Bua Khao Thai Restaurant

Bua Khao Thai Restaurant
12:00 to 23:00

No. 9, Road 151. Old Maadi
358 0126

Bua Khao is this really sweet Thai Restaurant way out in Maadi. But is worth a trip at least once a month for the authentic Thai flavours and their wonderful Thai iced coffee.

The entrance is covered by a Thai style roof and is a prelude of the tastes to come.

The staff recognises its regulars and lets them seat themselves. But if its someone new, they will courteously seat you at a table of your choice.

The restaurant has a very cosy feel about it. The staff is pleasant and service is good.

The food is excellent and thats why most visitors become regulars. The ingredients are flown in fresh from Thailand and are not the tinned and canned variety.

Start with the Thai Iced Coffee. The soups can suffice as a complete meal if you order the large size ones. Quantities are excellent and most dishes will comfortably feed two people. Its only the steamed rice that comes in individual portions. Spiciness is adjusted to taste. They make it low on chillies for my Western guest and put enough fire in there for my Indian palate when I request them to.

Definitely worth a visit, if you are looking for authentic Thai food in Cairo.

Individual dish reports follow:
Crispy Calamari had coconut flakes in it 21LE. Excellent
Dim Sum had chicken dumplings & Shrimp Sui Mai for 25LE. Really good.
Tom Yam Goong. We specifically requested the spiciest version as in authentic Thai style 18LE. Excellent.
Thai Chicken Chop Suey 30LE. Very different from what we expected. First of all it was not fried. It was made of glass noodles. Interesting.
Rice with Chicken & Cashewnut was on the bland side 35LE. Should have stuck with the Red Chicken curry (24LE - steamed rice additional 4LE) which I had last time & was excellent.
Pork with garlic & pepper 21LE was soft, succulent. Devoid of fat.
Bacardi was 20LE for a small.
Soft drink cans are 7.
Highly recommend the Thai Iced Coffee for 10LE.

Sales Tax & Service Charge are extras.


Added on 30 Mar 08:
The Chicken coconut soup is outstanding. If you ask for the spicy version, you will find authentic Thai Birds eye chillies in your soup. - 26LE
The Thai Omlette with Chicken was completely unlike the Fuyong that I was expecting and I found the filling a little too watery for my taste (28LE)
The Vegetables with Oyster Sauce (12LE) is out of this world. The veggies are very very lightly steamed and tossed in the sauce so they retain their crunchy texture and fresh flavours.
The Phad Thai noodles (30LE) had shrimp in them (so I couldn't taste it) but my brother was really happy with it. He sid the shrimps were much much much fresher than any of he other places he had tried in Cairo and comparable to the fish in Alexandria.
The fried Ice Cream (18Le) has a little too much batter for my taste - batter also reminiscent of the fried calamari batter- but my young siblings thoroughly approve of it. With higher praise for chocolate than Vanilla flavor.

Sues Kitchen, Bangalore

Wonderful review by Tanay Behera on desicritics

I don't normally link to others reviews, but I just had to link to this one since I echo most of what he has said.

........... The owner, Susan John called Sue is from the West Indies and her restaurant is a cozy nook that you must experience sometime. .....................

................. Though the buffet lunch was priced at a reasonable rate of Rs. 225 per head, we were treated to a delicious spread of about six to seven salads. To name a few there was egg mayonnaise mixed with capsicum, chicken salad, pan fried broccoli, beans and carrot, picnic potato salad, etc. There was soup, which was mouth watering, but I learned about it when I was halfway through the main course and felt kind of upset.

For the main course by means of curries, there was crab curry, mushroom and corn curry, delicious fish cutlets, roasted chicken, Trinidad chicken curry and a yummy vegetable baked dish, among other stuff.

Read his entire post here : http://desicritics.org/2007/03/19/113324.php

Street Food : Egypt vs India

When I first considered writing about "Street Food in Cairo" the few people I knew in Cairo had a good laugh & cautioned me that having just arrived in the city I was completely setting myself up for the curse of the Pharaohs. Well, being a desi & with an ability to eat the Pav Bhajis & Paani Puris & Vada Pavs on the streets of India, then the streets of Cairo posed no threat at all, so I was all set to explore Cairo by tasting everything it had to offer. (But I did tuck a strip of lomotil into my wallet to be on the safer side)

There’s such a variety of snacks, meals, quick bites & drinks on offer on the streets of Cairo that it would be impossible to try them all in a few days, but I did manage the highlights.

