Maadi’s Road 9 is the restaurant/cafe/supermarket hub for residents of old Maadi.There are restaurants known for breakfast and lunch–Chinese, Mexican, etc.–but until May, Road 9 had yet to host a sushi restaurant. Replacing breakfast venue Mediterraneo, now Mori Sushi stands weathering the people-less summer and trying to stay up beat.
“Many people are not around in the summer,” explains a waiter who preferred to remain unnamed, “and the World Cup is keeping them away.” With only one other table seated, his words echo off the walls. The setting is typically Mori–the orange lights, black tables and rolls of Mori napkins are only made brighter by the large window overlooking the street.
With the lounge-y remakes of contemporary pop music in the background, one picks up the Mori Sushi menu (there is no grill in the Maadi branch) and requests any number and combination from the waiters who are trained to make platters in such a way that each person has easy access to what they ordered. Mori customers have their favorites: “I like the dyanmite shrimp tempura,” explains Yara, and Hala adds that it is her favorite as well. It is one of their most popular rolls – alongside the Ura Sake (their fried roll) as well as a number of others.
Mori’s sushi, maki and sashimi selections are fresh and full portions–consistent with their offerings at Zamalek, Dandy and Sequoia. Their Pink Panther Roll–the latest adventure in my new plan to get out of always ordering what I know and love–is actually pretty yummy and without too much sauce, it resembles Makani’s geisha roll.
Since efforts to offer more variety on the menu about a year ago, Mori has done nothing to update their sushi selection–which is starting to be a topic of conversation among sushi lovers in Cairo. “Mori is more consistent but Makani has better variety,” explains Nesma, a fan of both restaurants.
“I can never invite friends who don’t like sushi to come with me,” complains Ahmed, who works near a branch of Mori and lunches there often. All the same, few are able to find much else to complain about with the restaurant. Their Miso soup is great, their sashimi is fresh, and even the strange concoctions they gather together may be daunting to a basic sushi eater but at ‘per-piece’ prices, should definitely be tried.
And perhaps it is time that Mori management step in and change things around a little–the word ‘new’ on the menu is looking a little old.
