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

Identity is a big part of any restaurant; it’s what drives the restaurant’s theme and most importantly its menu. Opening its first branch in New Cairo’s Point 90, Beef Bunker’s motto “licensed to Grill” sets the stage for what to expect; it’s a motto that will make any carnivore’s mouth water.

Beef Bunker boasts a mix of different furniture styles with large sofas in one section, while mix-and-match chairs dominates the rest. Branding is also everywhere from the table numbers and salt and pepper shakers, to the matte black plates.

After taking our seats, our menus arrived in a shape similar to wooden chopping boards, with the menu attached to them like a clipboard. We opted for the Beef Carpaccio (82LE) and the Bacon Mac N Cheese Balls (65LE) as our appetisers which arrived ten minutes later.

The Carpaccio was served with cherry tomatoes, arugula and some parmesan cheese slices. While the beauty of Carpaccio is in the subtly of the beef flavour, these slices were completely tasteless, without even a hint of beef. On the other hand, the arugula was fresh and full of flavour with parmesan cheese giving off a slight salty backdrop to each bite

The Mac N Cheese Balls fared better. Sitting on top of marinara sauce and topped with cheddar cheese shavings, the four balls had crunchy crusts that made for the gooey, cheesy pasta. The cheese balls were bursting with cheesy goodness that worked perfectly well with the marinara sauce.

Our mains arrived ten minutes later, with the Philly Burger (105LE), and Juicy Brucey (94LE) arriving first and finally the Beef Stroganoff (165LE) joined the rest.

Coming in a sesame bun, the Philly Burger was topped with cheese, small steak slices, onions and bell pepper slices and was skewered with a wooden toothpick with pickled cucumber on top. The burger itself was overcooked, which made it really dry and we could hardly taste the additional beef slices.

As for the Juicy Brucey, it was supposed to be a 200gm burger stuffed with cheese; however, we got a double burger patty with a slice of cheese in the middle topped with onion, tomato, lettuce and also skewered with a wooden toothpick with pickled cucumber on top. The burger patties were even dier than the first burger and had an almost burnt taste to them. Both burgers came with a bucket of fries; however, it only had a little amount and it was completely unseasoned.

Finally the beef stroganoff came topped with bell peppers, onions, mushrooms and a side of white basmati rice. Not offering anything special, the rice was fine but a bit under seasoned. The beef, however, was great, boasting a nice creamy richness to it which played off perfectly with meat flavour.

The main issue that was common in all the main dishes was the portions. The burgers were too small, the fries less than normal and the stroganoff wasn’t small in portion compared to the price tag.

The food we tried aside, there were several other problems at the time of our visit; the staff were a little unsure when confronted with questions, with one waiter confusing a hoagie with a burger. In addition, the menu offers pandering items like pizzas and pastas, which have no place at a grill house. In the end, though, it was the portions-prices ratio that stuck out – we left unsatisfied with quality and overall quite hungry.