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Le Caire 1940

Le Caire 1940: Classic Egyptian Dishes in Heliopolis

  • 96 Omar Ibn El Khattab St.
  • Egyptian
  • 10am - 2am -
reviewed by
Waleed Abuarab
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Le Caire 1940: Classic Egyptian Dishes in Heliopolis
With its supposedly rustic Zamalek branch located it in an old building, we had some aesthetic expectations with Le Caire 1940’s Heliopolis branch. The former has got to feeling like a dull, dingy space, reserved for your twilight of you life.

Located on Omar Ibn El Khattab Street, not too far from the restaurant village that is Tivoli Dome, it was a pleasant surprise, then, to find that the Heliopolis branch is anything but dull. Understated style and class sum it up pretty well. It still manages to retain a timeless feel to it and Silver lighting fixtures blend seamlessly with the wood and beige décor.

Le Cairo 1940 offers a pleasant outdoor seating area in addition to the larger, main indoor area. What’s strange, and inevitably uncomfortable for some, is that the restaurant serves shisha indoors.

Choosing to enjoy the weather outside, it took us a while to get our heads around the huge menu. An eclectic range of soups are offered, including cream of chicken, orzo and molokheya at 18LE-40LE. Appetisers include chicken livers, mombar, spring rolls, balady sausage and stuffed vine leaves at a more modest range; 19LE-25LE.

The Oriental section of the menu offers Egyptian and Middle Eastern classics such as stuffed pigeon (39LE), chicken sherkeseya (58LE), stuffed duck (69LE) and molokheya with shrimp or rabbit (45LE/59LE).

The grilled section, unlike many classic Egyptian restaurants around Cairo, afford you the option of buying your meat as a dish rather than by the kilo. A huge mixed grill platter for three, for example, sets you back 199LE. One thing that is overpriced is the salad. A small plate of Egyptian salad, baba ghanough or tehina costs 15LE!

After much deliberation, we settled on the veal with potato (60LE) from the Oriental section, and never looked back. The meat was cooked perfectly and made for a tender mix with tomato, peppers and potatoes. We couldn’t come to Le Caire 1950 without trying its famous grilled meats, and so we also went for the mixed grill (56LE). The dish consists of three portions of kofta, kabab and shish tawouk. As expected, the grilled meats are outstanding and seasoned perfectly, the latter of which can be attributed to the Le Caire special sauce. The portions offered in the main dishes are filling, unlike the appetisers, however. The balady sausage (25LE), for example, was meagre despite its great flavour.

Le Cairo 140’s menu doesn’t just stop at Egyptian dishes, though. International dishes such as scallop, fajitas and duck with orange sauce sit at between 50LE and 70LE. In this non-Egyptian vein, we avoided the Oriental desserts, instead going for a Nutella crepe (22LE). It’s a choice that we quickly regretted; the crepe wasn’t cooked all the way through.

Although it was a disappointing end to what was a tour de force in Middle Eastern cuisine, it hasn’t sullied Le Caire 1940 enough to deny it a well-deserved four-star rating.

360 Tip

Le Caire 1940 also has branches in Zamalek, Mohandiseen and Haram.

Best Bit

The top-secret Le Caire special sauce gives the grilled meats an extra zing.

Worst Bit

Le Caire 1940 delivers only to a very small radius of Heliopolis around its location.

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