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

As you work
your way down Gamaat El Dowal Street, you’ll notice that it gets darker and
darker as you walk towards the Sudan Street end away from the Corniche, Zamalek
and all those nice airy-fairy places we love so much. The big, shiny
recognisable shops are slowly replaced by smaller, dingier local venues.

But then
you get to My Queen, whose luminous green signage lights up the surrounding
area. This purveyor of Egyptian fast food is peculiarly split into two venues
that are metres away from each other. The bigger one is a large food stand that
provides a small shelf area where patrons can stand and gobble down their food
as well as the resident shawerma man. The other is an enclosed shop with a
counter, akin to any takeaway joint. It’s also where you’ll find a small salad
bar that you can fill your salad box with.

The menu is
huge, almost overwhelming. The kofta (21.50LE) was excellent and cooked to
perfectly tender pieces that were full of taste. The five pieces of kofta were
more than we expected too.

Like the
kofta, the shish tawouk (21.75LE) was equally as tender and delicious, although
lacking seasoning. A little salt and pepper fixed that, though; and even the
charcoal-grilled pieces of onion, tomato and green pepper were good.

The My
Queen Seafood plate (27.50LE) is a jumble of fish, prawn and calamari in a
salty, tasteless sauce on basmati rice. Although the sauce was bland, the mix
of seafood provided plenty of flavour, and did at least improve the rather dry
rice.

The only
real disappointment came in the form of the steak and mushroom sandwich
(17.75LE). Big fino bread is filled with
thinly sliced pieces of beef and large slices of mushroom, which are covered in
a mushroom sauce. The beef lacked taste, felt rubbery and was more akin to
supermarket sandwich beef slices than steak. The bread was also tasteless and
airy, and was considerably less hot than the contents it held.

Every dish
is served with a choice of basmati or white rice and soggy French fries. The
rice is pretty bland and clumpy, and the French fries are equally devoid of any
flavour.

We didn’t
have to wait long for our order, and the waiters were efficient and immediately
able to explain the ambiguously named dishes. This reviewer would be happy to work through My Queen’s menu to find a
favourite dish. It’s perfect for filling that hankering for no-nonsense
Egyptian fast food.