Cafes in Mohandiseen

Mohandiseen is the mecca of cafes in Cairo. Due to the abundance of offices in this suburb, there is no dearth of places for people to take a break from a hectic schedule or have a quick working lunch. Café Pasqua, Café Spectra and Café Ciccio are the three more popular cafes that I frequent

CAFÉ PASQUA

Address: 60 Lebanon Street, Lebanon Square, Mohandeseen

If you have a lot of time on your hands, and coffee is on your mind, then head to Café’ Pasqua for the best café mocha in town. Pasqua has an indoor and an outdoor seating. The wooden chairs and granite table tops are very welcoming and the earthy tones used on the walls provide a very relaxed and cozy ambience, though the indoors can get a bit stuffy because of the smoke. A pack of cards, backgammon board game, and a host of magazines-some of them in their maiden issue-are available to occupy you. Or just sit back and listen to the music being played while puffing on a shisha. If you are looking for food, Pasqua does not disappoint-pizzas, crepes and pastas dominate the menu. Start with a French onion soup which is delicious. The vegetarian crepe is very tasty with the cheese nicely melted and the capsicums crisp. All the pizzas are good but my personal favourite at Pasqua is the good old margerita pizza. The soups are between LE12 to LE 14, the pizzas around LE 20. On week-ends it gets crowded and is a favourite haunt to watch the football matches on its three large screens.

CAFÉ SPECTRA

Address:3, Canal El Suez Street, between Syria street and Gameat El Dowal Street, Mohandessin.

Tucked away in a lane off the busy Gamat-al-Dwal al Arabia road, Café Spectra is a quieter and up-market -more a restaurant than a café, actually. It is almost hidden by foliage but once you walk through the long corridor and enter through the entrance on your left, you come into a decent-sized eating area. The place is dimly lit and is ideal for an intimate dinner. The items listed in the menu have illustrations against them-this is a boon to vegetarians like me! Though the illustrations help to ascertain what you are ordering, it does not prepare you for the huge portions! You will definitely need those take-away bags. The Spectra Vegi Combo satiates the curious diner-with nachos, fried mushrooms, onion rings, French fries, spring rolls served with 3 mouth-watering dips. With two of us sharing the platter, we still could not finish the entire thing. The tomato soup and the mushroom soup are delicious too. The ingredients used are fresh and the soups are not loaded with cornflour. The huge portions made sure that we did not get beyond the soup and starter round. However, we did try their brownie which is served with three scoops of ice-cream. Scrumptious! But again I would recommend sharing.

CAFÉ CICCIO

Café Ciccio is smaller as compared to the Café Spectra and Café Pasqua. However, it have now taken over the pavement outside. What had started out as a makeshift venue with some chairs and a TV screen put up to accommodate the huge crowds at the café during the football finals of the Africa Cup of Nations has now become a semi-permanent structure. With the onset of winter, the outdoor seating will have few takers and so they have taken over a place next door and are expanding. The menu is limited with a few kinds of pizzas and pastas. They have an extensive ice-cream menu and the desserts are delicious too.