We Tried the Only Iraqi Restaurant in Dokki

We had the pleasure of experiencing a rare culinary phenomenon in Dokki: food that tastes like it came straight out of someone’s home kitchen, but isn’t. Abu Abdallah Al-Iraqi serves meat dolma and chicken quzi so lovingly made, so clean in flavour and intent, it momentarily tricks the brain. You’re not in a restaurant—you’re at your grandmother’s table. Only in this case, your grandmother happens to be Iraqi.

This kind of meal is unusual in Cairo’s dining scene—not because the food isn’t good, but because most seasoned Cairene eaters have a more reliable system: the international friendship circuit. According to extensive field research conducted by myself (and, before that, my friends before me), you need a lot of friends to survive Cairo. Not for emotional support or career networking—though sure, that helps—but because someone’s mother is always cooking, and the more diverse your friend group, the more literal that “taste of the world” becomes.

The best dinner calendars involve a rotating menu of homemade Palestinian maqluba, Sudanese aseeda, Syrian yalanji, and so on. It’s not just a social life—it’s a strategy. But every once in a while, a dine-out option emerges that can rival that home-cooked warmth. Abu Abdallah Al-Iraqi is one of them.