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

With no short supply of competition, Road 9 in Maadi is one of the more difficult locations for a restaurant to flourish. This is partly because rent is very expensive, but also because whatever the cuisine, there’s almost certainly another restaurant that serves it.

Lan Yuan has been around in Maadi for quite some time now. With Chinese food in Egypt usually costing more than it should, Lan Yuan favors quality of food and value for money over any sort of dining ‘experience'.

To reiterate, Lan Yuan is located no more than five metres from the metro, which shakes the entire building. The restaurant can only be described as being a no-frills venue, with no ambiance whatsoever thanks to cheap old décor and rather tacky furniture.

While we’ve seen such unimpressive atmospheres break other restaurants, Lan Yuan seems un-phased, so it must be something about the food. After diving into the paper menus, we didn’t see anything that stood out as remarkably different, so we went for some Asian classics.

From the appetisers we opted for an order of Fried Won Tons (11LE) and an order of Chicken Satay (23.75LE). From the mains, an order of Sliced Beef in Oyster Sauce (45LE) and Crispy Chicken in Brown Sauce (45LE), with an additional sides of Fried Rice with Eggs and Vegetables (13LE) and Fried Noodles with Vegetables (17.99LE).

With an average serving time, the appetisers came first. The Won Tons were surprisingly large and fried to a great crisp. The Chicken Satay, while tender and juicy, was strongly flavoured with curry, which took us by surprise.

The Beef in Oyster Sauce was a different ball game. Served with chopped vegetables and a delicious oyster sauce, the beef wasn’t as tender as you’d expect, but it worked in the dish’s favour. Complimented by the fluffy fried rice, it was a generous and hearty meal.

Similarly with the generous portion of Crispy Chicken, topped with our favourite sauce of the night – the brown sauce – it was complimented greatly by the noodles, which albeit a little unevenly dry, made for another excellent meal.

The real surprise at Lan Yuan isn’t just the food that’s so immensely better than the venue, it’s also the prices that you get your food at. Currently offering a 12% discount, our check was just over 150LE, which gives Lan Yuan an excellent score on value for money.