Having done Lebanon I didn’t think I would do any other Arab Middle Eastern restaurants this year for the blog as they seem to be mostly similar. We changed our minds when we came across Amira as it had plenty of options you don’t see on your average sharwama and falafel joint menu. We also changed our minds as it was 8pm, we were hungry and Amira is a five minute walk up Reuterstrasse from my new flat.
The fact that it was empty should have been the first warning sign but we were hungry and it looked pleasant enough. We initially sat outside on the street but it got too cold so we moved inside. It was strange being the only people in the restaurant and we couldn’t relax as we had caught the gaze of the elderly proprietress who seemed to be stuffing some kind of filling into some kind of animal intestine on the table near us. The TV was blaring out very loud Egyptian news and adverts which made it hard to converse but thankfully meant that even if we tried to talk nobody could hear us anyway.
The food, when it came was initially okay. We chose starters of ful medames (beans) and falafel which were okay, although the portion of beans was ridiculously large for the small amount of bread that came with it, the falafel was fairly tasty and filled with herbs. The main courses were however rather dismal. I had chosen lamb, spinach and rice but didn’t expect it to come in the guise of a very viscous dark green salty soup with some small pieces of boiled lamb inside with a huge bowl of overly seasoned rice and vermicelli on the side. Richard went for the marinated chicken with vegetables and rice which consisted of dry but greasy chicken pieces that tasted of oil, served with equally greasy peppers and potatoes and another over seasoned bowl of rice/vermicelli which was the colour of mushrooms. I managed a few mouthfuls of the foul, strange textured broth before loud declaring “mmmn, I’m s0 full” but Richard blithely finished his greasy plate as he said there was nothing particularly wrong with it even though there was nothing right about it either. On the plus side this dismal meal was rather cheap and I probably lost weight that day though not eating much. I won’t rule out Egyptian food on the basis of this meal as this might be a bad example but I won’t be rushing to find a better example either. This place seemed well reviewed online but turned out to be quite the disappointment which is a shame considering its proximity.
Date of visit 1oth June 2015
Eighty cuisines around the world (in Berlin) 