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

The problem many restaurant and café chains face with expansion is the rise of inconsistency, whether it’s in the quality of food and drinks or in the general level of service. Having tried and tested quite a few branches of Café Supreme, we headed almost automatically to the next one we spotted only to find out that it faced that very same issue.

Overlooking Cairo Festival City’s famous dancing fountain, Café Supreme boasts a prime location with both outdoor and indoor seating. During the time of our visit, the outdoor seating area was swamped though, so we settle for an indoor table.  The indoor of the café/restaurant was dimly lit with a modern-esque design and basic furnishing- nothing too artsy here.

A couple of minutes after seating us, our waiter came by with our menus, which boasted all of Café Supreme’s signature items of basic dishes that include salads, pastas, pizzas, chicken dishes, beef dishes and sandwiches. For shisha, we went for a Vanilla-Coconut flavour and a Strawberry flavour (40 LE/each) and for our dishes, we opted for Chicken Crispers (45LE) and a Super Salami pizza (45LE).

The shishas, naturally, arrived before the food, and whilst they were, as is the usual with Café Supreme’s shishas, quite wispy and flavourful, there was a lack of proper coal maintenance throughout our visit.

The Chicken Crispers arrived ten minutes before the pizza did with a side of honey mustard for dipping. Lacking a satisfying crunch or any strong flavouring, they left us a bit disappointed. The pizza’s late arrival was not, unfortunately, made up for by any impressive feature in the taste department, as we found the dough to be not as rich as it usually is, and the mozzarella cheese to be too scarce. The toppings, which included salami and bell peppers were scattered in abundance.

All in all, this specific branch of Café Supreme failed to live up to the high standards set by the chain’s other branches. The waiters, for what it’s worth, were, however, quite pleasant and amicable all throughout our visit.