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

Living in Egypt is becoming more and more expensive and Cairo’s restaurants are not immune from that. There comes a very specific time of the month when, seemingly out of nowhere, your wallet and bank account betray you in the cruellest of ways, suddenly and shockingly revealing themselves to be worn-out, abused and, ultimately, empty. But as you wait patiently for payday to come around, dining becomes more of a pursuit to quiet down your increasingly grumpy tummy than one of pleasing your demanding taste-buds.

Fast-food is usually the go-to in such situation, but even McDonalds and the like can’t be considered particularly cheap or affordable, let alone filling.

Our latest expedition took us to the crowded intersection of El Nasr St. and El Laselky St. in Maadi, where we spotted Country Burger.

The restaurant itself is not particularly welcoming; it’s very loud and, frankly, not very clean. Laid out in the traditional fast food order-over-the-counter setup, we stepped in through the glass doors with a degree of trepidation.

Upon inspecting the menu, we were surprised by how cheap everything really was. A single-patty burger combo goes for 19.99LE, while a triple-patty costs 36.99LE.

We opted for Country Beef Cheese Lovers (30LE) and a Country Beef Mushroom (28LE).

As with most of these kinds of take-away restaurants, serving time was very short. The Cheese Lovers features emmental, mozzarella, and cheddar cheese, as well as diced bell peppers and the traditional lettuce, tomatoes and onions. The Mushroom burger uses the same ingredients, minus the emmental and mozzarella, in addition to a brown mushroom sauce that was clearly made with canned mushrooms.

In the flavour department, you get what you pay for. The patties themselves are far from impressive, while small things like stale bread and the use of canned mushrooms really detract from what looks like a good burger on paper. Don’t expect too much from the French fries that come with the combos; they’re soggy beyond belief.

This is not the kind of restaurant to entice your taste buds, but rather one of your last resorts when you simply need a food fix For what it is, it actually executes it quite well, but compared to any other burger vendors, it comes up well short.