Old Cairo Grill, web site, 6030 Burke Commons Road, Burke, VA, 703-250-0490, in the Wal-Mart shopping center. (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Yelp]
Very mom and pop, I ate here once and thought it good, not great. I had the hummus and the béchamel Macaroni. I wouldn’t make a special trip to eat here but if you’re at the Wal-Mart or live nearby, it is a place which can fit into your repertoire. Or you may simply wish to sample an “Egyptian” restaurant but I should warn you it doesn’t have much in the way of unique dishes.
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If this is your first visit, read these:
-- Welcome
-- General Remarks
-- Six Rules for Dining Out
- Tyler Cowen's home page
- Marginal Revolution
- The Complete TCED Guide (June 2019) (127-page PDF)
- Metro Trip Planner
I actually really enjoy their chicken shawerma, but haven’t tried much else. I do love that everything is very fresh.
If it’s egyptian, perhaps they serve original Egyptian falafel made with fava beans instead of chickpeas? A good hint is that it’s green instead of yellow, although parsley paste makes chickpea-based falafel green as well. Egyptians swear that fava falafel is better than chickpea falafel, even though chickpeas are basically the international standard for it.
My family and I love the Old Cairo Grill. The best things to try here are any of the fresh salads (baladi, baba ghanouge, houmos, etc.) or vegetable specials (usually written up on a board behind the counter).
Also, they have some very typical Egyptian dishes that are hard to find – my own favorite being the kosharee (lentils, chick peas, macaroni and rice topped with fried,
carmelized onion, a spicy tomato-cumin sauce and be sure to ask for the vinegar/garlic sauce).
I’ve had the felafel (with fava beans), lamb, beef and chicken kabobs, chicken shawarma and most of the fresh salads. My six-year old adores the bechamel macaroni.
While it is true that some of the dishes are pan-arabian (shawarma) what I love about this resto is that everything is freshly made and lightly handled without a lot of salt/additions allowing the natural flavors to come through (the baba ghanouge and the sauteed eggplant with
garlic come to mind).
The owners are super as well. I saw them offer, unsolicited, a free baklava to a customer who had their order slightly/minimally delayed.
They are also always happy to help with ordering and suggestions. They’ve just added “egyptian fries” to the menu – something I’ll try next time.
I spent 2 years in Cairo and the food here is very authentic.
Great place for the family and very low-key. I’ve eaten here maybe ten times and enjoyed each meal thoroughly.
My husband (from Jordan) and I went here the other day and it’s FANTASTIC!!!!
We both had the lentil soup, beshamel and Koshari. All were SOOOOOO GOOOOOD!
I prefer this kind of lentil soup as opposed to the Lebanese which don’t usually blend it in the resturants around here – Old Cairo Grill does it how my mom in law does it… yum!
The Beshamel was PERFECT and the Koshari was exactly like we have back in the MidEast.
Excellent resturant and we are going back very soon! It’s a beautiful place and the owners are wonderful and always open to talk about the food and take suggestions.
Our new favorite spot! 🙂
My family went to visit for the first time tonight and everyone loved the food. The Chicken Kabob was tender; my husband loved the lamb kabob. Our daughter loved the fries and our son finished the all of his food! You MUST try the home-made Egyptian shortbread cookies (made by the owners’ wife) — practically melts in your mouth! We will definitely go back. 🙂