A Night at the JW Marriott Steakhouse

One of the best privileges as a food blogger is that I very often get invited to dinners at some of the best restaurants in the country. Having said that, I rarely get invited to something as fancy as the JW Steakhouse. It’s always a top priority for me to check out how far Egypt has come in fine dining, so let me talk you through this very extravagant experience.

I was contacted by the very lovely and friendly Mrs. Tina Akmal – Marketing & Communication Manager and asked to join the dinner headed by General Manager; Mr. Heinz F. Grub as well as a small group of some of Egypt’s top food bloggers and chefs.

For the first part, we had a cozy drink with Mr. Heinz, over which we shared lots of fun stories to get introduced to one another. Mr. Heinz is definitely a very well suited General Manager with a lot of experience, depth and warmth to his character. Tina also helped a great deal in breaking the ice and making us all feel very welcome at the Steakhouse. After the first round of drinks we were taken on a mini tour around the restaurant that ended in the private room, which is a truly spectacular marvel of its own.

At this point we were pretty famished and ready to eat everything J & W had to offer. We started off with some bread and the highest quality butter available in Egypt, followed by an assortment of appetizers that were very carefully selected from the menu for us to try. Smoked Salmon, served on a slab of white marble with all of the possible toppings and condiments you could think of. Not only was it beautifully laid out, but the salmon came covered in a smoke-filled, glass cloche for an extra whiff of smokiness to tantalize our senses at the table. Then there was a foie gras on toast with a slice of fig and jam, which unfortunately I no longer eat for reasons of animal compassion. The very popular seared tuna also managed to make its way on the appetizer list and last but not least we were also presented with the most amazing crab cake that actually tasted and felt like real crab meat, rather than flour and a bunch of other filling ingredients with the hint of crab that I am used to from other commercial restaurants in Egypt. Between the appetizers and the main course, we were met with a very refined local experience of Egyptian-grown Bibb lettuce in a creamy avocado dressing with oven-dried tomato slices and cherry tomatoes.

It was time for the main course for which I had ordered none other than the Wagyu Sirloin steak with a side of steak fries. The steak was cooked to absolute perfection. It was a beautiful thick cut and even the grill marks on it had a fantastically charred sheen. This may come as a bit of a surprise, but I have to say that for the first time in Egypt the side dishes were as impressive as the main protein. The steak fries were cut, fried and seasoned like a culinary wonder. Crisp on the outside and fluffy and buttery on the inside.. made with fresh potatoes, too. They really were so much more than your average potato fries! I was also lucky to try some sweet potato fries and onion rings which were ordered by the amazing content creator; Ramy Soli (because he is kind enough to share food and all my friends know that I don’t). It was all just a big, fat meal of utter perfection, with care and attention to detail that was simply mind-blowing!

For dessert, I had to make an absolute pig out of myself by stuffing my face with the JW Steakhouse’s epic Crème Brûlée! There were a couple of other desserts that I also liked, such as the very artistically plated Molten White Chocolate Cake, but real, good vanilla Crème Brûlée is almost impossible to come by here and it is my absolute favorite, so it may have stolen some extra shine from the rest of the sweet crowd.