Fine Dining

In the last week we've found ourselves at two of Cairo's fanciest restaurants; the Birdcage at the Semiramis Continental and the Revolving Restaurant at the Grand Hyatt, and so I felt a blog post was in order to record our fine dining experiences.

Our gourmet week started on Thursday with a meal organised by school to thank the team who had put on the gala stage show - you can see Scott's post about this below. To reflect the size of the show, and hence size of the task (!) facing us all, the meal, including drinks, was "their treat". In the past we have gone to La Bodega to celebrate, which is a chic restaurant on Zamalek / 26th July Street, but this time we were treated to what is widely considered the best Thai food in Cairo and apparently the school's owners favourite restaurant. And it did not disappoint!

The hotel itself was naturally very grand and the speed alternating escalators to get us to the first floor were fun. The restaurant itself only had maybe a dozen tables and was very serene and private. When we were presented with the menu I wasn't alone in being totally lost about what to order. I'm sorry to say that the only Thai food I'm familiar with is green curry and being somewhere so nice I didn't want to be predictable. A friend noticed at the back of the menu though that there was a Digestive Menu on offer which included two types of starter, a salad, two types of main course along with noodles and then a desert. Most of the group elected for this as it seemed to give a good spread of the food on offer. Then decisions had to be made about drinks. A wine menu was presented and people agreed a white would go down well. A few bottles of the regular Egyptian wine Omar Kyamm was about to be ordered when the friend with the credit card noticed a New Zealand wine on the list. Being a Kiwi she decided we would order a few bottles of this to start, and then go onto the more reasonably priced Egyptian option.

The wine was divine. I know that rhymes and looks tacky, but it really was delicious. I'm sure my delight was partially a reflection of the lack of good wine that we drink in our time in Cairo, but even so this was so light and tasty that I loved every little sip.

Before the starters, prawn crackers were brought to the table. We ate this taster with dipping sauce. When the starters arrived we realised what we had let ourselves in for. Each plate of starters was for two people, and with two starters per pair suddenly the table was crammed with wonderful looking, smelling and tasting food. We had spring rolls and fish cakes. The spring rolls were lovely - not too heavy at all. The fish cakes had a spidery noodle batter and came with a wonderful dipping sauce that I cannot place or describe apart from it being a perfect accompaniment. I managed to sneak an extra one of these, which made me very happy as they were delicious. No sooner had we made headway into these starters than the salads arrived. The near raw beef salads weren't the selling point of the taster menu for me, but I tried some nevertheless. The sauce was a bit too spicey for my current taste buds, but everyone else enjoyed this dish.

We were still enjoying the wine, and I don't think the Kiwi credit card holder had the heart to change back to an Egyptian bottle with all the appreciative noises we were making. So we stuck to this during the main meal.

After these courses we really weren't sure how we would tackle the mains. Although you could smoke in the restaurant, friends took this opportunity to go onto the first floor balcony over the reception. The mains arrived and once again the table was crammed with food; a green curry and a prawn dish were accompanied by a huge mound of fried noodles with vegetables. The prawns were huge and served on their own without a sauce, but the little seasoning they had a little too spicey with chilli's for my newly sensitive taste buds. This didn't stop me going back for more - I'm not going to let king prawns go to waste! The chicken in green curry was really lovely too, again nice and spicey. The noodles were fine noodles and small vegetables. I could have almost eaten these on their own - and in fact did my best to polish off the plate I was sharing!

Desert in the set menu was fresh fruit with ice cream, but we ordered some additional deep fried bananas and deep friend ice cream. This was the only down point in the evening when they forgot one of the additional orders, and had to be reminded. This order was then brought out after the rest of the deserts had been finished. The fresh fruit and deep friend banana were good. Some people weren't convinced by the ice cream which seemed to be mango/ginger flavour maybe with jelly-type bits in, but I liked it. When the deep fried ice cream eventually came Scott did like it, but everyone was baffled as to why it was served with kidney beans in the dish.....can anyone enlighten us?

So a lovely meal on Thursday night and I would definitely return there. The menu we had was 195LE per person (minimum of two persons ordering) plus 25% in service and tax, so this made it the second most expensive meal we'd had to date in Cairo (after the Four Season's Buffet, but ahead of La Bodega), but as I said I would not hesitate to go back there with guests, family or friends for a treat of a meal out.

