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

Though bakeries and cafés in Cairo are rife, Zamalek is becoming seemingly swamped by cappuccino, cakes and pastries. Bringing a little piece of Parisian baking to Cairo, Boulangerie offers customers a mouth watering array of freshly made bread, pastries, biscuits and sandwiches. 

The quaint, narrow bakery is lined with glass counters, neatly organised and filled with tempting sweet treats. The walls are lined with shelves proudly showing off an assortment of packeted bread (18-30/kg) and toast loaves (2LE-8LE) or individual baguettes (7.50LE-8.50LE) which we were assured had been freshly baked on site.

Hoping the bread really was as fresh as promised, we sauntered over to their sandwich station and pondered over their small but varied filling selection; mixed cheese (20LE), turkey (22LE), roast beef (22LE), smoked salmon (32LE) and tuna (18LE). As well as this, we were given our choice of bread – plain, sesame, brown baguette or ciabatta – and decided on mixed cheese on a white sesame baguette with additional salad and mayonnaise. The mixture of creamy Gouda, cheddar and emmental cheese worked brilliantly together, whilst the bread was delectable; soft, fluffy and flavourful. The tomato and lettuce salad filling was generous, fresh and crunchy whilst the mayonnaise complimented the flavours nicely. 

With so many delicious looking pastries, picking the perfect dessert was a little difficult. Noticing our struggle, we were offered one of their small chocolate biscuits to taste (34LE/kg) which was incredibly tasty, crisp, buttery and chocolatey all at once. 

We eventually picked one lemon meringue tart (8LE), a Nutella croissant (7.50LE) and one chocolate doughnut (8LE). The Nutella croissant was rather disappointing; although the pastry was soft and buttery, there was a very meagre amount of Nutella inside. Similarly, the chocolate doughnut had only a thin layer of chocolate on the top, leaving the thick circle of dough tasting a little dry, plain and boring. The lemon meringue tart on the other hand was fresh, soft and scrumptious with a generous, airy meringue topping and sharp, citrus lemon jelly. 

As promised, Boulangerie delivers fresh bread and pastry options at reasonable prices; perfect at any time of day.