Cairo · Abdeen
Koshary El Tahrir
Everyday koshari — the neighbourhood bowl rather than the guidebook one.
Nobody reinvents koshari: the same rice, macaroni, lentils and chickpeas, the cumin tomato sauce, the fried onions on top. What one house has over another is its room, its price and how fast the bowl lands — and this one sits in Bab al-Louq, a few streets off Tahrir Square, where the talk around you is Arabic and ordering takes two words. Six thousand-odd reviews average out at 4.1: opinion is split, but the place feeds the neighbourhood at midday and again in the evening. Being koshari, it also happens to be entirely plant-based.
The extra bit
If you take it away, ask for the sauce and the da'a on the side, or the macaroni will have drunk everything by the time you get home. And add the shatta drop by drop — it bites harder than its colour suggests.
Know before you go
Cash, and small notes: at these prices a card reader is a bonus, not a given. The street is narrow and busy, so walk over from Tahrir — hunting for a parking space will cost you more time than the meal. And keep your expectations in proportion: this is a dependable neighbourhood stop, not a find.
