DIGITAL MENUS

Restaurant menus in Egypt

Egypt is the Arab world's largest restaurant market by sheer volume. With over 70,000 food establishments serving 104 million people — from koshari carts in downtown Cairo to the Nile-view fine dining of Zamalek and the tourist-oriented restaurants of Sharm El Sheikh — the scale is staggering. The National Food Safety Authority has been tightening standards since its establishment in 2017, and while calorie-display mandates are still voluntary for most operators, Arabic-language menus are a regulatory given. Cairo alone accounts for nearly a third of the country's restaurants, with neighborhoods like Heliopolis, Maadi, and Mohandessin each hosting hundreds of dining options. The rise of food delivery through Talabat, elmenus, and other platforms has pushed operators to digitize — but many still manage menus through WhatsApp photos or printed sheets that can't keep up with Egypt's inflationary pricing adjustments. For tourism-heavy cities like Luxor, Aswan, and Hurghada, English-language menus are essential but often poorly executed. Qaima makes sense for Egypt because of its simplicity and price point. A restaurant in Tanta or Mansoura gets the same professional bilingual menu as a hotel restaurant in Sharm — without the technical complexity or agency costs. The platform handles the 14% VAT display, supports Arabic-first design, and lets operators update prices in real time as costs shift.