Luxor

Dining in Luxor — The Essential Guide

The World’s Greatest Open-Air Museum at Table

Luxor is ancient Thebes — the capital of the Egyptian empire at its greatest extent, the city of Karnak and Luxor Temple, of the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, of the Colossi of Memnon and the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut. No other city on earth provides its restaurants with a more extraordinary backdrop for the dining experience. The rooftop terrace of Al Sahaby Lane offers simultaneous views of the Nile, Luxor Temple, and the Avenue of the Sphinxes; Restaurant 1886 occupies the hotel where Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile.

The dining scene in Luxor reflects the city’s dual character as both an ancient monument and a living Egyptian city: the French-Egyptian fine dining of the Winter Palace, the authentic traditional cooking of Al Sahaby Lane and El Kababgy, the unexpected Asian cuisine of Silk Road, and the Italian warmth of Casa di Napoli all coexist in a city where 5,000 years of history provides the most compelling possible dining backdrop.

The Egyptian Culinary Tradition

The Luxor culinary tradition draws on the full depth of the Egyptian cooking heritage: the hammam (pigeon) that has been prepared in the Egyptian manner since the Islamic period, the fatta (bread and rice with meat sauce) that the Nile Valley tradition has been developing for centuries, the feteer (layered pastry) that stretches back to the pharaonic kitchens, and the mezze of the Levantine tradition that Egypt shares with its eastern neighbours. Al Sahaby Lane and El Kababgy represent this tradition at its most authentic; Restaurant 1886 represents its most refined French-Egyptian expression.