A good day begins with a good breakfast. A fuul or tamiya sandwich is what is considered ideal. I tried these at ............................

Read the whole post on My Egypt Blog

Johnny Carino's, Cairo

Johnny Carino's
Nile City Boat
Next to 6th of October Bridge
Zamalek
johnnycarinos@link.net

In the mood for Italian, we set out to Johnny Carino's which advertised home style Italian Food. The Zamalek branch is set on the Nile City boat so you can imagine the nip in the air on a January Night. The outdoor seating would be wonderful on a balmy Summer evening but we rushed to the comfort of 4 walls & a ceiling.

Nice & cosy with some lovely black & white & sepia toned framed photos on the wall it does start to impart the feel of a family owned restaurant rather than a chain. The service was alarmingly fast for Cairo standards, but it suited us just fine. Portions are huge & as usual 2 starters filled us up completely.

The chicken nachos had real jalapenos in them although the nachos seemed home made & the cheese was just right at 33LE. The hand breaded Fried Calamari was a little bland for our taste, but was perked up by the sauce (30LE). We wanted to try their home made Lasagna but we had reached too late & they only make a fixed amount of Lasagna each day. As the menu says "when its over, its over" so we ordered the chicken parmigiana which came with some complementary spagheti on the side (41LE) We were already stuffed with the starters & the complimentary freshly baked oregano bread with garlic dip (absolutley yummilicious) so we had to get the Parmigiana packed in a take away container. Reminder to self - Do not order 2nd course in Egypt until you have seen the first course.

We just finished up with a Cappucino & Latte for 11 LE each. They do have a wonderful variety of options on the menu. Worth a visit. It may seem on the pricier side, for a chain restaurant, but this is the range for decent Italian food in Cairo.

Peking, Cairo

Peking

All across city
They do Take Away, Free Home Delivery & Catering too
One of the more famous Chinese chains around Cairo & well worth the fame.

You can check out their menu & locations on their site.

Their food is quite yummilicious. They have around 100 items on thier menu & whatever I tried was quite good.

Their packing is very neat & compact & they even serve sauces in little containers. Was too hungry to take pics when the food arrived. (home delivery in Cairo normally takes around 45 minutes) But maybe next time..... because there is definitely gonna be a next time.

Tried the fried rice with egg (5.25)which was simple & tasty. There is an option with basmati rice which costs a little more.

The special spicy fried noodles with chicken (15.5) were yum but I probably should not have ordered the crispy version for home delivery since it does tend to get a little soft by the time it arrived.


I loved the spicy kung pao chicken (23.75) with groundnuts but the Hot chilli chicken wasn't as spicy as I expected.

Ok, I'm indian & love spicy food, so none of the stuff was too spicy, it actually was normal spice for me.

There's a 10% sales tax over the mentioned amounts. Do try them out, they are good.

Pottery Cafe, Cairo

Pottery Cafe
Opp AUC Entrance

Its a cosy little cafe opp the American University of Cairo. Normally filled with students. Its a good place to catch a bite if you aren't interested in the fast food chains like Mcdonalds & Hardees which abound in the area.

Caught breakfast in there the other day. The Roast beef panini was 12.5LE Good roast beef. Not thick slices, but thinner ones & a little cheese.

The crepe salami mozarella 13.5LE was excellent in taste, although a little difficult to maneuvre onto the fork.

I would avoid the milk shakes. The milk here is too thick for my taste.

The American coffee was 9LE & the Honeymoon Latte (latte with honey & cinnamon) at 13.5 was excellent. They have a variety of diet, brown & white sugars which you can add to your drink.

They are a wifi hotspot, so grab a coffee & settle down to surf.

Remember there is a 12.5% service charge.

Fuddruckers, Cairo

Tried out Fuddruckers today. They did serve up pretty good burgers in the States. But they weren't as yummy here.

What was good was the excellent salad bar. Each main order gets a complementary - single trip to the salad bar. There were quite a few varieties & they were all quite yummy.

Ordered a Burger - double classic works (40LE) & some chicken wings(27LE - large). I did prefer the Chillis wings infinitely more. & the burger was low on spice & flavors. But I do like me food with a lot of flavour. Not chilli, but flavour. This was a little bland for my taste. Husband did enjoy the food though. So I guess its a personal preference as usual. Soup was 6LE & a bottomless pepsi was 9LE.

The salads were so filling, that the main course was almost completely left over. We hardly touched the food. Take a look.