Our current visitors, Laura and Effie arrived with many many plans about what they wanted to fit into their time in Cairo. One thing on their list was dining at the Revolving Restaurant at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. This place is renowned for being expensive, but the fact that the restaurant is in the centre of Cairo and revolves through the 360 degrees over 72 minutes lends to an understanding of their pricing.

We were eating our meal late, as Laura and Effie were arriving back that evening from Alexandria and had train, traffic and taxi troubles (not a huge surprise in Cairo, but a shame that all three combined this one evening). To get to the restaurant we took lift up to the 40th floor where we were met and offered a seat to have pre-dinner drinks. The 40th floor is dedicated to this bar with seating running around most of the view. It felt very calm here as you look down onto the mayhem that is Cairo. When we were ready, just after 9pm, we were escorted in the private lift up to the 41st floor and the lift exited into the centre of the restaurant.

You exit into the centre of the restaurant and then we were shown to our seats - which happened to be half way around the restaurant. I think they set it up like this so that they can show off not only the view as you walk round, but also that they have an open kitchen in the centre. The restaurant only had a a handful of diners in it seemed, yet they did the classic of seating us near another group. This was a little frustrating, but we chatted and giggled louder than they did to make up for it.

When we first sat down, both Effie and I put our bags on the ledge beside us. It took us a few minutes to notice that they were slowly moving away from us as we turned and the window, with its ledge, stayed in the same place! The view was good being in central Cairo and right on the Nile. I was surprised actually at how few lights were on in buildings - in London there would have been a lot more I suspect. We could easily see downtown and even the satellite cities around Cairo to the West. When we had first arrived at the bar around 8pm we had been able to see the tops of the Pyramids which was really really cool. After about 15 minutes though, as dusk settled in, we lost them to the darkness and pollution cloud combined.

The 360 degree view is only thwarted for about 10 degrees to the East where the mechanism is housed. To disguise this a Pharonic display of statues and relief has been created which caused us some hilarity. It was really quite naff! We felt that it would have been better if they'd made a feature of this and we'd been able to actually see the mechanism - would have been fascinating. I'm still not sure if the galaxy scene on the ceiling, with shooting stars and moons in LEDs was an attempt to create atmosphere or amuse small children (although no one under 12 is allowed in the restaurant).

Looking at the menu, starters were around 120LE with soups 60LE, mains varied from 150LE to 250LE for most, but 450LE for an ultimate looking steak. Deserts were 60LE and wine was a typical 180LE for Egyptian and 35LE for Stella beer.

We decided not to get a starter, as they were pricey and to be honest there wasn't anything that jumped out at me. Also we were hungry and wanted to get onto the main course with space for desert (I had spied the word "chocolate"). After we had ordered we were brought two small baguettes that had been sliced. These were lovely with butter and seemed to be bottomless, as the moment we had two crusts left on the ends we were brought a new plate!

Our mains came; I had ordered lamb which came with spinach and a lovey nutty and apricot compote. Effie had veal and Laura had chicken. Scott had a steak which disappointingly was overdone and didn't come medium-rare as requested. He's kicking himself for not sending it back. We ordered a few sides to go with our mains; Scotty and I shared chips which were nice and chunky, mash which was nice and creamy, and mushrooms which were in butter and plentiful. The mains were good and with nice sauces. Although they may have looked a little small to start with, with the sides they were filling.

Onto our deserts and I had the dilemma I often get when ordering food; Scotty would say I'm notorious for not wanting to order the same as anyone else. In the back of my mind I think that if we order two different things then we'll get to try more different foods, yet in reality I know I want all my desert and Scott wants all of his. Scott went for the chocolate and I went for the creme brulee. I was expecting the small ramekin that is typical of restaurant creme brulee but was very pleasantly surprised with a whole desert dish turned up having been torched on top! It was huge! It had lovely caramelised peaches on top and I'm pleased to say it took a little forcing to finish the whole thing. Scott's chocolate fondant looked rich with passion fruit sorbet the side.

When we finished the meal it was gone 11pm and we'd made it through 360 degrees and two good courses of filling food. We decided not to stay for another drink as it was a school night (!) and so we would get a taxi home together. We weren't too surprised at the overall bill, as we knew it was 25% taxes and charges on top of the menu price. It was however our most expensive meal in Cairo (having topped the Birdcage and Four Seasons by far).

Overall we'd say it was a pretty good food and a pretty good view, but these don't add up to the total price we paid. I might go again as a real treat, but would be weary that other places serve equivalent food at a better price and that you can go to the 40th floor bar for just a drink without having to go to the Restaurant.