Three ways to eat Cairo with us
Whether you want to explore at your own pace, join a small evening group, or have a tour designed around your party's interests and dietary needs — we have a format that fits.
750 EGP
per person · digital delivery
Self-Guided Map
A detailed neighbourhood guide and curated map pack for independent explorers. You visit each stop at your own pace, on your own schedule. Food is paid at the counter as you go — we tell you what to order and roughly what to pay.
- Digital PDF map of 12–15 verified stops
- Dish-by-dish ordering guide in English
- Price ranges in EGP (current year)
- Arabic ordering phrases for each stop
- Opening hours and best-visit times
- Notes on seasonal availability
- Email support for follow-up questions
1,450 EGP
per person · all food included
Evening Food Tour
A four-hour guided evening walk through one of Cairo's best food neighbourhoods, with a Cairo Table guide. Eight tastings across six to eight stops. Maximum eight guests. Departs at 18:00 from a central meeting point.
- Four hours, six to eight stops
- All food and non-alcoholic drinks included
- Koshari, ful, grill, street pastries, dessert
- Cairo Table guide throughout
- Downtown or Zamalek route (choose at booking)
- Groups of two to eight people
- Self-Guided Map included for each guest
- Follow-up restaurant recommendations for your stay
From 2,800 EGP
per person · custom itinerary
Private & Group Tour
A fully bespoke food tour designed around your group's size, interests and dietary requirements. Can include a sit-down restaurant meal, a specific neighbourhood not on the standard routes, a morning market visit, or an Alexandria day trip.
- Custom itinerary and timing
- All food included (restaurant meals extra at cost)
- Groups of two to twenty people
- Vegetarian, vegan, halal and allergy routing available
- French-language option (on request)
- Alexandria day trip available (additional cost)
- Pre-tour call with Adham Lotfy
- Full post-tour guide for your remaining days
What's included side by side
| Feature | Self-Guided Map | Evening Food Tour | Private & Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price per person | 750 EGP | 1,450 EGP | From 2,800 EGP |
| Food included | No (pay at counter) | Yes | Yes (restaurant meals at cost) |
| Cairo Table guide present | No | Yes | Yes |
| Group size | Any | 2–8 people | 2–20 people |
| Duration | Your own schedule | 4 hours (18:00–22:00) | Custom (half or full day) |
| Route options | One neighbourhood map | Downtown or Zamalek | Any neighbourhood or Alexandria |
| Dietary customisation | Notes provided | Vegetarian available | Full customisation |
| Arabic ordering phrases | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Follow-up recommendations | Email support | Written list | Full written guide |
| Language options | English | English | English, Arabic, French (request) |
| Booking lead time | 48 hours | 48 hours | 5 days minimum |
The Evening Food Tour in detail
The Evening Food Tour departs at 18:00 from a central meeting point in Downtown Cairo or Zamalek, depending on the route you chose when booking. Both routes are walkable and cover roughly two kilometres on foot over four hours — a slow pace with frequent stops, designed for eating rather than exercise. The guide is one of the Cairo Table team: someone who has eaten at every stop multiple times, paid for their own food there, and knows the staff, the history and the best thing to order.
The Downtown Cairo route begins with koshari at a counter we have been visiting for seven years. The evening moves through ta'ameya sandwiches (if you haven't had this done properly, the first one is a revelation), into a mid-tour stop at a grill restaurant for a portion of kofta and mezze, then through the liver-sandwich district near Ramses, past a feteer cart in a side street, and ends at a halawani (pudding shop) for roz bil-laban or konafa, depending on the season.
The Zamalek route is quieter, focused on neighbourhood institutions rather than street counters: it covers ful and cheese pastries at a bakery that has been in the same family since the 1970s, a sit-down restaurant lunch-counter doing molokhia with rabbit, a patisserie with the best basbousa in the area, and ends in an ahwa for Turkish coffee. Both routes are shaped by years of actually eating there — not by what fits neatly into a tourist narrative.
Food included on the Evening Tour: typically koshari, ta'ameya sandwich, two or three grill items with mezze, a pastry, a dessert, tea or soft drinks throughout. Water is provided. Additional food or drinks beyond what is served at each stop can be purchased at your own cost.
Guests with dietary requirements are asked to note them when booking. Vegetarian guests will eat at all stops on the tour — Egyptian street food is largely plant-based and every stop on both routes has vegetarian options. Guests with nut allergies should specify this, as some desserts contain nuts. Guests who keep strictly halal will find all food on the tour already halal by default.
