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

Sitting amongst several other restaurants, cafés and bars on Amman Square, Pangaea offers quick, fresh sandwiches to their customers. The shop is small, but with glass walls and large windows, it feels much spacier than it is.

The use of natural wood furniture, small table-top plants, along with a clean, contemporary grey and white colour scheme reflects their motto of ‘eating clean’. A colourful graffiti mural is painted onto an old wooden door that leans against one of the walls and there are travel books for one’s reading pleasure; after all, Pangaea attempts to bring the corners of the world together with a range of signature international dishes, making their menu both interesting and diverse.

The eatery boasts freshly baked bread for their sandwiches and wraps, homemade sides, tomato-basil soup and a soup of the day (15LE/cup), wholesome salads and several desserts. Their drinks menu is packed with fresh juices, smoothies and hot drinks including chai tea (10LE) and cocoa (16LE).

Interestingly, the kitchen is completely on show through a glass window in the restaurant, meaning you can watch the chef cook your food from scratch.

We carefully picked one kofta, tomato and watercress wrap, known as ‘The Egyptian’ (23LE), and a steak, cheese, caramelised onions and tomato sandwich – ‘The American’ (27LE). We also went for two sides; coleslaw (7LE) and Swedish meatballs (15LE). For dessert, we were informed they were out of cookies (9LE), which left us with the choice of fruit (5LE-12LE) and the dessert of the day (14LE) which, luckily, turned out to be vanilla cheesecake.

Disappointingly, we were also informed they had no fresh juice or smoothies as they were changing over their suppliers. We settled for a diet Sprite (7.5LE) and a bottle of water (4.5LE).   

After a short, five minute-or-so wait, we eagerly tucked into our Egyptian kofta wrap. Although it wasn’t huge, what it lacked in size, it more than made up for in taste. The kofta was perfectly seasoned and flavourful, juicy but not greasy, complemented perfectly by the chunks of ruby red, fresh tomato and watercress.