La Poire Café

Egyptian dessert shop, serving a selection of various pastries, gateau, and local desserts.

Ordered: Baba Cake (Most, if not all, Babacakes in Egypt are alcohol-free) and Americano.

The design of the place lends itself to minimalism, with a 21st-century simplistic modern approach that does not flaunt any unique elements of its own.

Nevertheless, the place is quite clean and well-kept, and boasts a view of the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, a view is all you get, as the glass pane and relative distance from the corniche prevent it from further augmenting the atmosphere through other senses.

The Baba cake, the supposed crown jewel of this experience, was alright, but not without flaws. You see, one can really split the experience into three parts.

The entree, or topping of the cake, was two slices of canned fruit and a dollop of creme chantilly. The creme was fresh, and the fruits had a delightful tart pop to them. Despite being short-lived, this got my hopes up.

Second, the upper layer of cake is the majority of the dessert. While its inside was admittedly fluffy, it seemed to have failed to absorb much of the syrup, and had a quite rubbery crust. I was left for a hot couple of minutes going chewing through bland sponge cake.

Finally, the bottom layer was so delectable, but so short lived. The thick filling of cream shantilly was so rich and fresh, and dare I reveal that it had delightful bits of canned peaches to balance the fat with fresh tang. And that bottom thin layer of cake had somehow soaked up most of the syrup, becoming a dense disk of sweet mushy goodness.

Now my server was actually quite the gentleman, he asked for my opinion on the spot and was very generous to explain all the options available. God bless him!

Overall, I found the dessert and experience quite nice, but there is so much more potential. A fair choice if you want to enjoy desserts from a sea-view terrace.

P.S. I will choose to disregard the coffee. It was medium heat (as it should be), had decent but not distinct crema, and gave a subtle bitter note before falling flat. It was okay, and I used it mostly as a palette cleanser and will not let it sway my opinion.

Came here first a coffee after a tour of the library. Ordered a large cappuccino with fresh milk. Cost 130 Egyptian Pounds($1 US$ = 48 EP). The cup was huge and coffee ok, although could have been stronger. Possibly tastes this way as i’ve been having double macchiatos!

Staff spoke great english, the view and atmosphere from my swat outside was great.