Marble Slab Creamery: Ice Cream Creations at Your Command in Dandy Mall

Located in Dandy Mall, Brioche Dorée is a French pastry chain with 500 branches located all over the world. Creating delicious French delicacies since 1976, the chain is a welcome addition to Cairo’s brunch culture. Set in a small open space on the mall’s second floor next to Al Shorouk, Brioche Dorée is quite small and barely fits six tables next to its large display counter, which is filled with baskets of fresh croissants, mouth-watering delicacies such as éclairs, cheesecakes and tarts. One look at their banana chocolate tarts or chocolate éclairs will have you salivating instantly; although you might have to wait for a seat on a crowded Friday morning. The café offers set breakfast menu options, such as le petit dejeuner bonjour (21.95LE), which offers a simple combination of coffee or tea with a croissant or brioche, or le petit dejeuner moyen orient (34LE), including either a croissant or a brioche, as well as bread, butter, jam and two eggs with cheese. The croissants themselves are the highlight of Brioche Dorée, available in flavours such as thyme, cheese, apricot, almonds and pain au chocolate. Prices range from 3LE for the mini-croissants to 13LE for larger varieties. We also recommend their vanilla mille-feuille, a little pricey at almost 22LE per portion. Aside from the delectable desserts, the café offers a selection of French soups and sandwiches. When it comes to staple French dishes, it doesn’t get more French than onion soup (13LE); and any French chain should be embarrassed if they can’t get it right. At the time of this reviewer’s visit, they definitely didn’t. A piece of white toast with melted cheese rested on top of the thick onion broth, but it was definitely not soft enough to be gently cut into and spooned up with the broth. Furious cutting with a knife ensued, but even that didn’t help the toast to blend well with the broth. Our order of the smoked salmon quiche with spinach (around 20LE) was a better choice, arriving with a side of mixed lettuce and a rather strong balsamic vinaigrette, and what this hungry reviewer thought was the world’s tiniest slice of quiche. Sadly, it was finished in less than three bites and definitely didn’t satisfy our morning brunch hunger. The L’ocean sandwich (35LE) didn’t fair that well: although the menu said that the sandwich arrives with lemon cream cheese and artichokes on rustique bread, our order arrived minus the lemon cream cheese and with two measly pieces of artichokes that hadn’t completely defrosted. The service at this branch was definitely not its best during our visit. Our waiters were harried, forgetful and couldn’t seem to handle all six or so tables. Our order of raspberry ice tea arrived as peach instead; but it was so delicious that we asked to keep it. We had asked for our cappuccino to be decaf, but what arrived was so heavy and sharp; it tasted more like an espresso shot than a frothy cappuccino. Perhaps it’s better to stick to the croissants and fresh pastries at Brioche Dorée than the rest of their menu. The café also has a ground-floor branch at the mall, where you can sit for a quick coffee or pick up a box of fresh pastries. Brioche Dorée definitely know how to make real French pastries, which taste very rich and very fresh. Even better; the pastries actually taste just as good the next day, a feat that few pastry shops in Cairo accomplish.

Yet another purveyor of frozen yoghurt and ice cream in Cairo has opened its doors! New at Nile City Towers, Scoops is actually pretty good, offering real Italian Ice-cream – or ‘Gelato’ to Italians - as well as tasty frozen yoghurt. We marched along the concourse to their small, bright pink corner shop to try out their chilled desserts.   

The space itself is small but adequate, sporting two large glass counters; one brimming over with tempting ice creams and the other full of tens of colourful toppings. Unfortunately, there is no seating area, meaning that take-away is the only practical solution.

Offering both natural and flavoured yoghurts, prices range 20LE-49LE, with the flavoured varieties - which only featured chocolate at the time of our visit – costing only slightly more. We went for a natural small frozen yoghurt with three different toppings; chocolate chip, Kit Kat and granola (29LE) which turned out to be an excellent combination, perfectly complimenting the icy, bitter-sweet, sharp taste of the natural yoghurt.

Scoops of Gelato Italiano ice cream range at 13LE-34LE, whilst 400 gram tubs are 68LE and 750 gram tubs are 99LE. To help us decide which flavour to choose, we were given testers of the Ooh La La La Oreo Gelato, Vixeny Vanilla and the Playful Pistachio. All the ice creams were delicious, and almost positively authentic, with the Oreo ice cream tasting incredibly chocolaty with a rich biscuit aftertaste; meanwhile, the vanilla was creamy and fresh, whilst the pistachio boasted a good balance of sweet and nutty.

Rather than purchasing a straightforward ice cream, something more unique caught our eye. Scoops sells brightly-coloured flower pots filled with chocolate, strawberry, vanilla or mango ice-cream, topped with chocolate crumbles and a fake flower for 22LE. We went for the exotic mango flavour – a choice we didn’t regret. Although the chocolate topping was delicious on itself, and even chewy in parts, the chocolate-mango combination didn’t quite work.     

Alongside the ice cream range, fun-looking Gelato pops – essentially lolly pops of ice-cream – are priced at 14LE each, 74LE for 6 or 119LE for 12. You can also grab a caramel, vanilla or chocolate milkshake for 30LE, or an espresso for 12LE.

Scoops’ branding doesn't distinguish itself much from its numerous competitors, and generally doesn’t do it justice, because their ice cream truly is delicious – and that's what really counts!