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

As any local will tell you, Alexandria has always got a lot of flak when compared to Cairo, where everything from nightlife to shopping was usually light years behind the capital.  Today, Egypt’s second largest city has come a long way in catching up with Cairo via its designer brand malls, hipster coffee shops and kale smoothies.

A new addition to the slowly growing dining scene is Balady Gourmet; a Smouha dine-in and takeaway restaurant that serves a chicer take on traditional dishes like foul, bamia and eggs with basterma.

While it’s inevitable to make comparisons with Cairo-based brands like Zooba, Cairo Kitchen or Balady, this is the first place in Alexandria where you can take your mum, friends or visiting tourists without worrying about stray cats, food poisoning or general ghetto-ness (we’re looking at you, Zizo El Neten and Abdo Talawoth!).

Located on a busy street in Smouha, central Alexandria, Balady Gourmet bravely offers outdoor dining for smokers and indoors for non-smokers. The cute décor is a mixture of Tunisian and Moroccan influences, with some ethnic Egyptian rugs and patterns thrown in for good measure. While parking on the street is impossible (the Smouha-based winsh police are notorious), we recommend you opt for the parking garage on the right side of the shop.

Despite us showing up just before midnight and 45 minutes before closing time, the restaurant’s staff were attentive and quick in their service, and another table nearby was filled with enthusiastic eaters.

As the restaurant is still in its ‘soft opening’ phase, we were told that the menu could change based on customer feedback, and the staff were very keen to note our opinions on the dishes.

Our orders of lemon gourmet salad (7LE) and coleslaw (6LE) arrived promptly with a large basket of steaming, baked white fino bread – the kind you’d get at Samakmak or any other quality fish restaurant. The heat of the bread mixed really well with the acidity of the grated and pickled lemon mixed with carrot, while the coleslaw was surprisingly refreshing and light due to being made without mayonnaise.

All that light food was immediately forgotten when our mains of basterma with cheese (20LE), Alexandrian liver (17LE) and mixed Sogo’ with cheese (21LE) arrived. The portions were so large and the food so heavy that they could have easily fed three people rather than two; this is the kind of food you’d want for sohour, after a long night out or as a breakfast of champions.

The basterma with cheese was appropriately gooey and reminiscent of Alban Sewesra’s gooiness, but just too salty, so we washed it down with some excellent lemon juice with mint. And while the Alexandrian liver could have had more sauce, the sausage cheese plate was insanely delicious; we kept lapping it up despite being full to the point of exploding. We’d definitely go back for that sausage dish, and we were told that the hawawshi and grilled chicken are also to die for.

Our eight items came to a total of around 100LE, which isn’t bad at all for such a feast. And while we’re sure we’ll hear the usual complaints about foul being overpriced when it costs 1LE at Mohamed Ahmed or off any foul cart, you’re getting better hygiene, quality and ambience at Balady Gourmet. In fact, Balady Gourmet is the type of place you should drag a Cairene to, just to prove them wrong about Alexandrian dining.

Photos: Balady Gourmet/Facebook