Gad — Restaurant in Cairo

The experience should be good as a whole, including food quality, service and atmosphere. As for Gad, it is a local food chain that offers national dishes, mainly Fool (Lentils), Falafel, Shawarma, different types of pies and so on. The food quality is average, and in all honesty the shawarma is not the best (specially the one in the bun, it was really bad). Overall, the food is cheap. It works for a snack stop after long strolls in Khan El Khalili.

The service is what lowered my rating. They are very rude, and they expect you to know where to go and what to do. When you make an order, you have to hand the receipt to one of the three stalls that they got ( The fool and falafel is inside right in-front of the cashier, the pies is next to it, and the shawarma is outside). If you’re unlucky and it’s crowded, you’ll have to squeeze your way through because apparently there would never be any queues. I went there more than once and every time the disorganization of everything was worse. The place consists of two floors. The ground one is for those who ordered ‘take away’, and there are just three tables. The upper one is for those who ordered to dine in, and of course they take and added service percentage for that. The manager of the upper part of the branch is a very rude and disrespectful man. He speaks to people anyhow, with a nasty attitude, as if he doesn’t care whether they leave or stay. The funniest part is how he would also speak ill of my foreign friends in Arabic (Who were mainly women), not knowing that we do understand.

Needless to say, it is not accessible for wheelchairs, and I would definitely not recommend anybody to waste their money and get such...

3 (THREE) HEALTHY ADULTS HAD FOOD POISONING AFTER EATING IN THIS RESTAURANT. THE WORST IN MY LIFE.

Visited this restaurant with a group of 3 other friends during our trip to Cairo last week (November 2023).

It was late at night and was difficult to get taxi to return to the hotel or get to another restaurant so decided to have dinner before heading to the hotel. WHAT A MISTAKE IT WAS, WE REALISED within 24 hours.

From outside the restaurant looked decent. Due to poor internet connection, wasn’t able to check the reviews.

We sat down and the menu was delivered. The state of the menus looked extremely appalling. They were years old as the corner of the pages were covered in thick dirt, the price was altered with handwritten stickers. E£155 was replaced with E£300.

The glass cover in the table was covered in thick layer of dirt. As our Uber trip was getting cancelled repeatedly and there was no other alternative that we were aware of. We divided to have something light.

3 out of 4 of us had Chicken Sharwama, when the food delivered they didn’t look like chicken Sharwama. The taste was absolutely rubbish. All 3 of us had food poisoning, resulting in unexplainable sufferings. The breads were stale; Fries were soggy, burnt and oily.

The shocking discovery was that the owner doesn’t trust his waiters/staff as he keeps the drink fridge locked, and opens them with the key to give the drinks. After paying the bill, he didn’t even bother to give the change (not that we would’ve taken it), but he didn’t show the little courtesy.

I WOULD ADVICE ANYONE LOOKING AT THIS REVIEW TO AVOID EATING THERE, UNLESS YOU WANT TO TAKE THE VERY HIGH CHANCE OF EXPERIENCING A SERIOUS...

Gad is a very clean eatery and is split into two parts: outside/downstairs for the shawarma sandwiches and upstairs for a sit down meal.

There is a wide selection of choice on the menu and very cheap in comparison to other local eateries. I'd recommend the plate of chicken shawarma (the lamb was somewhat tangy in taste) - which cost around 12 Egyptian pounds. The pickled vegetables are really nice and accompany the meat well. Gad is a fast food restaurant but waiting for the food is anything but fast. On both occasions that we visited, our meals took almost 20 minutes to arrive, despite the shawarma being cooked on the stand just downstairs (I.e. It should have been served very quickly).

The manager speaks English well and is very nice, unless you don't leave a tip that he is happy with. He stands there and makes the same joke every time "do you want the bill before discount or after discount?". We left 10 Egyptian pounds as a tip (despite our food arriving very late and the waiting staff then disappearing) and the manager looked shocked and disgusted. We said thank you and goodbye as we were leaving, but the staff just looked at us and looked away.

Not a pleasant experience and if we do visit again, we'll most likely just order chicken shawarma sandwiches to go.

Despite the moody manager, I would recommend stopping here to grab a snack, as the food and premises are very clean and well priced, which is a rarity...