, facing a busy intersection, so you can watch life unfold while you eat.

Founded in the 1930s, this quaint coffee shop has witnessed most of Downtown’s history and was once a favorite spot for its elites and celebrities. Today, people from all walks of life come to enjoy its coffee and desserts.

Conveniently situated a street-crossing away from the Egyptian Museum, La Poire was established in 1975 as a French pastry shop but has expanded its menu to include a variety of savory quick bites and an ever-growing selection of sweet treats.

This eatery on the 11th floor of the President Hotel has several comfortable seating areas and is the perfect place to grab a quick coffee or a relaxed dinner with drinks. You can also enjoy a delicious lunch here, though reservations are a good idea.

Latif Wassily is a traditional Egyptian forn (bakery)—one of the oldest in Downtown. Grab-and-go baked goods include croissants that are generously filled with cheese and breadsticks that are liberally sprinkled with sesame and nigella seeds.

Overlooking a bend on Gharb Soheil's busy market street, this rooftop restaurant offers a bird's-eye view of the action while you enjoy your lunch. The friendly staff will help you translate the menu, or you can just opt for the juicy chicken that comes with plenty of sides.

Favored by locals, Le Chantilly is the perfect place to unwind with a cup of coffee and fresh pastries, seated indoors at a wooden table covered with a checkered tablecloth or in the charming outdoor area.

It’s hard to decide what's best here—the mouthwatering Egyptian food, the Nile views, the Khedive-style interior, or the excellent service. Indeed, La Tarbouche is one of the restaurants that Cairenes most often recommend to visitors.

Despite the arrival in Cairo of internationally recognized American fast-food chains, expats still flock to Lucille's for burgers and Tex-Mex dishes. Lucille's also serves up hearty Western breakfasts. The authentic diner interior keeps homesick Americans happy.

The backdrop for the gourmet, Bedouin-inspired dishes at the restaurant in the Remal El Rayan eco-lodge are sand dunes and Qarun Lake. All together it makes for quite a remarkable experience.

Ful (fava-bean stew) carts and restaurants are a common sight in Cairo, but the customers here hail from all over the world thanks to the many nearby embassies and to the freshness and flavor of its offerings. To create the stew, which is served primarily at breakfast but also makes a filling lunch, the beans are slow-cooked in a large metal jug and then mashed and served with tahini and a flavorful oil.

If you, like many members of the expat community, find yourself craving a warm bowl of ramen or some fresh sushi, head to this small, casual restaurant. The Japanese chefs prefer using only authentic ingredients, some of which can be hard to come by in Cairo, so menu offerings tend to change.

Makka serves such local fare as grilled meats and molokheya (a thick, green, often garlicky soup made with jute leaves). As usual, dishes are accompanied by plenty of small plates.

The sleek, Art Deco–style interior has beautiful mosaic floors and walls adorned with photographs of actors from the 1960s golden age of Egyptian cinema. The food is likewise classic Egyptian; the rice and pigeon tagine and the spicy potatoes with sausage are good bets.

A surprisingly good find at the southern end of Luxor's East Bank hotel strip, Maxime's has a menu of burgers and fries, as well as Middle Eastern staples. The relaxing atmosphere makes it a great spot to while away an evening. You can even puff on a hookah pipe in the open-air courtyard.

Although it offers delicious seafood, soups, salads, and pastas, Mo Bistro specializes in meat dishes. From juicy, tender flank steaks to slow-cooked beef shanks to bone marrow, everything is expertly seasoned and prepared. Reservations are a good idea on the weekends.

In one of the few remaining 19th-century mansions in town, this relaxed restaurant decorated with old-school photos and furnishings lives up to its name. The menu runs the gamut from respectable pasta dishes to decent sandwiches.

Thanks to the picture menu, the friendly English-speaking staff, and the free Wi-Fi for customers, this clean, convenient neighborhood restaurant is usually overrun with tourists. The Middle Eastern dishes are often given a local twist, and the menu includes vegan options as well. There are both indoor and outdoor seating areas; if you sit outside, you’ll be joined by friendly felines.

The ultra-contemporary and fashionable Italian restaurant at the Semiramis InterContinental puts a modern twist on traditional trattoria fare using authentic Italian ingredients. Signature dishes include crispy fried calamari and carpaccio with rocket salad and Parmesan cheese.

The outdoor seating area of this restaurant in one of El-Korba's historical buildings offers stellar views of the promenade below and is an especially nice place to dine on breezy spring evenings. Mouthwatering dishes on the Italian menu include burrata pizza, gnocchi, and fresh bruschetta. Although the restaurant accepts walk-ins, reservations are preferred.

Although this eatery is set in Zamalek’s Flamenco Hotel, its warm woods, tile work, and selection of baked goods make it feel like a family run bakery set in a small European town. It opens at 7 am, so you can enjoy breakfast and coffee while watching Cairenes on their way to work; or come later in the day for a German brezel (pretzel).

A popular lunch stop for safari groups by day, this restaurant is often transformed into a shisha (hookah) café packed with locals watching football matches by night. There's seating indoors, but the shaded, ceramic-tiled terrace is really the place to be. The grilled chicken here is possibly the best in town and comes with the usual side dishes as well as some tasty local olives. It sometimes has dessert, too.

While finding sushi and Japanese food isn't too terribly difficult around the Red Sea, finding Vietnamese food—and good Vietnamese food, at that—is a rarity. Saigon serves excellent roasted duck and noodle soups, and it has a good selection of vegetarian options.

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.