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

Balancing flavours in any given dish can be a tricky thing to do; something as simple as seasoning, for example, can make or break it. Walking that fine line is something that venues strive to accomplish with certain level of finesse, but at the time of our visit, Boston’s Burger hadn’t quite managed it.

The New Cairo restaurant has indoor and outdoor area using mostly terrace furniture. The venue also includes a salad bar which is accessible to guests once they’ve made an order, while a sauce bar offers BBQ sauce, mayonnaise, ketchup and melted cheese.

After taking our seats and making our orders, we were given our salad plates and made our way to the bar. There was a range of salads that included pickles and potato and pea salad, as well as toppings like onions, tomatoes and lettuce. We started with the main three, the potato salad, the potato & pea salad and the coleslaw. All the salads were fresh and well-seasoned.

Coming fifteen minutes later was the Appetiser Platter (81LE) which had Buffalo wings, cheese sticks, chicken strips, onion rings and chilli cheese fries. The Buffalo wings were almost overwhelmingly spicy and overpowered any flavour except the Buffalo sauce. The cheese sticks were very cheesy and tender with a satisfying crunchy shell and the onion rings were fine, but quite pedestrian, while Moving on to the chicken strips had a nicely seasoned, crispy to them, with a tender centre. Finally, the chilli cheese fries came as nicely seasoned potato wedges topped with gooey cheese and a spicy beef chilli that was bursting with flavour.

Arriving soon after was our order of the Boston’s Burger 225gm (92 LE), Burger Bites 300gm(93 LE)and Fudge Burger 450gm (109LE). One of the common factors in all the burgers was that the beef itself had an overwhelming taste of spices with pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper and garlic being the most evident of the bunch.

Boasting some classic flavours, the Boston’s Burger was topped with cheddar cheese, beef bacon with a smoky aftertaste and sautéed mushrooms, the latter two complimenting each other perfectly.

The Burger Bites – six mini burger/sliders – were each topped with a variation of cheese, bacon, or mushrooms, while the Fudge Burger was a behemoth of a sandwich topped with bacon, mushroom and cheddar cheese, with the patty stuffed with yet more cheese. They all excelled where the Boston’s Burger did, but it all fell down because of the over-spiced patties.

And this was the biggest problem; if Boston’s Burger was able to balance its flavours – particularly the over-seasoned patty – and combine it with the things that it already has going for it, like the chilled out atmosphere and the great service, it could be one of the great burger hotspots in New Cairo.