The back story
Tea, Coffee and the Piano: Cairo’s Café Life
From mint tea in the bazaar to afternoon tea by the Nile: how Cairo sits down, and where we go.
Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © Marriott Mena House, CairoCairo’s café life, from the mirrored coffee house in Khan el-Khalili and the old tea rooms of Downtown to afternoon tea and evening piano in the grand hotel lounges along the Nile.
Cairo is a city that sits down. Between the traffic of the Corniche and the crowds of the bazaar, there is always a chair, a glass of tea and a little time, and the café is where the city talks, reads and watches itself go by.
The choice runs from a coffee house in a medieval lane to a hotel lounge with a pianist, and we love both. Here is how to spend a day at Cairo’s tables.
In the bazaar
Start where Cairo’s café life is oldest, in the alleys of Khan el-Khalili. El Fishawy is the mirrored coffee house in a lane of the bazaar, its tables spilling into the passage, where visitors and Cairenes sit side by side over mint tea, Turkish coffee and shisha.
Come after a morning on Al-Muizz Street, or in the evening when the lanterns of the stalls are lit, and let the bazaar pass your table.
Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © Mohammed Moussa · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia CommonsDowntown’s tea rooms
Downtown, laid out on Parisian lines in the Khedivial years, has its own café history. Groppi, on Talaat Harb Square, is one of the historic tea rooms of that city, and Café Riche, on Talaat Harb Street, was long a meeting place of Cairo’s writers and artists.
Make them part of a walk through the Khedivial streets, between the Egyptian Museum and the arcades.
In Cairo, sitting down is never a pause in the day: it is the day’s best part.
Afternoon tea by the Nile
The grand hotels of the Corniche keep the other tradition, the afternoon tea. At The Nile Ritz-Carlton, by Tahrir, the Lobby Lounge is open around the clock and best known for its afternoon tea, served to live piano. Fairmont Nile City pours its tea in the Onyx Lounge every day from 3pm to 5pm, and asks you to book ahead at weekends.
In Garden City, the Kempinski Nile Hotel’s Chocolate Lounge serves morning coffee with its homemade creations and an afternoon tea. Across the water on Gezira, the Cairo Marriott serves afternoon tea at its Lobby Bar, with a pianist from 8pm; or take a table outdoors in the palace gardens at its Garden Promenade Café, open from 6am until 2am.
And by the Pyramids, the Lobby Lounge of Marriott Mena House welcomes guests and visitors alike from 8am to midnight, under its mashrabiya screen.
Did you know? The Garden Promenade Café sits in the gardens of a 19th-century palace, now part of the Cairo Marriott on Gezira.
Our advice
Our advice: take mint tea at El Fishawy in the morning, before the bazaar fills, and keep the afternoon for tea by the Nile. Book the hotel teas ahead at weekends, and check each hotel’s own page for the day’s times.
Why it's on our list
- In the bazaar
- Downtown’s tea rooms
- Afternoon tea by the Nile
- Our advice
Location
The map comes from Google Maps, which sets its own cookies once it loads.
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