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

After a
long exhausting day of shopping in Mohandiseen, this reviewer got hungry.
Thankfully, there is always a restaurant close by to satisfy any hunger pangs.
Located on Syria Street across from shoe shop Source, you can hardly
miss the big Chinese temple that is Chopsticks. The building is divided into
two floors: upstairs is a bar called Cairo Rumours, while Chopsticks is located
on the lower level.

Though this
reviewer has visited several Chinese restaurants in Cairo with questionable hygiene,
Chopsticks seems to be an exception; the restaurant is very clean. Its interior
is a typically clichéd Chinese decor with fans on the walls and a lot of red accents.
At the time of this reviewer’s visit, there were two Chinese customers, which
is always a good sign.

Chopstick
is also one of the few restaurants in Mohandiseen to serve alcohol. A bottle of
Stella costs 20LE and a glass of wine starts at 30LE.

The menu
at Chopsticks is quite extensive but with the standard items; there’s nothing
exceptional or unique about Chopstick’s cuisine; just your average Chinese
dishes. We opted for the beef satay with peanut sauce (25LE) as a starter. We also
received complimentary prawn crackers and cucumbers in sweet and sour sauce
until our first course arrived.

The beef satay was grilled nicely on charcoal,
but its portion was quite small. The peanut sauce was delicious; a bit spicy
and full of flavour. We also ordered the vegetable dumplings (16LE). The four portions
were filled with carrots, cabbage and sprouts. Their texture was appropriately
slimy and tasted very fresh, but could have done with some sauce.

For our
main courses, we had the crispy deep-fried beef with sesame sauce (55LE) and Kung
Pao shrimp (70LE) accompanied by vegetable glass noodles (24LE). The deep-fried
beef looked a lot like shawerma and basically lacked taste. Thankfully, it
wasn’t really greasy either. The sesame sauce was absolutely needed to make the
dish taste fuller, but in the end it was just a dish of brown-tinted food that was not appetising.

The Kung
Pao shrimp fared better. The dish was served with a generous portion of shrimp
and a very mild sauce, in addition to a large portion of fresh vegetables such
as peppers and beans. The glass noodles were also served with lots of
vegetables, making the entire meal a healthy experience. Overall, this reviewer
found the food at Chopsticks to be good, although the deep-fried beef was
disappointing.

The
staff at Chopsticks is very friendly, but confusingly enough they walk around
in Cairo Rumours shirts and hop back and forth a bit between the two floors.
The toilets were very clean and freshly painted, although one of the cubicles’
doors didn’t lock because of the paint.

When you’re in the Mohandiseen area, try
Chopsticks; this is definitely one of the better places to eat in. The
restaurant is very reasonably priced: we paid 270LE for four dishes and three
drinks.