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

When it comes to food, the devil really is in the detail, especially when there are so many things that can make or break a dish. From the level of seasoning, to the freshness of the ingredients, even the most simple of dishes can fail because of the most minute of details – something that defined our visit to Le Grand Royal.

Overlooking Porto Cairo’s dancing fountain, there’s not much of an indoor area to speak of and so we took our seat in the outdoor area, quickly ordering the Royal Combo (48.50 LE) and the Flatbread Pizza (45 LE) to start with.

The appetizer combo included four spring rolls and six sambousaks, each two with a different filling, with a sweet chili sauce.

The sambousaks and spring rolls were too oily and over-cooked, to the extent that that one of each onw was so brittle that each one collapsed at first bite, with the fillings rushing out all over the plate.The ‘flatbread’, meanwhile, wasn’t flatbread, but several small pizzas. But the cheesy topping and acidic tomato paste made for a decent appetiser, with each one of the six Italian bread pieces having a different topping; one with salami, another with olives and peppers and so on.

Moving onto our main dishes we tried several; the Lasagna Bolognese (57.50LE), was fine, not too special and there were some undercooked mince beef in there. Topped with cheese, olives and oregano the Seafood Pizza (70LE) had the same dough as the flat bread, but the calamari and shrimp which were a bit under seasoned.

Then came the Maria Steak (95LE), which came fillet cubes topped with a gravy sauce made with raisins and almonds and served with a side of sautéed vegetables. The sauce was so salty that it was inedible and when we returned it to the kitchen, it came out much better the second time; the beef was cooked thoroughly with the creamy sauce giving a nice backdrop especially with the small pieces of almonds; however the raisins were nowhere to be found. The sautéed vegetables were a bit overcooked.

The Rib Eye (120LE), meanwhile, was under-seasoned and was largely forgettable, because it’s most interesting element was unavailable – pineapple sauce. The fact that we were only told after the dish arrived only made its replacement of basic gravy all the worse.

Issues with almost every single dish made our visit to Le Grand Royal a mixed-bag of an experience and the frustrating lack of concentration in the details left us little reason to return. But with an interesting enough menu, Le Grand Royal has the potential to be much better – it just needs to remember that saying about the devil.