Friday March 29th, 2024
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Khulkhal: Ramadan the Egyptian Way

We head to the Nile Maxim's signature Egyptian restaurant for an iftar that would give mama's cooking a run for its money...

Staff Writer

The Nile Maxim boat has no problem leaving its customers with a great memory and happy faces. Whether you’re going to the infamous GU bar to get some good old fashioned partying done, taking a food cruise over our beautiful Nile River on the Nile Maxim Cruising Restaurant, enjoying some real traditional oriental food at Khulkhal or even diving headfirst into Risas’ international cuisine with a Spanish flair you should definitely find something to suit you and your party’s needs.

Being that it is the holy month of Ramadan, we decided to test out a bunch of venues offering iftar with strictly an oriental cuisine because we are curious as to which place really makes the best tajin bamya or batates bel firakh. So we decided to take a trip to the Nile Maxim boat but more specifically, the restaurant Khulkhal which is located at the top floor of the boat and gives a beautiful bird’s eye view of the Nile.

When you walk into the place you might be immediately struck by simply how vast the place is. It really does seem to just keep going and going which tells us that on a good night when it’s packed this place is A LOT of fun because at least 200 people could easily fit in the restaurant. Aside from that, we were greeted by smiling faces and a plethora of delicious aromas which never really hurts a dining experience. You’ll have no problem feeling the Ramadan spirit with all of their decorations and massively vibrant Ramadan lanterns either.

 

We can dedicate this whole article to simply the décor of the place as they really went above and beyond to spice the venue up but it’s time to move on to the best part of any restaurant review: the food. Khulkhal is offering a simple yet special fixed oriental menu in celebration of Ramadan which is exactly what we were looking for. When seated it was almost torture to just sit there and take in the smells of the food but once the dishes started coming out it made everything worthwhile.

The plates started coming out and it felt like it was never going to end (we are not complaining about that and we doubt you would either).  Within seconds, the table was transformed to what seemed like a full on personal buffet. We instantly started spotting our favourite oriental dishes like tajin batates bel lahma and what looked like a perfectly baked macarona bashamel . After taking one bite we concluded that it was indeed a perfectly baked macarona bashamel with just the right balance of cheesy goodness and pasta.

After absolutely demolishing the tajin bel firakh we put our utensils down because we foolishly thought the main course was over when all of a sudden smiling waiter came out with a massive plate of shish tawook and kebab and we could feel him thinking to himself “It’s not over just yet.”. So we sucked it up that we would have to fill ourselves up to the brim and began to indulge. The kebab was fresh off the grill so the heat still lingered and you can tell they really have a world class kebabgy as the blend of spices and seasoning with the light charcoal taste really made our taste buds and our hearts content.

Even though we were on the verge of exploding and entering a food induced coma, we think you can agree with us that there is ALWAYS room for dessert. After the delicious madness of the main course was taken care of they gave us a few minutes to collect ourselves and begin the digestive process for what was at least 2.5 kilos of food consumed.

Our same friendly waiter returned with the smile on his face that this time read “Wow you’re still standing? You just ate enough for five people.” Little does he know we are some professional eaters. Anyway, the barrage of sugary goodness began as he brought a plate with a bunch of sweet creations like basboussa, Zalabia, the Ramadan speciality kunafa ,sawaba3 Zeinab and rice pudding. This didn’t come a surprise to us but like everything else in the restaurant it was all absolutely delicious but sadly we couldn’t finished it as we literally felt like we were going to enter a food void where there is no return.

In closing, Khulkhal definitely took our Ramadan dining experience to the next level providing us with comfort, A LOT of food and a friendly atmosphere. We’ll definitely be back to the Nile Maxim to try out the other restaurants, now excuse us while we surrender to the food coma.

 Find out more here.