For years, Alexandria’s famous skillets restaurant, “Alban Swesra”, or Switzerland’s Dairy Products, has been a famous spot for Egyptians to hit from all across the country to enjoy an eastern cuisine dipped and covered in a mix of tens of cheese types. For cheese aficionados, the small, cosy corner, which was originally a small grocery store before turning part of it into a small restaurant with only few tables, can beat the world’s most fancy restaurants when it comes to cheese dipping, portions and taste.
Cairo’s latest version of a same track follower, “Eish W Gebna”, Cheese and Bread, opened its doors to cheese lovers to try a mix of eastern and western skillets that are covered with mix cheese types.
Located in Cairo’s Fifth Settlement, the place has both indoor and outdoor areas. With a dim, comfy lamp lights, the indoor area mainly consists of high bar stools with only a few tables. While the outdoor area, on the contemporary side, offers a large wider space suitable for big groups with different sized tables.
“Eish W Gebna” mainly focuses on over-dosing mixed melting cheese in every served plate. With both eastern and western cuisines, the place adds a different kind of mixed cheese to each fast-cooked skillet.
Like typical cheese addicts, Daily News Egypt team decided to try a skillet from each cuisine, looking for a well-spent evening in which cheese plays the role of the adored diva.
From the western cheese skillets, we ordered the Ground Bound, which is a blend of several yellow cheese types, with chopped beef burger and crispy beef bacon, served with plain nachos. The combination of crispy corn tortilla chips, which perfectly replace the cheese, offering a well-balanced crunch in each bite, was found amusing. The little chopped burger pieces were all dipped and covered with melting cheese, which made them even more moist and tender. The crisp of a crunching nacho carrying the liquescent classic dish made the required balance. The taste of yellow and red cheddar cheese was quite ubiquitous, yet, it intertwined equally with other tastes.
The plate is one of the most ordered skillets as we were told, and it is one of the restaurant’s most unique dishes. For us, it was the most favourite taste among all the dishes ordered.
From the loaded potato cheese skillets menu, came our second most favourite order, the Tex Mex. Chopped pieces of roasted potato cubes topped with pieces of marinated grilled chicken, onions, coloured peppers, and black olives, all dipped and covered with a huge amount of western yellow cheese mix.
The well-seasoned potato cubes were the stunning element about the dish. With a salty crunch from the outside and a soft tender taste from the inside, the team agreed that it is one of the best roasted potatoes served in Cairo. As for grilled chicken, it was well steeped, which left a sharp taste of an untampered flavour despite the many other flavours in the dish.
The combination of all elements made perfect sense when it came to taste, consistency, and colours. The sweet taste of coloured peppers and caramelised onions, with the slight bitterness of chicken, the seasoning of the potato, and the dominating taste of the mixed cheese made a perfect blend of a rainbow coloured shining skillet. At the same time, the intensity of each sharp flavour was downsized to one complete combined taste.
From the oriental cheese skillets menu, came our third choice and least favourite dish, the Sujuk Skillet. The oriental cheese skillet consisted of sausage cooked a la Alexandrian, grilled onions, and belle peppers, served with Egyptian Fino bread, a thinner equivalent of Baguette.
As we were told, the cheese is a mix of feta, Parmesan, and creamy cheese. However, it was more of a thick white sauce. No particular taste was clear in the skillet, which understated even the taste of cheese. Moreover, intense portions of garlic dominated the taste, outweighing the sausage, onion, and cheese.
The service at the restaurant was quite satisfactory; with warm smiles and welcomes, the staff made us feel at home.
Prices ranges from EGP 50 to 100, including services and taxes.
