How Chinese food took root in Cairo, from 60s Peking Restaurant to ‘Egyptianised’ dishes

The steamed dumplings at Peking Restaurant in El Sheikh Zayed City, Cairo, have a filling of soft and salty minced beef inside thick skins, similar to boiled Northern Chinese shuijiao, but even more sturdy. The two dipping sauces served with it are tomato-based; one a thin ketchup, the other a far thicker, spicy sauce studded with chilli seeds. Instead of chopsticks, knives and forks are set on tables in the dining room, decorated with wooden Chinese lattice work on the ceiling and traditional scroll paintings hanging on the walls. This branch of Peking Restaurant is one of nine dotted across the Egyptian capital. El Sheikh Zayed is one of Cairo’s new cities, built three decades ago on the west bank of the Nile River. It is part of the Giza Governorate, which includes the Sphinx, the Pyramids and the spectacular new Grand Egyptian Museum, which fully opened in November 2025. While not quite as old as the Pyramids, the first Peking Restaurant was launched in 1963 by Yan Hongyah. His son Hani Yan now owns the chain. “We were the first Asian fast food in Cairo, likely the first of its kind in Egypt,” Yan says. Yan Hongyah left China at a time of turbulence, with the Nationalists and Communists vying for power, and the growing Japanese aggression that culminated in 1937 with the second Sino-Japanese war. He travelled to Egypt by steamboat, which docked in Port Tawfik in Suez City in 1938, and settled in Egypt. Yan Snr took a Levantine wife and began trading antiques. His brother ran Cinema Massara in northern Cairo’s Shubra as well as a Chinese restaurant, which catered mainly to Americans. When Yan Jnr was born, he was given the auspicious name Ruixiang by the Chinese community in Cairo at the time. “The nurse at the maternity ward said to my mother: ‘Madam, this boy is going to struggle with this name. Call him Hani.’” In Arabic, this popular boy’s name means “happy”. Yan grew up in downtown Cairo, speaking Egyptian. “My father spoke a strange Egyptian dialect no one else could understand, except for my mother and me,” Yan says with a chuckle. After high school, Yan studied medicine for a few years before swapping to film studies to learn about directing. He graduated in 1982. By this time, the family restaurant was in grave financial difficulties, so they turned to Yan for help. He took the business over, eventually turning the company’s fortunes around. Now, Peking Restaurant is one of the most successful Chinese restaurant chains in Egypt. Yan’s success where the older generation failed, he says, was due to him subtly tweaking the recipes for the Egyptian palate. He changed the sauces, highlighting sweet and sour flavours, swapped black vinegar for apple vinegar, and served tofu fried with vegetables rather than “dry”, as in the Cantonese salt and pepper tofu. The menu includes spring rolls, stir-fried meat (but no pork for religious reasons) and vegetables, fried rice and noodle dishes – the kind of lightly flavoured, loosely Cantonese-inspired dishes that define Chinese food in many cities around the world in recent decades. His father’s legacy, however, remains in the three “Shandong” dishes on the menu: zucchini, potatoes and mushrooms. In each version, all served with chilli, the vegetables are sliced, coated in egg and flour and deep-fried until crispy. The dishes were inspired by Yan Snr’s original home of Shandong province in eastern China, but diners are unlikely to find the dishes outside Egypt; they are a Sino-Egyptian creation. Growing up on Chinese food Hoda El Sherif, co-founder of Cairo Food Week – an international food event that takes place annually in September – says family outings to Chinese restaurants were a regular part of her childhood. “Chinese cuisine has long been part of Cairo’s dining scene,” she says. “Many of us grew up on the classics: stir-fried noodles, spring rolls and sizzling platters. Places like Peking are part of the city’s culinary memory, shaping how generations here experienced Chinese food. “What’s interesting now is how this has shifted, we’ve moved beyond the broad ‘Chinese-style’ category towards something more specific and regional, Sichuan hotpot being a clear example. “It reflects where Cairo is today as a food city: more informed, more curious and more globally connected. It’s the kind of landscape Cairo Food Week continues to build for – helping position Cairo as a city on the global culinary map.” Today, more than 2,800 Chinese companies operate in Egypt, with combined investments surpassing US$8 billion, according to Egypt’s General Authority for Investment and Free Zones. Egypt’s partnering with China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which aligns with Egypt’s Vision 2030 development goals, has resulted in massive infrastructure investment since 2014. While there are no