9 Pyramids Lounge — Restaurant in Giza

We visited 9-Pyramids late July 2023. "Getting there" is complicated, but without a doubt, it is an awesome place to contemplate the Giza Pyramids (yes, all nine of them).

The venue is open for breakfast and lunch. You can do a later afternoon early dinner – but realize that the Pyramids park closes at ~ 6pm and the restaurant is bound by that deadline. A reservation seems absolutely required, since a security checkpoint will look for your name upon driving in. Also – to expedite your entry, you may want to consider purchasing a Park Pass from Egyptian Antiquities on-line website.

And now, please let me explain the steps and issues in “getting to” 9-Pyramids…….

If you take a ride-share (taxi, Uber, InDriver, etc.) there may be complications and push-back due to the park entry procedures, since (as far as I know) you will need a car to drive to the restaurant, and the driver may need to purchase a park entry pass. It is way beyond walking distance from the entrance point. Also……getting picked-up from the restaurant may be a challenge. If you DON’T HAVE A CAR to drive in, I would strongly suggest calling the restaurant and confirm the current arrangements.

The entry point is near the famous Mena House resort. From the resort gate, proceed south to the visitor parking and ticket sales area. The Google Plus Code for finding the park entrance on your map is X4MJ+5Q5. An alternate location to give to a taxi driver, et al, would be the “El Ahram Police Station” which is just north of the desired park entry point.

Everyone visiting the 9-Pyramids lounge will need to purchase the Park Pass. Your car driver must have purchased a pass, then all must exit the vehicle and proceed through a walk-through gate, while you driver is allowed to proceed through the gate to a meeting point up the hill toward the Great Pyramid. You are now on your own to navigate to 9-Pyramids. While google maps will help in finding the park entry point, it won’t help you much in navigating within the park. You will take the road that heads south along the west side of the pyramids. Look for Egyptian park security personnel along the road and ask them for help. You will continue south, driving away from the pyramids, until you encounter a manned checkpoint. The uniformed person will ask your name, check his list, and direct you to an unpaved road across the desert, now heading east. You will soon see the 9-Pyramids Lounge. Happy arrival!

You will have the choice of inside or outside seating. The inside area features an expansive glass wall providing an awesome view of the pyramids area. We chose inside. In the hot summer it would be a tradeoff in selecting seating. The air conditioning inside was very minimal. Some in our party were uncomfortably warm during our meal. Large fans inside helped, but certainly the AC is in need of upgrade for summer comfort inside. Outside there would likely be a nice breeze, but it is still hot, and, of course, there are flies to deal with.

The menu can be found on-line and it would be helpful to check it out to understand the level of Egyptian fare offered – informal/simple food found frequently around Cairo. Local beer is served (maybe local wine -- but I’m not sure ).

The food was generally good. Again – really what you expect at a “normal” middle-class restaurant in Cairo. Nothing to rave about – but then you really are not going to 9-Pyramids for the food.

Prices seemed reasonable considering the venue. When making reservations, you might ask if there is a minimum charge for your visit (as noted by some reviewers). We ordered full dinner entrees and did not have any surprises. Note that a tip/service charge is included in you tab.

Our group had a really nice time at our late lunch date. We had a great table along the north glass window. And of course, there are lots of opportunities for photographs outside on some nice deck areas.

Despite the ordeal of “getting there”, we had a wonderful and memorable Egyptian experience...

This is easily the best view in the world but the food is unfortunately mediocre, which is such a pity because it affected the experience. You have to make a reservation and arrange transport before going there otherwise you might find yourself stranded in the area at the mercy of overpriced tourist cabs، which was our case.

Here's the experience in detail. Access: you're actually going to the pyramids site through the main gate when you come here.You have to pay the tickets to get in which is 200 Egyptian pounds for foreigners and 40 Egyptian pounds for Arabs or Egyptians. You will have to pay the entrance fee for your driver and their car too which is EGP 45. You have to carve up to 20 minutes for this entire stop. if you don't have a private car taking you to the location and picking you up you're going to run into a problem. It's not walkable from the main gate (about 4 km from the entrance) The restaurant does not provide any shuttle to or from the main gate. But they did help us by calling a private car to come and pick us up and take us to the main gate. The wait was not worth it. The price was double the trip from the hotel to this location.

Fog/ dust. We arrived at 9:00 a.m. in the morning (January 2022) and for the first couple of hours we couldn't really see the pyramids because they were blocked by fog or dust. By noon things cleared up and the view was absolutely spectacular.

Reservation: you have to make a reservation before coming here. Please make sure to do this as they turn people away if they don't have one. It is crowded but it's not jam-packed. At 9:00 a.m. it was just myself and husband, and another family. By 10 am tables started filling up.

Food: if you've never had Egyptian food before I feel bad for you because this is not it. Literally any restaurant in Cairo would serve better food than this. There are two options, western or Egyptian breakfast, and both were mediocre. Everything was cold. Eggs were cold. Sausages were cold. croissant was stale. Lemon mint Juice was too watery. Lipton tea and nescafe coffee was served in paper cups. I was so very underwhelmed.

Staff: everyone is super nice but I have had better, much better service in other places in Cairo.

Price: about 225 per person for breakfast. Juice, water, or coffee drinks are extra.

I will not return. But I think everyone should come here at least once. Just leave your food expectations at the main gate and you will be happy.

Advise to management: please provide fresh food and a shuttle from and to the main entrance of the pyramids. Your staff seem demotivated, please...

Entrance: The way to enter is to go to the Pyramids area which means you have to buy a ticket for each person and for the car to enter. They let me in by the car and exceptionally allowed me to keep the kids as well but my wife had to pass a gate by foot to enter through security which is really bizarre. We were openly asked to pay a tip at the gate. We did.

Parking: It was easy to find the restaurant passing the magical scene of the pyramids around and reaching to the restaurant with the Pyramids best view ever so high up. Found a spot to park the car right at the entrance. Easy!

Reception: We were received by a lady who asked if we have reservation and upon confirming the name and number of people she informed us that we will pay around EGP 450 on average for lunch to make sure we are aware how expensive is the restaurant. Very poor start in my opinion! I confirmed and said it is ok.

Food Quality: Nothing special. Below average!

Restaurant design: Very poor quality and minimum investment in design, furniture and zero effort in creating an ambiance

The view: Wow. Magical spot for everybody who is likes history. Up high overseeing the three main pyramids. Really a wow location.

Comfort and Cleanness: Restaurant furniture and cleanness are below average.

Service: The waiters has no uniform which made it hard to understand who works in the restaurant. The language used was very poor and they were too suggestive of what we should order and what we should not order. Not helpful at all. The waiters were very loud talking with each other about personal stuff and internal operations of the restaurant which was noisy and uncomfortable to us. One of the waiters was openly trying to pick up a lady who was obviously a customer trying to have a meal with her friend. Very unprofessional. The bill came to us without asking by the waiter. The manager or so it seems approach us with the POS machine to collect the payment, we paid 15% tip and we got no thank you and no smile.

We will not go back there for sure! Probably we will again just for the view but not to eat!

Safety: The restaurant is surrounded by stray dogs that are openly roaming around few steps away from us. It was a worry that such dogs might attack our kids or us. Not very nice.

Price: All the value is in the view and the photos. The restaurant itself is a failure! Needs compete change of management...