bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Jade Lee-Duffy

G/F, 144-149 Gloucester Road, Wan Chai

Tel: 2155 5554

Open: Monday-Saturday, 10.30am-9pm

Cuisine: Middle Eastern and Egyptian.

Ambience: A simple cafe with a selection  of hot and cold mezze dishes.  There's an open kitchen with a lamb kebab rotisserie and black-and-white Egyptian photographs lining the walls.

Price: About $100 per person for a mezze dish, main entree and non-alcoholic drink.

Pros: A good spot for a cheap'n'cheerful  meal, with more vegetarian dishes than meat. The staff are friendly. Although we were the last customers of the night, they didn't shoo us out.

Cons: The restaurant is  a bit out of the way, in between Wan Chai and Causeway Bay. And the open  glass facade at the front looks directly onto Gloucester Road's eight lanes of traffic.

Recommended dishes:  Traditional Egyptian mezzes such as hummus ($25) and falafel ($40). We started with bossara ($25), a rich blend of broad bean puree with a hint of coriander and fresh herbs, and topped with crispy caramelised  onion. The wara inab ($35, four pieces) were small fingers of delicious vine leaves wrapped around peppery rice and served in a tangy tomato sauce. The kofta al gabal ($40, four pieces) of ground minced lamb sausages were braised in a similar tomato sauce, but the meat was slightly hard. For some fresh greens, we choose the delta salad with haloumi cheese ($38). The salad  included only a few pieces of the  deep-fried cheese (but for the price, we weren't complaining), plus a mixture of greens, onions and green peppers tossed in an oregano olive oil.  Our favourite dish was the koshary ($45, above), a bountiful heap of brown lentils, rice vermicelli, macaroni, spaghetti, fried onions, chickpeas and a ladle of tomato sauce. This Egyptian street food sounded like a mish-mash of ingredients, but  worked wonders. The baklava ($25) was  a lighter-than-usual dessert of filo pastry and nuts, and was served with a dollop of whipped cream.

What else? The cafe offers Middle Eastern juices such as tamrhindi (tamarind) and karkadeeh (hibiscus) for $30. There's also  a branch in Central at 112-114 Wellington Street (Habibi Cafe, tel: 2544 3886), and  an upmarket restaurant next door. (Habibi, tel: 2544 6198).



Habibi Cafe