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

When it comes to restaurants, authenticity is a word that’s often thrown round – it’s hard to argue that one measure of the quality of an eatery is the authenticity and purity of its chosen cuisine. Unfortunately, it’s become quite common to find a restaurant to stray in favour of more crowd-pleasing food – which seems to be the case with XLarge.

Boasting taglines such as ‘Che chef is Syrian’ and ‘Syrian food is not only shawerma’, one would be forgiven for expecting homemade-style, untainted Syrian food. Granted, the restaurant is clearly a street-come-fast-food place, but the menu is primarily un-Syrian, with much of it falling under Western foods

But let’s rewind for a second; XLarge boasts a small venue overlooking Maadi’s Street 233, a place that isn’t short on restaurants and cafes. Inside, theres a small dining area with 4 to 5 tables alongside a counter for takeaway orders. After taking our seats, we ordered the Supreme Meal (65LE), the Zinger Sandwich (40LE) and the Philadelphia (44LE) – so you see what we’re saying.

Arriving ten minutes later, the Supreme Meal came on a large square plate as two long rolls of fried chicken stuffed with beef luncheon and cheese, topped with melted cheese and served with sides of fries, basmati rice, coleslaw and toumeyah.

With chicken, cheese and beef all in the equation, we expected big, bold flavours, but it just didn’t pop and more seasoning might have brought it all together. The sides didn’t fare much better; the fries were, well, just fries and the rice’s texture suggested that it had been reheated from cold and was also under-seasoned.

With a mix of beef slices with onions, mushrooms and mozzarella cheese, the Philadelphia wasn’t without its issues, either; it had had more onions and mushrooms than beef which left the sandwich unbalanced.

On the other hand, the Chicken Singer was one of the saving graces of the experience despite its simple combination of spicy fried chicken slices, cheddar cheese, lettuce and mayonnaise. The chicken was crunchy, perfectly spiced and the sandwich as a whole was well balanced.

When it comes to Cairo 360 reviews, we judge a restaurant by how well it delivers what it offers; but even while ignoring the promise of authentic Syrian food, XLarge’s familiar fast-food-style menu doesn’t have much to separate it from similar, lower-budget sandwich restaurants.