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Didos Al Dente

Didos Al Dente: Disappointing Meal After Heightened Expectations

cairo city city life Didos Al Dente egypt Egyptians food food review ITALIAN Majarrah pasta Pizza restaurant review Restaurants review Sheikh Zayed
  • Block 12, 26th of July Corridor, inside Majarrah
  • Italian
  • 10:00 - 01:00
reviewed by
Angie El Batrawy
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Didos Al Dente: Disappointing Meal After Heightened Expectations

Featured image via Didos Al Dente

 

Didos Al Dente was, at its prime, the hottest Italian restaurant in town. It opened way back in 1993 and, before a lot of today’s teens and young twenty-year-olds could try it, Didos Al Dente was already in decline. When word got out that Didos Al Dente was opening a new branch in Sheikh Zayed’s new food hub, Majarrah, we saw potential of it retaining the great reputation that it possessed a long time ago.

The Sheikh Zayed branch is mostly an outdoor area, with a small indoor seating space. Their menu is divided into pastas, pizzas, salads, and appetisers, plus a selection of main dishes that come with just one side, as well as a small variety of desserts.

We were disappointed that the Lasagna wasn’t available, so we opted for the Fusilli Mega Aglio e Olio (87 EGP); you get to choose the pasta type (Fettucine, Penne, Spaghetti, or Fusilli). We added Tomato Soup (31 EGP) as well as the Balsamic Glazed Beetroot Salad (48 EGP), plus a main dish, Chicken Didos (91 EGP) with Fettucine Pasta Arrabiatta.

The basil taste wasn’t too evident in the Tomato Soup, but overall the soup was fine. The salad was a disappointment; the menu said there would be walnuts, which would have made for an exciting mixture with the beets and rocket leaves, but we were disappointed not to find any of the promised walnuts. Their excuse was that they were out of walnuts, which is something they should have mentioned as we were ordering our food. At the end, the ingredients tasted fresh, but it still felt like an integral component of the salad was missing.

Next up, were the pasta and main dish. The Mega Aglio e Olio came as a pasta dish topped with chicken, basil, and garlic with white sauce. While the pasta and chicken were tasty and well cooked, the white sauce needed to be thicker, and the garlic taste needed to be much stronger.

Our main dish, Chicken Didos, was also a disappointment. The chicken wasn’t grilled and tasted a bit off; it was much closer to a broiled chicken that was slightly seared and topped with onions, peppers, and mozzarella cheese. While the garlic bread and side pasta (Fettucine Arrabiatta) were good, they couldn’t possibly compensate for the chicken.

After a generally disappointing meal, we thought a dessert might help make up for the aforementioned flaws. Their already small dessert menu was limited to the Choco Didos (45 EGP) at the time of further visit. It’s a molten cake with a side of vanilla ice cream. It took too long to be served and, when it finally arrived, the ice cream scoop was much smaller than the molten cake; the balance was just way off. All that being said, the cake itself tasted quite good. 

We wrote down all our concerns on the comment card, and the manager was quick to talk to us about those issues, and promised us to resolve the problems. He also offered treating us to our exact order next time free of charge. It was a very nice gesture after a disappointing experience, and we hope that our next visit is much better.

 

Translated by: Sherif Khairy

360 Tip

Didos Al Dente's Sheikh Zayed branch now delivers.

Best Bit

The comfortable seating area.

Worst Bit

Each dish contained flaws, or was missing something.

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