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

If you’re
ever hungry in Maadi, Road Nine is always a safe bet with its overflow of
restaurants, which includes Kiwi. The name might
be a bit odd, especially since there is no kiwi at all on the menu; but we were
told that the restaurant was named after the kiwi bird and not after the fruit.Thankfully, the kiwi bird is also not on the menu.

The
interior of Kiwi is modern and funky with a lot of green accents. On some of
the walls are several quotes and depictions of our little friend the kiwi bird,
whereas other walls are covered with wood. Divided into smoking and non-smoking
sections, the restaurant is decked out in plastic tables and chairs with
different coloured seats. Flat screen TVs lining the walls were showing MTV videos
at the time of this reviewer’s visit, while the background music was a mix of
upbeat lounge music.

At the time of our visit, the restaurant was packed and
very noisy. We walked in without a reservation and were seated at the bar until
a table was free. Although the venue was quite busy, the service was prompt,
attentive and friendly.

Kiwi has
an extensive menu suitable for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We were there
during dinner time and tried the rocket and parmigiano salad (34LE) as a
starter. The salad tasted fresh with sundried tomatoes and mushrooms. You are
free to add your own olive oil and balsamic; the kitchen doesn’t put any
dressing on the salad. There wasn’t enough cheese to blend with the rocket
leaves, which left the salad tasting rather bland.

For our
mains, we chose the pollo and broccoli pasta (44LE) and the tournedos with three
sauces (82LE). The pollo and broccoli pasta came with fewer pieces of broccoli and more
basil than we’d expected. Although the pasta had a strong pesto sauce, the
basil overpowered the flavour. Granted, it was a nice dish to sample but it was
not what we had in mind when we’d ordered it.

The tournedos were cooked medium
as we had requested, with a delicious and creamy mushroom sauce that used generous
portions of fresh mushrooms. In contrast, the mustard sauce was a bit of a miss;
it had a somewhat unpleasant, sour flavour to it and tasted more like butter
than mustard. The pepper sauce closely resembled gravy with a few peppercorns
thrown into it.

The meat was grilled nicely but covered in so much sauce that we
could barely distinguish the meat flavour. All sauces come together on one
plate and tended to run over making your plate look a bit messy. A side of
grilled vegetables and mashed potatoes accompany the dish. The mashed potatoes lacked
any flavour and tasted more like instant-made type than freshly mashed ones.

For
dessert, we had the brownies (36LE), which were presented in a large bowl with
ice cream and chocolate sauce. The brownies’ sauce was
a bit too thick, and although it was a nice dessert, it wasn’t particularly
special.

We found
our mains a bit disappointing after the good salad. That being said; Kiwi
offers a reasonably priced option of comfort food when you’re on Road Nine and
in need of a hot meal.