official census figures, there are believed to be from the low thousands to more than 5,000 (some figures say up to 10,000) Chinese permanently or living in Egypt long term. Egypt is heavily promoting tourism, with the Egyptian Tourism Authority as of 2026 targeting 1 million Chinese tourists annually. Offering more Chinese food in hotels, Chinese-speaking tourist guides and Chinese-language signage are some of the strategies the government is implementing to boost Egypt’s appeal for Chinese tourists. Cairo’s unofficial Chinatown Historically, many Muslim Chinese came to Cairo to take up Islamic and Arabic studies at Al-Azhar University, founded in 970 and one of the most revered centres of Sunni Islamic learning. As a result, small restaurants catering to Muslim students from around the world have blossomed around the Al-Azhar Mosque and linked university campus, including Thai, Indonesian and Indian cafes. The nearby dense and dusty streets of the Abbasiya neighbourhood, especially centred around Ahmed Saeed Street, make up Cairo’s unofficial Chinatown. Here, small Chinese restaurants including El Amrekany, Anda Chinese Restaurant and Chinese Muslim Restaurant cater to the local population, including Chinese Uygurs and Hui. There is a smaller Chinese community in Nasr City, also near Al-Azhar. Another community is growing in the relatively leafy suburb of Maadi, populated by Chinese expats in Cairo for short- or long-term work contracts with companies such as Haier, Huawei, Midea, Jushi, OPPO and GAC Motor. A well-known Chinese restaurant stalwart here is Joy Luck Chinese Restaurant, which now has two branches in Maadi. Chinese food also has representation at the fine dining level, especially in luxury hotels, with restaurants such as the pan-Asian Tao at Dusit Thani LakeView Cairo and 8 Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza serving high-end Chinese food to hotel guests and local diners. The 8 Restaurant’s elegant modern Chinese style is backed by captivating views of the Nile. This juxtaposition is echoed in some of the dishes, including kunafa prawn roll – prawns wrapped, spring roll-style, in a nest of threadlike pastry dough, called kataifi, and deep-fried. The vermicelli-like shredded filo wheat dough is often used in Middle Eastern desserts such as kunafa, which is layered with cheese and soaked in a sweet, sugar-based syrup called attar. The origins of kunafa are debated, but one theory is that it was created in Fatimid Egypt (973-1171). Kunafa prawn, or shrimp, can be found in many contemporary restaurants across the Arab world, usually served with a sweet chilli dip or “dynamite sauce”, a creamy, tangy and spicy blend of mayonnaise and sriracha or chilli sauce. Along with the prawns, 8 Restaurant also serves a range of dumplings with stuffings including pan-fried chicken and ginseng; prawn and bamboo shoot; crystal vegetarian with truffle; and chicken xiaolongbao. Then there is wok-fried lobster tail with various seasonal additions, including fresh mango; crab claws with prawn paste coated in flaked almonds; shredded jellyfish and prawn salad; and sea cucumber soup. But chef de cuisine Gao Chunlong says that specific Chinese ingredients – whether for eating or for medicine – are not always easy to find, even when working in a big hotel, which usually makes sourcing ingredients far easier. “The locals don’t like ginseng, so I have to ask people to bring it over for my personal supply whenever they come from home,” he says. “Many herbal medicine ingredients can’t be accessed here. We also bring woks over from China ourselves.” While keeping flavours largely authentic, Gao does alter dishes to suit local palates and preferences. “We keep the flavour of many Chinese spices to a minimum to cater to the local palate,” he says. “Ginger and star anise, for example, aren’t well liked here. But black pepper sauce is enjoyed, as is mapo tofu, and people enjoy trying different kinds of Chinese tea.” As Islam forbids the eating of pork, Gao cooks with seafood, chicken, beef and vegetables. To fit in with local dining culture, the restaurant removes the head and bones of any whole fish before serving. “Most regional cuisines from around the world can now be found in Cairo – the dishes may not be entirely the same as the original, but similar in flavour,” he says. “It’s the same for Chinese food: it’s more or less ‘Egyptianised’. “But here, like in China, food is a big part of social life,” he says. “Hospitality is shown through food.”

How Chinese food took root in Cairo, from 60s Peking Restaurant to ‘Egyptianised’ dishes

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}From a 63-year-old restaurant chain to high-end hotels, Cairo has no shortage of Chinese food, tweaked for the local palate

From a 63-year-old restaurant chain to high-end hotels, Cairo has no shortage of Chinese food, tweaked for the local palate