For the full range of our food tours and to see what former guests say about both routes, visit the food tours page. To book, use the contact form or email us directly at [email protected].
Before you book
Yes — all food tasted during the Evening Food Tour and the Private & Group Tour is included in the price. You will not be asked to pay at any stop during the tour; the guide handles all food costs. Water and soft drinks are also included. If you want additional drinks, food beyond the tour stops, or alcohol, you pay for those separately at the relevant venue.
The Self-Guided Map pack is different: it is a research document, not a guided experience. You visit each stop independently and pay for your food at the counter as you go. The map gives you price ranges so you know what to expect at each stop.
Yes, fully. Egyptian food is one of the most plant-friendly cuisines in the world — koshari is vegan, ful is vegan, ta'ameya is vegan, and a wide range of mezze, pastries and vegetable dishes require no substitution. The standard Evening Food Tour route can be completed entirely with vegetarian food without compromising the quality or variety of what you eat.
Tell us your dietary requirements when booking and we will confirm the specific menu for your tour in advance. Vegan guests should note that some bread is made with eggs — we can route around this if required. For more on eating vegetarian in Cairo generally, see the vegetarian guide.
Maximum eight people per tour, per guide. We keep groups small deliberately: street food areas in Cairo are busy, the spaces at the best stops are modest, and a group of fifteen people crowding a ful counter at seven in the morning serves no one well. Eight is the number at which a group can still move fluidly through a neighbourhood, get a proper look at what is being cooked, and ask questions without the guide having to project.
If your party is nine or more people, the Private & Group Tour format handles you as a single group with a guide-to-guest ratio appropriate to your size. We can arrange two guides for very large groups. Contact us to discuss — pricing scales with group size and is quoted per person.
All standard Evening Food Tours are conducted in English. Arabic is available for guests who prefer it — tell us at booking. French-language tours can be arranged for private bookings; Adham Lotfy speaks French and conducts tours in it regularly. Italian can be managed for small private groups if arranged well in advance.
All tours include a printed Arabic ordering phrase card, which is useful for independent stops outside the tour — and for the remainder of your time in Cairo after the tour has ended.
By email to [email protected] or via the contact form. Tell us: which tour format, your preferred date and time, group size, any dietary requirements, and whether you have any specific interests (a particular neighbourhood, a particular dish category, a specific kind of restaurant for a private tour). We reply within 24 hours with availability and a booking summary.
We do not use online booking platforms. Direct contact means we can answer questions, adjust the itinerary to your requirements, and confirm the practical logistics — meeting point, what to wear (comfortable walking shoes; Cairo streets are uneven), what to bring — before you commit. Payment is made on the day of the tour, in Egyptian pounds.
Full refund of any advance payment if cancelled more than 48 hours before the tour. Within 48 hours, we offer a credit valid for 12 months against any future Cairo Table tour — the same format or a different one. We understand that travel plans in Cairo are subject to change and we try to be practical about it.
If we cancel a tour for any reason — guide unavailability, weather conditions that make a walking tour genuinely unsafe — we offer a full refund or a rescheduled date at your choice. To cancel or reschedule, contact us by email or phone at +20 2 2358 6914.
Before and after the tour
A food tour is the fastest way to understand a cuisine, but it is not the only way into Cairo's food culture. The guides on this site — the street food guide, the regional dishes guide, the restaurant profiles and the desserts section — exist precisely to give visitors and curious Cairenes the reference material to keep eating well for the rest of a trip, not just during a four-hour tour.
If you are planning a longer stay in Cairo and want a curated shortlist for your specific neighbourhood and dietary preferences, use the contact form to tell us where you're staying, how long you're there and what you're interested in eating. We will send back a personalised shortlist — not a generic top-ten, but a set of specific places matched to your situation. This is a free service. We do it because we want visitors to eat well in Cairo and because pointing people to the right table is, honestly, one of the things we enjoy most about running this guide.
For guests who want to understand the manners and conventions of eating out in Cairo — the etiquette of street food counters, how to handle a menu in Arabic, when and how much to tip — the dining etiquette guide covers all of it in plain language. Reading it before your first evening out will make every meal more comfortable and more enjoyable.
Reserve your evening in Cairo
Spots on the Evening Food Tour fill quickly, particularly on Thursdays and Fridays. Tell us your dates and group size and we will come back with availability within 24 hours.