The Vegan Kitchen

For a meat and cheese loving foodie, the idea of a vegan restaurant is highly suspect. For meat eaters, vegan food can be perceived to be constantly making excuses, substituting fake versions of the real meat and cheese you want to eat. Why go for the substitute when the real thing is so yummy? But, that’s a different debate — between health concerns and animal rights, there’s little argument in favor of fish from farms, chickens without legs and cows packed so tightly their feet don’t touch the ground.

That said, Egypt’s restaurants offer little, if nothing, for the vegan eater. Food that is not doused with cheese or filled with ground beef is soaked in clarified butter or floating in chicken stock. The Vegan Kitchen is not only vegan, but avoids refined sugar and flour, is gluten free and, well, pretty fabulous.

Tucked away behind the Maadi Grand Mall — take a right after HSBC and you’ll find it on your left — the Vegan Kitchen is simple. The wooden chairs are not particularly comfortable and the glass on the tables isn’t set in place, but the plants under the tables, the menu, and the candles during blackouts lend a charm to the place that’s undeniable.

Alaa, the co-owner, takes orders and serves the food himself, featuring recipes he and his fiancé Yasmine invented. Her specialty is sushi. Both treat the restaurant with love and attention — making their own almond milk and milling their own rice flour. “We want to make sure nothing is refined,” says Alaa.

The food is fantastic. From a non-vegan perspective, most of the items I’ve tasted on the menu are delicious. Highly recommended starters are the guacamole and the raw spring rolls. “The labna is also delicious,” adds Sarah Carr — Mada Masr reporter who is also vegan.

From the sushi selection, the maki rolls and caterpillar rolls are extremely tasty and having them with brown rice adds an extra health benefit.

Carr weighed in on the salads; apparently their Rainbow Salad is great — full of greens, spinach, kale and mushrooms. “The best part is the pomegranate dressing.”

For main dishes, the selection varies — the BBQ skewers and grilled tofu with mushroom sauce are highly recommended, but the pizza evoked mixed reviews. Some enjoyed the tastes, but others though it was your typical “siami” (Coptic fast) pizza and not a great version at that. The sweet potato wedges and sweet potato mash were tasty — the perfect combination of salty and sweet.

The best of the main courses though? The eggplant ravioli. Each ravioli is a slice of eggplant stuffed with vegan cheese and the dish is drizzled with fresh tomato sauce.

Reactions to dessert were again mixed — the ice cream gets great reviews — we tried mistika, chocolate and vanilla, and all were fantastic; chocolate was best. The Vegan Kitchen also serves a vegan tiramisu, which is not very tiramisu-like but still tastes good. The vegan brownie was also great.

Carr topped off her meal with a chocolate milkshake that was delicious.

The Vegan Kitchen is open from 12 noon until 12 midnight and is located at #10 Road 256.

For directions or questions the Vegan Kitchen can be contacted on 0115 500 6688 and more information can be found on their Facebook page.