Hurghada - Eating

Il Gusto VIP Lounge - Our Table in Bar Area. Photo (c) Nicole

I arrived back in El Andalous really expecting to sit back in peace and quiet and to have a lot of time on my own. It was not to be (but that isn’t a bad thing!). Somehow, I found myself immediately embroiled in a whirl of activity. As I’ve reported, first of all there was all the hassle of sorting out my savings. Another thing that whisked me into sociability was eating out. There were hello meals for me, goodbye meals as others left, “let’s try somewhere different now that you’re back” meals…. There was always a reason to eat out. It can be a hard life sometimes.

So, today’s blog will be a review of some restaurants in the Hurghada region. If anyone wants to pay me to do this, I’m open to offers!

Maybe one of the most bizarre places I went to was a German restaurant in Hurghada called Zeitlos. It’s on a fairly busy street, just coming off Sheraton Road, so you won’t get sea views or anything like that. The décor is also not fussy and very practical.

The food however was really good and very German. It was honestly like I was in Germany. I’m sure Germans who are missing their home food would love this place. I had something fairly close to Zuerigeschnetzeltes (veal strips in mushroom cream sauce, usually served with Roesti which are huge rounds of fried potato formed into a big circle) – it was beef in a mushroom cream sauce with pasta. I think maybe it originally came with dumplings (very German!), which I don’t like, so I asked for the pasta and they kindly obliged. The portion was huge and it tasted wonderful. The people serving were German. It was like I hadn’t arrived back in Hurghada at all, except that it was April and pretty warm so we were sitting outside and opposite us were shops lit up with Arabic signs, so it couldn’t possibly be Germany. All I can say is that it felt very strange.

About 18 months ago, Il Gusto in Sahl Hasheesh opened up its “VIP Lounge”. I’d heard it was supposed to be upmarket, but I hadn’t really believed it (this is Egypt, after all). Anyway, curiosity finally got the better of me, and so off I went.

To my surprise, the place was huge. I’d heard it was a bit like a British bar, so I was expecting a small place with maybe a few bookshelves and armchairs and a good selection of drinks behind the counter. Instead, you enter a hallway adorned with a collection of original art from local artists and several rooms went off on either side. One room on the right was set up as a high-end restaurant – round tables were impressively laid for six with very grand silverware and full service. One area could be sectioned off entirely (in its own room) if you wanted a private function. It looked completely amazing.

Another room was a billiards room with some chairs and bookshelves, and art on the walls. It was more like a smokers’ lounge, I guess.

The final room, almost two rooms, was the bar and a more casual, but still upmarket, lounge area where you could also eat if you wished. The windows overlook the sea and a lady played very tasteful music (quite a lot of it French) on the piano next to the bar. The bar did have an impressive set of bottles behind it and a bar tender ready to serve. There were sofas and armchairs with coffee tables for you to sit back, relax, and enjoy your drink. By the windows, there were some higher tables for you to sit at. In front of the bar (where we sat) one circular table was set up with the full dinner service. Behind the bar was another room full of sofas and armchairs where you could sit and chill out. It was a tourist attraction in itself!

I had duck a l’orange and I think Nicole took the salmon; both meals were presented very thoughtfully. It made for a great evening and it made me wish I had an occasion where I could invite people to come along and see it. I feel quite proud that something like this is in Sahl Hasheesh and I can only pray that it manages to survive. We were the only customers all evening when we were there.

Another place I went to, that maybe I haven’t mentioned before in this blog, is Heaven (great name, huh!). It’s situated in the marina in Hurghada, so it’s a great location. I’ve been there a few times and at the moment it’s my favorite place for steak – truly delicious. Like many Egyptian places, it has some TVs playing, but they aren’t too obtrusive and the tables are set up with tablecloths so it’s semi-formal but still relaxed. As you would expect with it being in the marina, the boats and sea are just opposite.

I ended up with a bit of a hangover after that meal because Nicole unexpectedly ordered us another round of drinks and then our waiter decided that we must know our wines, so before we knew it, they were offering us free glasses of a new wine that they wanted to test out in the restaurant. They tried to get us to guess the underlying taste, but none of us got it, so I don’t think we passed the test. It turned out to be pineapple (“oh yes, of course!” we all said, once we knew).

I’ve also been back to some of my old favorites (eg, Chez Paul [Paul will be glad to hear!], Thai Garden), and there are some other new ones that I will report back on in a later blog.