Best for: New Egyptian cooking beside the Great Pyramid
Few dining rooms anywhere have a neighbour like the Great Pyramid, and Khufu's makes the most of it without leaning on it. Set within the Giza Plateau, it opened in 2022 under Pier88 Group founder Giovanni Bolandrini, with chef Mostafa Seif, winner of Top Chef Middle East in 2018, in the kitchen.
Seif cooks from memories of rural Egypt, refining village dishes rather than disguising them: koshari turned into a cold salad, mulukhiyah with rabbit, stuffed pigeon, mu'ammar rice. Breakfast arrives as a generous composed platter; lunch centres on a set menu.
In February 2026 Khufu's became the first Egyptian restaurant named No.1 at MENA's 50 Best. Service runs by day only; evenings belong to its sister, Khufu's Bistro.
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Khufu'sDining · Giza Plateau●●●New Egyptian cooking beside the Great PyramidOpen now3D tour →
BotanicaDining · El Gouna●●●●Dinner inside a working greenhouseClosed now3D tour →
Khufu's BistroDining · Giza Plateau●●●●Candlelit dinner facing the pyramidsClosed now3D tour →
Most restaurants decorate with plants; Botanica is built inside a greenhouse. In this El Gouna dining room, leaves, herbs and tomatoes grow hydroponically a few steps from the tables, and the kitchen cooks from whatever is ready that week. Founder Ashraf Fala developed the idea from O'Roots, the hydroponic farm he set up with his brother Fady during the pandemic.
The cooking is Italian-Mediterranean and moves with the harvest. Recent coverage has singled out the house galletto, a rock lobster catalana and a lemon delizia to finish.
In November 2025 Botanica hosted the flagship dinner of El Gouna's 35th-anniversary food showcase, cooked by visiting chefs including Norbert Niederkofler. Hours are not published, so check before you set out.
When the plateau empties and the light turns amber, Khufu's Bistro takes over from its daytime sibling. It was conceived by Pier88 Group founder Giovanni Bolandrini with chef Mostafa Seif and opened in 2024 on the upper level of the Khufu's building. Candlelit tables, glass walls and an open-air balcony all face the pyramids.
The cooking is looser than downstairs, built around plates for sharing that move between Egypt and the Mediterranean: black baba ganoush with smoked harissa, beef tartare, a green Nubian-style risotto, charcoal-grilled tenderloin, confit duck leg.
Dinner is by reservation only, at one all-inclusive price per guest, for diners aged 16 and over. Come at sunset and stay for the candlelight.
This is where the Pier88 story began. Giovanni Bolandrini opened the first Pier88 at El Gouna's Abu Tig Marina in 2008, and the group that grew from it now reaches as far as the Giza pyramids.
The original waterfront venue has been taken apart and reimagined by Cairo's Studio Five as a floating, yacht-inspired pavilion on a steel pontoon. It is teak inside and ivory outside, with a central bar beneath a skylight, glass along the marina side and a rooftop deck looking out over the moored boats.
It suits an aperitivo as well as a long dinner, and the mood rises as the night goes on, helped by music evenings such as Sunset Sessions.
Moored on the Zamalek bank, Pier88 Nile River brings the polish of its Red Sea parent to Cairo's best-known stretch of water. Giovanni Bolandrini opened this Cairo outpost in 2016, eight years after launching the first Pier88 in El Gouna, and it has remained popular with locals ever since.
The kitchen is Italian with a coastal lean: burrata or beef carpaccio to begin, tuna tartare, seafood soup, the house linguine 'Giovanni', octopus alla Luciana and a fritto misto for the table. Cocktails and a wine list carry the evening along.
Window and deck tables are worth requesting. The room fills late and stays lively until closing, which is past midnight at weekends.
Inside the Pyramid Hills compound off the Alexandria Desert Road, Pier88 Group's 2018 opening gives west Cairo a polished Italian evening with the Giza pyramids in view. It keeps the stylish register of the Zamalek barge but trades river traffic for desert calm.
The menu follows its siblings: seafood soup or minestrone, burrata, beef carpaccio, rigatoni contadina and linguine 'Giovanni', then octopus alla Luciana or a chicken paillard, with Italian cheese and cured-meat platters for sharing.
On weeknights the doors open at 5pm. On Fridays and Saturdays lunch starts at 1pm, which is the time to come if you want the view in daylight.
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