Eat Out: Egyptian food gets a modern twist at Helio

Helio is an Egyptian restaurant, but it’s not taking the theme too seriously.

The restaurant is taking traditional Egyptian dishes and giving them an international twist, explains owner Merhan Mandour.

The end result is food that is very Egyptian but subtly different in a way that makes it more accessible to those who don’t share fond memories of Cairo cooking. A case in point is the Egyptian pesto, a mixture of Egyptian leeks and dill, as well as other common herbs. I’ve never had it before, but something about its taste makes me feel like I have — it’s a very familiar combination of flavours unique to Egypt. (Recommendation: Have it with a sandwich or plain bread, but not with carrots, which is how it was presented at the restaurant. The flavours just clashed).

A big part of Helio’s ability to walk the line between traditional Egyptian and modern cosmopolitan is celebrity Lebanese chef Joe Barza, who came up with the menu items and is the restaurant’s consultant chef.

“I love food and Egypt is a culture of Arabs, of Pharaohs. I was interested in understanding this culture,” Barza says.

“I have done my research,” he adds, and that is certainly true. Full disclosure: I had my concerns that a Lebanese chef would accidentally “Lebanise” Egyptian food — there’s a huge variety in Arabic cuisines, and Lebanese food involves different herbs, spices and styles (for example, Egyptians use a lot more dill in things, and they don’t put yogurt on their meat).

But I was pleasantly surprised — Barza knows how to make Egyptian food that’s the real deal. Fiteer, for example, is an Egyptian pastry that is a countryside staple, and toppings run the gamut from sickly sweet to savoury, or you can have it plain. Normally it comes as one big round dish that has to be torn up by hand, but at Helio they’re presenting it in small sharable bites, with toppings stuffed between two layers. The new style retains the flaky goodness that makes fiteer so special, but makes it easier to eat. I recommend the basterma (like pastrami) fiteer bites (Dh41), which were absolutely delicious piping hot. The Egyptian pesto dip is one of the options you can get if you get plain fiteer, Dh35.

Helio also serves a wide range of sandwiches and wraps alongside its entree dishes in a bid to give the restaurant more of a casual hangout feel. The taameya sandwich (Dh38) is one to try — taameya is the Egyptian version of falafel, made with fava beans and plenty of herbs instead of chickpeas. The sandwich featured the Egyptian pesto, a great compliment to the herbs in the taameya, and didn’t go crazy with the lettuce, which other places often do. The taameya itself was done well, crispy on the outside but not greasy or heavy (although if you’re going to have this, be prepared to skip dessert. It will fill you up.). Wash it down with the lemon mint drink (Dh30). This is not the bottled stuff — it’s almost exactly like you’d have it in Egypt, with a seriously sour punch to it.

With its soft blue and gold lighting, mix of Arabic and western music, and more subtle use of Egyptian motifs (there are no posters of Umm Kalthoum plastered here), Helio is great introduction to Egyptian cuisine.

Helio, located in the Trident Bayside building at Dubai Marina, is open Sundays-Wednesdays from 8am-1am and Thursdays-Saturdays from 8am-3am.