Food in Egypt: Dishes to Try on a Luxury Trip

Food in Egypt worth trying starts with koshari (rice, pasta, lentils and fried onions), ful medames (mashed fava beans), ta'ameya (Egyptian falafel of fava beans), molokhia, mahshi (stuffed vegetables) and feteer (layered pastry), then basbousa, konafa or Om Ali for dessert and karkadeh to drink. On a private journey you eat in hotels, on Nile cruises with full board and in restaurants on tour.

Food in Egypt: the dishes at a glance

A dozen dishes and drinks to look for, with what each one is made of.

Koshari and the national dish question

Koshari, also spelled koshary, is built from simple, affordable ingredients: rice, pasta, black lentils and fried onions, with vinegar, garlic and hot sauce added according to preference. In 2025 UNESCO inscribed koshary, as a daily life dish and the practices associated with it, on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

You will often read that koshari is Egypt's national dish. That is common usage, not an official title; the UNESCO listing is the formal recognition.

Savory dishes beyond koshari

Ful medames is a dish of mashed fava beans and spices, sometimes with other foods added. Ta'ameya is the Egyptian falafel, and in Egypt it is typically made with fava beans.

Molokhia is a soup-based dish made with jute leaves, popular in a number of Arab countries. Mahshi is a family of stuffed vegetables: green peppers, eggplants, zucchini, tomatoes, or grape or cabbage leaves filled with rice seasoned with tomatoes, onion, parsley, dill and spices, then cooked in a pot under chicken or beef broth.

Fattah is a festive dish, eaten particularly at Eid al-Adha: rice, chunks of lamb and pieces of eish baladi bread baked in the oven, all covered in a tomato or vinegar-based sauce. Coptic families also serve fattah at the festive meal after the Christmas Eve liturgy. Feteer is a flaky, layered pastry made with samna and sometimes described as an Egyptian pizza; at its simplest it comes plain with honey, molasses and ashta cream, or with a dip of salty mish cheese.

Sweets and drinks

Basbousa is a semolina cake soaked in syrup, usually topped with almonds and traditionally cut into diamond-shaped pieces. Konafa, the Egyptian version of kunafa, wraps layers of filo pastry around a sweetened cream or cheese filling. Om Ali, whose name means Mother of Ali, is a bread pudding of puff pastry soaked in sweetened milk, topped with nuts and golden raisins and baked in the oven.

Karkadeh, a tea of dried hibiscus, is particularly popular; it is generally served very sweet and cold, though it may also come hot. Other drinks to look for are sugarcane juice, carob juice and seasonal juices made from mango, guava and the fruit of the doum palm. For wine and beer, see our guide to alcohol in Egypt.

Where you eat on a private journey

On the journeys on this site, hotel nights include breakfast, Nile cruises and dahabiyas run on full board, and other meals are those listed in each itinerary, served in good restaurants. On a dahabiya the setting is part of the meal: the Egypt by Dahabiya journey includes a dinner by a campfire on the riverbank and describes lunch on the sundeck.

Dinner on board and in heritage hotels is also where dress comes into it; our guide on what to wear in Egypt covers cruise dinners setting by setting. If there are dishes you want to try, say so in your request: the written proposal sets out what is included and what is not.

Vegetarian and other dietary needs

Several everyday dishes are built on plants: koshari on rice, pasta, lentils and fried onions, ful medames on fava beans and spices, and ta'ameya on fava beans. Others are not: mahshi is cooked under chicken or beef broth, and fattah is made with lamb. When an ingredient matters to you, ask how a dish was made.

Plant-based eating also has a place in the calendar. Before Coptic Christmas, fasting Copts eat no meat or other animal products for 43 days, beginning 25 November, though fish is allowed. Tell us about vegetarian, vegan, allergy or other needs in your request, so the proposal is written around them.

Eating during Ramadan

During Ramadan many restaurants and cafes stay closed until iftar, at sunset, while hotels and tourist-focused restaurants stay open. Non-Muslims do not have to fast, but the UK government advises that eating, drinking or smoking in public during daylight hours is culturally insensitive at this time.

Water and food hygiene: what the CDC says

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that in most large international tourist hotels the tap water is adequately chlorinated, but bottled water is generally provided for drinking. Outside those hotels tap water is not safe to drink, because it might come from private water tanks not audited by the Ministry of Health. Every journey on this site includes bottled water during tours.

On food, the CDC says that eating thoroughly cooked meat and vegetables in tourist hotels, on Nile River cruise ships and in tourist restaurants is generally safe. Raw or undercooked meat and shellfish should be avoided, the safety of uncooked vegetables and salads is questionable, and the risk of travelers' diarrhea in Egypt is high. In the heat, the CDC also advises eating and drinking regularly.

For vaccines linked to food and water, the CDC recommends hepatitis A vaccination for unvaccinated travelers one year old or older and typhoid vaccination for most travelers. A travel clinic can advise on your own needs before you go.