Grill Setup Just Set the Table With a Brand New Catering Arm

There’s a point in every love story when things get serious. For Grill Setup, Egypt’s laid-back purveyor of smoky bites and golden-hour gatherings, that moment has arrived— with napkins folded, tables dressed, and the new catering arm officially on the guest list.

Their newest venture, The Set Up, is Grill Setup’s food-first sibling, a catering service that promises all the flavour, none of the fluff. “We’ve been doing food in-house for years,” Mahmoud Aboul Abbas, co-founder of Grill Setup, tells SceneEats. “It was always a main pillar of what we do— but now we wanted to create something that offers a different menu, something that caters to a more diverse crowd.”

“The idea,” Aboul Abbas says, “is to offer an alternative way of catering. It’s simple, very straightforward. Nothing complicated or overthought, just very good quality and taste. A lot of catering food looks great from the outside, but when you taste it, it’s bland? Our flavour profile is strong— people have recognised that in Grill Setup, and that’s something we’re proud of.”

The Set Up’s menu ranges from pass-arounds to buffet-style spreads, plated mains and desserts. It’s diverse enough for weddings, corporate dinners, fine dining experiences and plans to run hotel kitchens in the future. “Grill Setup was casual: tacos, burgers, chicken drumsticks,” Aboul Abbas says. “The Set Up is more refined. It’s good food, done simply but beautifully presented.”

A big part of the new service, he adds, is curation. Every display can be personalised to match an event’s theme or aesthetic. “With a proper brief, we curate everything; from how the food looks to how it fits the atmosphere.”

The official launch of The Set Up comes on November 10th, although they are currently actively accepting orders. “We’re taking the food to another level,” Aboul Abbas says. “Even the way we serve it, the recipes, the presentation— it’s all very different from what’s in the market now.”

While the trend in catering right now is all about minimalism and neatness, The Set Up interprets it with personality. Shrimp pasta in stainless steel cups. Bright flavours. No pretence. Just food that looks as good as it tastes— and tastes even better when shared. “People are over the idea of overstuffing tables with too much food," Aboul Abbas says. "We want to be creative, not excessive.”