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

Cairo seems to love fads and trends, none more so than when it comes to food – think gourmet burgers, quirky, modernised Egyptian cuisine and other novel food concepts that have taken a grip over Egypt’s capital. This extends to the world of baking and, possibly encouraged by the popularity of cupcakes over the last few years, waffles threatened to be the next big fad, but for the wildly varying levels of quality amongst the several specialists that continue to pop-up. While it’s an easy recipe and fairly uncomplicated procedure, waffle shops that opened have tendedto be either very good, or very bad – with nothing in between.

Owned by the same people as Shawerma El Reem, Wafflicious shares its premises in all of its branches. The decor is simple and modern, with a predominantly orange colour scheme. There’s a bar with all the toppings, as well as refrigerators housing other baked goods like cupcakes (13LE) and cheesecake cups (14LE).

We glanced through the menu which breaks down the process into four steps – pick out the shape of your waffle, main topping (Nutella, dark/white chocolate, caramel or  honey), secondary toppings like fruit, nuts, and syrups and finally, you can add a scoop of Movenpick ice cream (8LE).

Waffilicious also have a number of savoury options including Kofta and Hot Dog Waffles, of which we opted for the Kofta (18LE). From the sweet options we opted for a Belgian Waffle with Nutella and Strawberries (26LE), as well as an American Waffle with Oreos, Caramel and Dark Chocolate sauce (22LE).

The Kofta waffle was surprisingly great; the dough was crunchy on the outside and the Kofta itself tasted well marinated and cooked – which is no surprise when you factor in the expertise of Shawerma El Reem. The only thing missing was some kind of sauce to compliment the dish, which gets a little too one-note.

The Nutella and Strawberries waffle was also excellent; the toppings were plentiful and the fruits fresh, though the waffle itself could’ve used more crunch because all the toppings are soggy. The Oreo, Caramel and Dark Chocolate waffle was the definite winner, though. The sweetness of the caramel contrasted the bitterness of the dark chocolate, as did the crunch of Oreos to the slightly soggy waffle.

It’s worth mentioning that the staff and employees at the venue were extremely friendly, pleasant and efficient despite it being extremely crowded at the time of our visit.