There are three restaurants, French, Italian and Oriental, and a coffeeshop-cum-patisserie with French-type and Oriental pastries. You know, those immensely sweet ones: baklava which is flaky pastry and nuts, and atayf which is shredded wheat with honey and nuts. The way I describe it is awfully dull -- you must taste it. You''ll either like it or not, it’s an acquired taste. This type of pastry is not unique to Egypt. Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, and Greece have the same pastries. And undoubtedly Algeria and Libya, but I didn’t visit these two countries.
We went to the Oriental restaurant because it is was outside and I’m not particularly fond of air-conditioning. This is also the place where men can smoke waterpipe.
It is a comfortable place to sit with live music (although not when we were there). There''s a big TV screen showing an old-fashioned romantic Egyptian films -- no need to listen to the dialogue because the pictures were enough.
I had fresh flat Egyptian bread and a platter with chickpeas, green salad, garlic yoghurt, stuffed vine leaves, and tahina (sesame spread spiced with oil, garlic, and lemon). My husband had kofte kebab (minced lamb meatballs) and could choose between rice and french fries, but he wanted vegetables, which was a bit of a problem. Finally the waiter said he could offer him okra. This vegetable looks vaguely like green beans, there are many small pips inside, and they are a bit slimy. But I can assure you it’s delicious. In the end he got all: okra, rice, and french fries.
I had fresh lemon juice and my husband had Egyptian beer. The beer was definitely the most expensive item on the bill. We paid $17, which was an extremely good price. If you have spent all your Egyptian pounds, like we had, they accept US dollars (and most likely euros as well, but I didn’t ask).