Dinner at Estoril

We were downtown near Talaat Harb Square a few days back and took advantage of the opportunity to have dinner at Estoril, a restaurant recommended to us by a shop owner in the area.

Estoril apparently dates back to 1959 and appears on multiple lists of classic Cairo restaurants.  It offers a view of Cairo's faded past.


From a 2019 list of oldest restaurants in Cairo:

Similar to other vintage resto-bars in Downtown, Estoril was a popular meeting place for political activists, writers, artists and intellectuals. One wall is dedicated to local art while the other is full of memorabilia and clippings of articles and other old press about Estoril in its heyday.

Estoril’s menu now is not much to write home about, but it remains a popular spot to have a beer and chat with the bartender about years past.

It's necessary to go back to 2011 to get a really positive recommendation - and even that is for one of the side dishes.

But good restaurants in downtown are hard to find - our long-time favorite, Felfela, has become a really bad spot after a change in management. We recently had a disastrous experience at Felfela.

A glance at the Estoril menu displays some good possibilities.

And the atmosphere is "romantic French" - that is, dark, with senior multi-lingual waiters.  Aside from the dated look of the menu and flatware, the food, presentation and service was actually quite good. 

 


Linda chose the veal with mushrom sauce while I had the pepper steak.
 


Overall we would give it 4 stars for the food.  Maybe a bit less than three for the atmosphere.