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

While malls in Cairo aren’t exactly the most desirable locations to dine, a continuing influx of top restaurants have found homes in the likes of Heliopolis’ Citystars – where we paid a visit to Baltazar.

Overlooking the cinema on the ground floor, with neighbours including Mori Sushi, Tamara and Gaby’s, Baltazar stands out with its quirky aesthetic and design. The interior retains a level of casual sophistication, though, with areas of black and white chequered patterns breaking up the light-coloured wood flooring. We took our seats in the restaurant’s second floor, which was designed to look like a balcony overseeing passersby.      

We kicked things off with an interesting appetiser, the Baltazar Fried Balls (30LE), and for our mains, we went for some Wild Beef Fillet served with Penne Foie Gras Pasta (175LE) and Beef Fillet served with French fries, mashed potatoes and mushroom sauce (130LE).

Comprised of five balls of fried mashed potatoes stuffed with cheese, Baltazar’s fried balls had a crispy exterior with a delightful soft gooey mixture of potatoes and cheese; a good start to our evening.

Moving onwards to our mains – which took some time to arrive — we started with the wild beef fillet. Cooked well-done, the beef was somewhat dry with a brown sauce compensating the dryness and some tasty grilled mushrooms and herbs which was a great change of pace. The standout of the dish, however, was the penne foie gras pasta, which had a distinct savoury and smooth taste, with a hint of salt that wrapped the whole plate together.

Though it was ordered well-done, the Beef Fillet, was cooked medium-well and even after it was sent back to the kitchen, it was still a little under-cooked and lacked juiciness. The mashed potatoes serving, on the other hand, had a savoury and smooth taste and the French fries stood out with a good crunch and great seasoning.  

We washed our meals away with some refreshing black lemonade pitcher (24LE), which came in a quirky large wooden box filled with ice that took a large space from the table.

We wrapped up the evening with Chocolate Nutella Cake (40LE) which was infused with chocolate fondant, pecans and Nutella at the bottom and tasted delicious; only it came in a small bucket which made scraping off the melted cake areas on the sides a little more challenging than it should be.   

In closing, our visit to Baltazar was quite satisfying with the quality of food that we were served, but it didn’t come without fault, given the small portions when compared to the steep prices. Minor missteps asides, this is one of the better restaurants at Citystars.