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

With Egypt’s unpredictable winter, the bitter winds are not exactly conducive conditions to visit Cairo restaurants. And with weather this disheartening, what better way to spend those cold nights than with a nice hot pizza?

The recently opened Pizza Labomba is a delivery-only establishment that caters out of a kitchen in Dokki.  Tempted by their promising menu, we decided to order in to the Cairo 360 headquarters.

Arriving faster than we expected, the pizza arrived hot and was neatly presented in Labomba’s sleekly designed boxes stamped with their creative logo design. Like most gourmet approaches to pizza, Pizza Labomba’s menu does not offer different sizes and only bakes a standardized 6-8 person pizza. However, unlike similar pizza places, we noticed that Labomba’s prices are comparitively higher.

With options that range from the tried-and-tested margherita, vegetarian, salami and anchovy, to the more unusual rucula & blue cheese and basterma offerings, we decided on a classic four cheese pizza (50LE), chicken barbeque (45LE), and an intriguing salami & hotdog pizza roll (20LE).

The four cheese pizza uses mozzarella, blue cheese, smoked cheese and cheddar and although the presentation of all the pizzas was pleasant on the eye, the taste was decidedly less appetising. Incredibly greasy and overpowered by the flavours of the blue and smoked cheese, each bite left an unpleasant aftertaste.

A bit milder, the chicken barbeque pizza features grilled chicken, green peppers, onions, sweet corn and a generous swirl of BBQ sauce. Though also greasy, the chicken and sweet corn mixture provided a satisfying texture to each bite and offset the liquidated fat.

Possibly the worst of our order, however, was the salami & hotdog pizza roll which was essentially a small calzone with large slices of salami baked into the crust. The dough was well made but the contents were tasteless and saturated in yet more grease – to the point of dripping profusely.

Based on their impressive marketing campaigns on social media and a sound concept, Pizza Labomba’s execution leaves much to be desired. The only shining light of the disappointing meal was that the pizza bases were cooked well – but that’s about it.