This latest Mediterranean entrant parks itself into the heart of an evergrowing hub of culinary choices - Bandra. At a location that already makes people overindulge into radical salads from Bombay Salad Co. and the legendary Biryani in earthen pots from Khan-e-khaas, Cairo Grill must bring their culinary aces to the table in order to make a mark.
Drawing direct inspiration from the popular New York food truck 'Halal Guys', Cairo Grill brings gyro cart food in the form the meat & rice, pita & hummus, shawarma, and a little more. The food is aimed is to be quick takeaway affair just as their tag line goes - Fast, Tasty & Mediterranean. Having sampled almost all of their menu in the past two weeks, the signature dish - New York style Chicken & Rice takes the 'Popular Dish' vote while the lettuce, croutons, chicken induced 'Shawarma Salad' takes my vote for being the heartiest. The contents of the tangy rich white sauce is something of a myth just as it is back in New York. It was mentioned to us that it contains only a little mayonnaise for the sake of consistency while most of it as we inferred should be sour cream coupled with Tahini dressing.
Chicken & Hummus with grilled pita.
Cairo's shawarma appears well textured on the outside with crisscross grill marks on the pita. The succulent chicken meat ticks all the right boxes, though it's the filling that seems sparse and one gets an immense portion of the pita in each bite and quite less of the inner goodies. The Falafel mixture itself needs a lot of work as the end deep fried product tastes more of a desi imitation with irregular chunks of peas in each bite. On the other hand, their Hummus is impeccable with the right consistency of all ingredients. We ordered the Chicken & Hummus plate and it was finger-licked in no time. The deep fried garlic topping is a nice touch and adds a crunchy dimension to the paste like texture.
Oreo Nachos, the only sweetened attribute is a not so convincing affair of deep fried pita chips sprinkled with a mix of crushed Oreo, Cinnamon and Sugar.
To sum it all, Cairo Grill though fairly new to the scene does pack enough Mediterranean punches in the right places with its hearty portions of salads, flavorful gyro meat and more importantly tempts you every time with the red & white sauce laced Chicken & Rice. The 'Halal Guys' would definitely have to worry about yet another imitation brand if they ever decided to come down to Mumbai.