Farsha Cafe — Restaurant in South Sinai

I’ve genuinely never left a negative review before but my experience here with a member of staff was so uncomfortable that I felt unsafe.

Me (American woman) and my friend (British woman) came to Farsha. When we walked in, there was no indication of how to get to the downstairs area. We finally asked someone and they told us to grab a ticket however when we asked how long the wait time was the staff said they didn’t know.

We grabbed our ticket and went to the bar. At the bar, my friend was talking to a Russian man who was ordering a drink - it was all very platonic. Eventually we went our separate ways and after being there for nearly 2 hours, we found the man who was giving out stamps and we were able to go downstairs.

In the downstairs area, you are sat in specific areas and you are sat with people you don’t know. We happened to be across from the area where the Russian man and his friends were. He came over to talk to us and say hi and immediately the staff told him to go away. We thought maybe they thought this was unwanted conversation. About 30 minutes later, the Russian man comes over again to talk to us and the staff immediately tell us this is not allowed. We tell them we know him and it’s ok and they tell us it’s not allowed. Which was very strange because we were sat talking to him at the bar upstairs for nearly an hour in front of multiple staff and no one said it was an issue.

About another 20 minutes later, we were trying to order another drink and were having trouble getting the waiter’s attention. My friend gets up to ask someone and the staff member who had been telling us not to talk to the Russian man immediately followed her and aggressively asked what she was doing. She said she wanted to order a drink and he told her to go sit down.

We ordered the drink and as we were waiting, the Russian man comes over to show us a screenshot on his phone and the staff member comes over again and starts yelling at us saying we were being disrespectful. He kicked the Russian man and his 2 friends out and told us he was going to grab our check and that we needed to leave. We spoke very calmly with him the whole time as we didn’t understand what the issue was. There were no signs saying intermingling wasn’t allowed and no one had told us off for doing this upstairs. The staff member was very belittling and rude in how he was speaking to us. He told us we were being disrespectful to his culture and we were making him angry. We apologized and said that wasn’t our intention and he kept repeating that we were only making him angrier. He made it clear he thought that because we were Westerners, we were trying to impose our culture here. Mind you, they tell you that this city was created specifically for tourists and both of us were fully covered and wearing loose clothing as a show of respect. I tried to tell the man that I am of Middle Eastern descent so I’m well aware of the culture and that we genuinely were not aware that we couldn’t speak to a man even in a platonic way. There had been no prior touching between this man and my friend at any point - it was strictly conversation. The staff member continued to speak down to us, insinuating that we were wh0res and looked as if he wanted to spit in our faces. The entire time we were calm and genuinely just wanted to apologize, smooth things over, and clarify/assure him that we were not trying to be disrespectful. None of this was well received.

Eventually we said ok we’ll pay and leave. He didn’t send anyone over to collect our payment and it took about another 15 minutes for me to flag someone down and then another 5-10 minutes for them to come back with the card machine. The entire time we were waiting to pay, that staff member stood in the corner glaring at us with so much hate in his eyes. We felt so uncomfortable knowing we were being watched like this and that we were made to feel like wh0res. We wanted to cry. It was such an awful experience to end our first day in this city. I genuinely would not...

Sadly Farsha offered me one of the worst experiences I have ever had in Sharm and Egypt in general. We arrived early knowing there’s a waiting time. We asked multiple times how long the estimated waiting time was and if there was an update. No information was given other than to wait for ‘the guy with the stamp’. They kept reiterating that all tables were full and said they ‘had a system’ and as we were number 10 we would wait our turn and when a table of 4 (we were a group of 4) freed up we would not be skipped. During our wait we ordered and paid for 4 drinks. After the 2,5 hour wait during which there was no movement (no tables freed up), we finally saw the guy with the stamp. People flocked to him and he just randomly allowed huge numbers of people in that came after us in line. After finding our way through to him we got a stamp and finally walked towards the seating area. Hordes and hordes of people were randomly sent down the stairs, clearly showing that there was no system at all and certainly not a fair one. No one came up the stairs which made us realize the tables were never ‘full’ and the people we were waiting to leave did not exist. As we walked down the incredibly unsafe stairs nothing was regulated. People stopped midway to take pictures and the stairs were uneven making it an absolute safety hazard. Finally arriving at the seating area no one guided us to the tables. After finding someone to ask for guidance, he sat us at a table with 3 others as we were expected to share it. The second big lie was revealed here as there was no ‘table for 4’ that we had to wait for. People were just randomly placed together with strangers. When we finally received a menu we realized there was no food offered except some pizzas and so we ordered 2 drinks and 2 waters. In response, the waiter informed us that we were obligated to order one drink per person. Water apparently didn’t count as a drink. When explaining that we already ordered drinks upstairs, this did not seem to matter. The final straw was when 2 separate waiters tried to squeeze in 2 more people at a clearly full table. When I mentioned that my husband went to the bathroom and there really was no room for more people, the waiter ignored me twice and insisted that the couple would sit down. Thankfully the couple argued with him as well as this would be uncomfortable for both them and us. Later another waiter tried to do the same and he also ignored me when I mentioned my husband. Thankfully at that point my husband arrived back at the table. We called for our check and left. (Bonus: the bathrooms are filthy).

The place is beautiful on social media and we wanted to know what the fuss was about. However the horrible service, bad treatment, lies, chaos, rudeness and lack of safety, it is safe to say I will never go back. The place creates the false idea of high demand by pretending it’s fully booked, making you wait hours and then sends people in all at the same time with no crowd control. A very dishonest way of doing business. And as it is touristic and most guests are not regulars, they get away with it. Farsha, shame on you. It’s a disgrace to Sharm el Sheikh and a horrible representation of Egypt towards guests in...

Despite the conflicting feelings, I have given it 5 stars: my husband insisted on going as he knew it’s a must see. Though I got really frustrated, I do not regret going. We went there early, around 4pm. There were plenty of seats and we took our pick on a corner table. Once a larger party of around 6-7 people arrived, they wanted to be seated against the mountain and despite the fact there was more than plenty of space on the opposite side (with a mountain view), they wanted to be seated against it so the waiter had me and my husband pushed over so he can accommodate the larger party. This was not cool because we were there first; took our pick and it was not fair to move us just because the others wanted to be seated in our place when there were other seats available.

The service is okay, we got a really friendly server and keeping in mind that it is Ramadan and they are fasting, we are very understanding of that and don’t mind when some other people are a bit grumpy but it was not the case here.

Menu is simple but it’s a cafe - we didn’t have any expectations and more so, I loved the Farahs drink - apples and cinnamon tea.

The clientele is a very, very mixed bag - the cafe attracts all sorts of people, from the youngest to the oldest. I am not an Insta girl so I don’t understand the dressing up to come and take 1000 pictures but to each their own. People queue on the stairs up and down because of the so called influencers so stop wherever they find an Instagrammable spot and you simply have to stop, wait for them to take their million pics and then move on. Or just be a bit rude, push past and run for your life, specially after the lights are on and everyone is going out. The queue to go in after the lights turn on is a nightmare, too. Stairs are wide enough though the steps are pretty narrow on certain places and not everyone is equipped with common sense - to go in, you have to let people out first - they just shove past trying to go further down.

All in all, it’s a place worth seeing but prepare yourself beforehand - equip yourself with patience if you find yourself my review.

Oh, and the...