Where to Go in Cairo ~ An Italian Restaurant & Café on the last day of Eid 2022 | Reem

by Reem - July 15, 2022

Where to Go in Cairo ~ An Italian Restaurant & Café on the last day of Eid 2022 Don Apolo Italian restaurant in Cairo

Is pizza anyone else's favourite food? I noticed that I am a bit too obsessed with it lately. But not any type! I accidentally got hooked on Italian pizza. On the last day of Eid, we got dressed up to try this Italian restaurant in Maadi called Don Paolo.

My sister found out about it online and I didn't hesitate to go! We drove to Maadi and arrived by sunset, which I realise is the best time to visit; the place has a coastal vibe. I don't know how to describe it exactly, but I felt like I was in El Sahel for some reason. Maybe it's the sunset effect and how the tables are placed outside under the awning? The restaurant is small but very put together from the inside (the kitchen). We could see the kitchen and the chef as he was cooking, which I thought was pretty cool (especially because they have this wood-fired oven). The outside, however, needed some retouching; the tables looked a bit run-down and the chairs made grating sounds when moved. For a place like this, I expected better tables. We then got the menu, which was one short, glazed paper with everything in Italian. Luckily, Italian is pretty close to English and French, so I didn't need too much help with translation hahah. We ordered the seafood and the pepperoni pizzas. We also ordered water, which came with disposable plastic cups, not really what I was expecting.

I don't remember the order taking long, so two medium-sized pizzas came shortly after. They looked and smelled absolutely amazing, and I already thought we had made a great choice. The dough was out-of-this-world soft! I am not a big fan of seafood in general, but the seafood pizza was pretty good. I just didn't like how the shrimp was unseasoned and tasted a bit bland. The pepperoni pizza, however, was perfect!! I also don't like pepperoni that much, but they didn't have a variety of meat pizzas. I generally prefer chicken pizza, but the pepperoni one didn't disappoint at all! As the sun set, the awning was drawn back and the lights were turned on, creating a calm atmosphere.

A stray cat and a dog did make a brief visit (along with some pesky flies), but this comes with dining outside in the streets of Cairo, not much can be done here, except for a small fence, maybe? Someone from the restaurant shooed the dog that was barking loudly, so it was all good in the end.

If you plan on going, I highly recommend it! Especially if you're going for the pizza! We learned that the ingredients are all high-quality ingredients that actually come from Italy. All Italian recipes, and the chef has been to Italy before (not Italian though). Overall, it was a great experience.

Healthy and Tasty

We then headed to Dokki and walked a bit to find "Healthy and Tasty." If you're on a diet or have specific dietary preferences, this is a great place to stop by. There's a variety of food that usually contains excessive sugar and additives, but without all of that.

There are many keto and some vegan options too! They have some really good vegan chocolate spread. You should totally try it regardless of whether you're vegan or not. Only thing is, their stuff is a bit on the pricier side compared to the stuff in the regular supermarkets. We ended up picking a low-sugar, wheat-free vanilla cake mix and a box of gluten-free pasta. I tried it tonight and I think it's good to know that you're having some healthy-ish pasta, and it doesn't taste that different from regular wheat pasta. However, the texture is a bit strange and mushy, maybe because it's gluten-free. It also says on the package "ready in minutes," so maybe I should've turned the stove off literally in a few minutes to avoid it getting too soft.

Cilantro Café

Nearby, there were a couple of coffee shops. We stopped by Cilantro after looking around for La Poire café, another great place with some good décor I like to visit. I'm glad we did because the Dokki branch looks really cozy with some warm tones and chill music playing really low in the background. I usually go for some dessert without a drink, but I found a caffeine-free, vanilla-flavoured option!

I got vanilla frappe (without coffee) and my sister got an iced latte. We also shared the last lemon tart. I get really particular and take a slightly longer time to pick something, but when I do, it ends up being great! The vanilla frappe tasted exactly like a vanilla smoothie, it lasted a lot longer than expected being the smallest size, though. Are their sizes bigger than Starbucks'? Maybe I should test this out hahah.

The lemon tart was amazing! It had a jiggly, custard-like top part, which I wasn't very fond of at the beginning but ended up liking because it tasted really good. I also liked that the tart was not too sweet and that the bottom part wasn't too hard (I don't like crunchy desserts).

I liked the place a lot, I might visit next time with my laptop to capitalize on the calm atmosphere and get some work done. Although I think it may be better to do so in the early morning for some extra peace and quiet (definitely not on an Eid day!).

Have you ever been to any of those places? Are you planning to? Let me know in a comment.

Click here to find out what I did in Zamalek/ Cairo,

and here for a virtual tour of Cairo/ Egypt.

There are always more places to visit and things to see in the busy city, Cairo. Stay updated by following this blog's Instagram here.

That's all for today's post.

Have a good one!