The Table of Egypt

A cuisine of beans and bread, herbs and slow-cooked greens, finished with syrup and nuts — generous, everyday and deeply Egyptian.

Savoury

The everyday feast

Six dishes that define the Egyptian table, from the national bowl of koshari to the coastal rice of sayadeya.

Koshari

Egypt's beloved national dish — rice, lentils, macaroni and chickpeas under crisp fried onions and a tangy tomato-garlic sauce.

Ful & Falafel

Slow-stewed fava beans (ful medames) with ta'meya, the green, herb-flecked Egyptian falafel made from fava rather than chickpea.

Molokhia

A silky, garlicky green soup of jute-mallow leaves, simmered with coriander and served over rice with chicken, rabbit or beef.

Stuffed Pigeon

Hamam mahshi — pigeon roasted and stuffed with seasoned freekeh or rice, a celebratory dish prized across Egypt.

Feteer

Feteer meshaltet, a many-layered flaky pastry pulled paper-thin and baked golden, served plain, savoury or with honey.

Sayadeya

A coastal favourite of spiced fish baked over caramelised-onion rice, fragrant with cumin — the taste of Alexandria and the Red Sea.

Sweets

Syrup, nuts & pastry

The honeyed finish to any Egyptian meal — and the heart of every celebration.

Kunafa

Fine shredded pastry over sweet cheese or cream, baked crisp and drenched in syrup — a centrepiece of Ramadan tables and celebrations.

Basbousa

Syrup-soaked semolina cake, tender and grainy, crowned with an almond and often scented with coconut or orange-blossom water.

Om Ali

Egypt's warm bread-and-milk pudding baked with nuts and raisins — comfort food wrapped in a famous medieval palace legend.

Qatayef

Folded pancakes stuffed with nuts or sweet cream, then fried or baked in syrup — made almost exclusively during Ramadan.

How Egypt eats

A cuisine of patience, not of spice

Egyptian food surprises people who arrive expecting the fire of a Levantine or North African table. It is not a spicy cuisine. It is a slow one — beans left overnight, greens cooked down for an hour, bread baked twice a day, meat treated as a punctuation rather than a subject. It is also, unusually, a cuisine where the best version of almost every dish is the cheapest and most ordinary one, which is a genuinely difficult thing to explain to a traveller who has paid for a good hotel.

The three dishes to understand first

Ful medames — fava beans stewed overnight with oil, lemon and cumin — is what Egypt has eaten for breakfast since the pharaohs, and versions of it appear in tomb reliefs. Koshari is the national dish and an oddity: rice, lentils, macaroni, chickpeas, fried onions and a tomato-vinegar sauce, layered in one bowl, entirely vegetarian, invented in the nineteenth century and now sold on every corner. Molokhia is the one that divides visitors — jute leaves cooked to a green, faintly viscous soup with garlic and coriander, served over rice with rabbit or chicken. Get these three and you have the shape of the cuisine.

When Egyptians actually eat

Later than you. Breakfast is early and substantial, lunch is the main meal of the day and falls somewhere between two and four, and dinner starts at nine and can run past midnight. Restaurants that fill at seven are full of visitors; the same room at ten is full of Egyptians. During Ramadan the rhythm inverts entirely — the city is quiet all afternoon and then erupts at sunset for iftar, which is worth planning a trip around rather than avoiding.

Where the good food is

Not, generally, in hotels. The best koshari in Cairo comes from shops that sell nothing else and have done for eighty years. The best grilled meat comes from places with a counter and no menu. Fish in Alexandria is chosen from ice at the front and cooked while you sit. There is excellent restaurant cooking in Egypt too — modern Egyptian kitchens in Cairo doing serious work — but the ceiling and the floor of this cuisine are much closer together than in Europe, and a journey that eats only in hotel dining rooms misses most of it. We build food into itineraries on purpose, with a guide who knows which counter.

Vegetarians, and everyone else

Egypt is one of the easiest countries in the world to eat well in without meat, largely by accident: koshari, ful, ta'ameya (the Egyptian falafel, made with fava beans rather than chickpeas and greener inside), mahshi, baba ghanoush and a long list of cooked-vegetable dishes are all standard, everywhere, and none is a special request. Vegans do well too, with dairy the main thing to watch. Coeliac and severe allergy requirements need more care — bread is central and cross-contamination is real — and are worth telling us about at the planning stage rather than at the table.

The practical part

Tap water is not for drinking anywhere in Egypt; bottled is universal and included in every journey day. Salads and cut fruit are fine in good restaurants and hotels and best approached with more caution at street level. Eat where there is turnover — a busy counter is a safe counter. Tea is drunk constantly, black and very sweet; ask for it with mint. Coffee is Turkish-style and ordering it 'mazbout' gets you medium sugar, which is the correct answer.

Egyptian food questions

What food is Egypt known for?

Ful medames (slow-cooked fava beans, the national breakfast), koshari (rice, lentils, pasta, chickpeas and fried onions in one bowl — Egypt's national dish and entirely vegetarian), molokhia (a green jute-leaf stew), ta'ameya (fava-bean falafel) and mahshi (stuffed vegetables). For dessert: basbousa, konafa and om ali.

Is Egyptian food spicy?

No. Egyptian cooking is aromatic rather than hot — cumin, coriander, garlic and dill do the work. Chilli appears as a condiment on the table (shatta) for those who want it, not in the dish itself. Travellers who find Indian or Thai food too hot are almost always comfortable in Egypt.

Is Egypt good for vegetarians?

Unusually good, and without any special effort. Koshari, ful, ta'ameya, mahshi, baba ghanoush and most mezze are vegetarian as standard rather than as an accommodation. Vegans manage well too — dairy is the main thing to check. Tell us at the planning stage and restaurants are chosen accordingly.

Can I eat street food in Egypt?

With judgement, yes, and some of the best food in the country is sold this way. The rule is turnover: eat where there is a queue and the food is cooked in front of you. Avoid anything that has been sitting, and drink bottled water only. Your guide knows which counters are worth stopping at, which is most of the value.

What should I drink in Egypt?

Tea, constantly — black, sweet, and better with mint. Turkish-style coffee; ask for it 'mazbout' for medium sugar. Fresh sugarcane juice and hibiscus (karkadeh), served hot in winter and iced in summer, are both worth seeking out. Bottled water everywhere, and never from the tap.