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

The importance of location in defining a restaurant’s theme and making it an overall more alluring experience for Cairene diners can never be stressed enough. Making use of exactly that, Eat and Barrel has been making waves on the Giza Corniche, offering visitors an almost panoramic view of the Nile.

With white wooden tables and low, comfy cushion-laden chairs and sofas, the dim lighting, soft, breezy music combined with plants pots and bottles hanging from the ceiling, Eat and Barrel boasts a slight bohemian, beach vibe and demurely refreshing summery air. Serving as both a bar and a restaurant, Eat & Barrel does what few venues have succeeding in doing, by finding a comfortable middle-ground between both; the owners put as much effort in pushing the venue as a casual hang-out spot, as they do in holding DJ-based nightlife events.

Leading us to our previously reserved table, our waiter handed us menus in no time. Cuisine-wise, Eat and Barrel focuses on staples and favourites and stays away from any truly experimental dishes. Soups, salads, burgers, pastas, steaks, fried and grilled chicken dishes and some seafood offerings alongside an assortment of desserts pretty much sum up the menu. Cocktails, shots and shisha are all also offered.

Opting for a couple of shishas to kick off our meal, we went for Blueberry and Vanilla-Coconut flavours (35LE each).  Arriving only five minutes after they were ordered, our shishas were light and wispy with the flavours having just the right amount of intensity. Our rumbling stomachs quickly led us to go for the Crunchy Melt Burger (65 LE) and the Classic Chicken Fettucine Alfredo (63 LE), swapping the fettucine pasta with penne. 

Similarly, the main courses took little-to-no time to arrive after that, and were as much of a pretty sight for the eyes as they were a treat for the taste buds. The Crunchy Melt Burger came in the form of two gigantic bread buns enveloping a well-cooked beef patty topped with fried mozzarella sticks and beef bacon and tasted absolutely sinful. We would have, however, preferred the buns to be a bit more toasted and slightly crunchier. The sides of salad and French fries were quite lovely, yet were overshadowed by the massive burger.

The pasta came in penne form, as requested, and was drenched in perhaps the lightest white Alfredo sauce we’ve had in a while and topped with an ample amount of grilled chicken chunks. It was scrumptious yet thankfully still not too overwhelmingly heavy, as the classic dish usually tends to be. 

The service deserves praise, too; the waiters were extremely alert, efficient, friendly and accurately described the dishes to us and were always nearby to take any orders.

All in all, Eat and Barrel lives up to its hype, outdoing itself with delectable dishes, on-point service and an invigoratingly simplistic ambiance complemented with a picturesque view of the Nile. Sure the prices may be a bit steep, considering the 150 LE minimum charge on weekends, but the aforementioned perks are, in our humble opinion, worth paying extra for.