The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

For the
most traditional fetar outing in Cairo, there is no better area to go to than
Islamic Cairo. The scenic buildings, narrow streets, smell of spices and the
crowds of people make a picturesque background. In Ramadan, the area of El
Hussein has an even more magical atmosphere when the streets are lit up and
decorated.

Though it’s known as one of the best fiteer spots in Islamic Cairo,
Fitatri El Hussein decided to scrap its traditional menu during Ramadan and
team up with all the other restaurants in the area to serve the exact same menu
for fetar. This, if you ask us, is quite a shame.

As most
restaurants here, Fitatri El Hussein has tables lined out on the terrace by the street. Once you sit down you are presented with salad, tehina and baba ghanough,
as well as a big plate filled with meat, pigeons and bread. In all honesty, we
weren’t presented with it; the people around us were. We had to ask time after
time if we could order food. After finally being able to order, our food was
delivered pretty quickly.

Even though we asked for the regular fetar
menu just like everyone else, we ended up receiving a small plate with, to be
exact, five pieces of meat. There was kofta, chicken and beef. Not only were
our portions paltry compared to the tables around us; the meat was also of bad
quality. The tehina was reasonable, but it was too fluid and lacked
flavour.

The chicken was edible but that is really as far as it goes. We also
didn’t receive our orders of stuffed pigeons and, we can’t stress it enough,
our plate with meat looked very sad compared to the others around. There was no
sign of karkadeh or amar el din around so we settled for Coca Cola and water.

In the meantime, tourist buses made their
way through the narrow street next to the terrace, forcing half of the people
sitting on the tables there to pack up and wait for the buses to pass. The
biggest drama was yet to come. Since the food came from one restaurant and our
drinks from another; we had to pay several checks. The meal for two persons
amounted to 40LE plus 5LE service charge. We were charged 10LE for the Coca Cola, 5LE for a small
bottle of water and another service charge of 3LE.

We would kindly like to point out
that the price for other people was the same even though they were served much
more food. This reviewer tried to ask the waiter about this, but he refused to answer our questions and walked away.

This
fetar experience in Khan Khalili was very disappointing for this reviewer, and
certainly didn’t live up to our expectations of a magical Ramadan fetar experience.