What is the food like at all-inclusive hotels in Egypt?

According to a recent report, arriving about an hour before closing means fewer people, with food still available and replenished regularly. The selection is not especially broad, but was considered adequate for a 4-star hotel.

Breakfast and lunch can be taken without a reservation at either of two restaurants, by reception or on the beach. Dinner is served in three restaurants: the second-floor venue in the main building and the beach restaurant require advance booking, while the first-floor restaurant by reception does not.

One guest reported that the restaurants offered seafood and well-prepared beef steaks, with a good overall selection of dishes.

For lunch, a beach fast-food option is available; one guest found the potatoes in sauce, grilled meat, and vegetables to be perfectly edible.

One guest reported a before/after comparison: a family who visited in February and returned in August said the food quality had noticeably declined between the two visits, and they decided not to come back.

According to a recent report, food remained available even when arriving after opening: both tables and dishes were available at the start and midway through lunch or dinner. Queues, including at the seafood serving station, moved quickly.

Freshly squeezed orange, apple, melon and carrot juices are consistently available at breakfast and can be mixed. The first floor has a slightly wider food selection but is noisy, while the third floor is quieter.

For lunch and dinner, East West on the first floor next to the main restaurant is a quieter option, with waiters bringing drinks to the table. Its selection is smaller and mostly spicy, but guests can take food from the main restaurant and eat there in peace.

Meat and fish dishes are frequently not tasty (one guest estimated around 90% of the time). On the plus side, the self-serve vegetable cutting station was appreciated — vegetables are fresh and don't sit around once cut.

A charcoal grill station operates outdoors and is easy to miss — guests who overlook it often complain that eggs are absent from the main buffet. This is where poached eggs, omelettes, fried eggs, breakfast pizza, grilled items, and dinner pasta are made. Worth going outside at every meal.

The variety becomes apparent when reading the labels on each dish: the round table can feature squid in sauce, octopus in sauce, and seafood paella. The grill menu did not repeat once over 6 days, at either lunch or dinner. There are restaurants in multiple locations (at the cascade and to the left of reception), but the food is the same; only the main restaurant adds a grill.

Current summer fruit selection includes melon, grapes, figs, apples, peaches, and grapefruit — noticeably more varied than the sparse off-season offering.

Arriving at dinner opening time gives the best sense of abundance — by mid-dinner some trays empty out and aren't refilled quickly. Food is unpretentious but manageable: all kinds of side dishes, real mashed potato (not powdered), boiled and roasted vegetables, pasta made to order. Meat options include duck, grilled chicken, and meatballs (called 'frikadelki' — taste better than they look). Fish is an acquired taste. Sushi is token. Plenty of sweets including Turkish ones — notably good. Fruit selection is sparse out of season. There's a diet corner with boiled vegetables and poached chicken breast, plus a kids' corner with nuggets, mash, and vegetables. Bean-to-cup coffee machines serve decent coffee.

Breakfast features salmon and poached eggs. Pork products such as bacon are absent from the menu entirely.

Desserts and pastries are not served at lunch or dinner in the main restaurant — only fruit is offered. Sweets are available only in the evening at a separate venue (Sweet Home), which during the day serves pastries only, without cakes.

Queues vary by meal: breakfast has none, lunch has short ones, but dinner requires waiting — especially at live-cooking stations serving meat and pasta.

Some guests report stomach problems even when eating cautiously — sticking to soups, simple grilled dishes, and avoiding salads and iced drinks. This was enough to put some guests off returning.

Breakfasts are generally well-regarded: there's always a soup station, pastries, Nutella, a wide fruit selection, and meat. Fish is less common, and seafood appears mainly in local dumpling-style dishes — not typically served at breakfast.

The food overall can be underwhelming — even guests who aren't picky sometimes find nothing appetising. This is a common complaint about Egyptian all-inclusive hotels.

Lunch and dinner typically feature up to 5 types of meat. With some effort, it's possible to put together a balanced diet from what's available. Breakfast always includes fried eggs and pancakes, though queues at hot stations can be long — some guests opt for boiled eggs to skip the wait.