IgoUgo

Cairo Restaurants

El-Dahan

  • The Muski, Khan el-Khalili
    Cairo
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El-Dahan

El-Dahan is a perfectly decent no frills place on the eastern end of the maelstrom that is the Muski, near Midan el-Hussein. Considering its location you'd think it would be a nightmare. In actual fact its pretty sedate. Fans waft cool air and there are several areas for seating - the ground floor where the grill and range is located, the mezzanine where I sat overlooking the lower level, and a higher floor which I did not venture up to - I have a feeling it might have been an open-air terrace. Though to be honest after trudging through Cairo for five hours I was quite grateful for the cool shade, even if the inside was a little smoky from the grilling meat. My first drink I think I downed in one!

The food is essentially traditional Egyptian fare. With a view over a man chopping fresh meat on a block and then tossing it on to the grill to sizzle over the flames, I just had to go for something meaty however. What I plumped for was a quarter kilo of kebab and kofta mix, to be served with green salad and pitta. When it came the freshly grilled meat hit the spot immediately, stuffing it into the pitta with the corainder leaf-topped salad. To be honest, i could maybe have done with more - maybe half a kilo?

End cost? A quarter kilo of meat, plus salad, pitta, and two bottles of water, all for LE28. So that amounts to around £2.50 in sterling. What a deal. It certainly fortified me to step out once more into the madness that is Khan el-Khalili.
From journal Conquering Al-Qahira: a Walk Through Old Cairo