After a few truly amazing days in Luxor with all its intoxicating sounds, smells and sights we were verging on the brink of sensory overload as we stepped into the quiet refuge of Salahadeen Restaurant situated in Mara House. I confess to having inkling as to what we would find given that I had read a review on Trip Advisor and had taken the opportunity to visit the website http://www.salahadeen.com.

My family and I were not disappointed. Mara House is a tranquil oasis from the hustle and bustle of the city situated on the outskirts somewhere behind the train station – just ask any taxi driver to take you there or Mara will arrange, with her compliments, a taxi to collect you from your accommodation.


On entering Mara House we were greeted warmly by Mara herself and as we sipped karkadeh in the beautifully decorated bar area, it was interesting to hear her story of how, once bitten by the Luxor bug, (so many of us have been) she decided to move from her native Ireland and build Mara House. The house itself is a rather large, grand building which comprises a number of apartments available to rent together with the Salahadeen restaurant. Mara is indeed a brave lady taking on such a huge project in a foreign land but she has done a fantastic job. The house is beautifully decorated in true sympathy with its surroundings and Salahadeen restaurant is both comfortable and sumptuous. A great deal of attention to detail has been given to everything from the alabaster wine goblets to the feature fountain which is the focal point of the room.

Mara sensibly serves a fixed menu at 8pm each night and ravenous after our day of adventures we eagerly awaited what proved to be an enormous feast of wonderfully flavoursome Egyptian food. The first taste of Mara’s food was a selection of cold mezze style starters with a plentiful supply of flatbreads – delicious! Then arrived bowls of steaming soup followed by another large assortment this time of hot mezze style dishes and even more flatbreads. Just when we thought we could eat no more the main course arrived!!!! This was a homemade tagen with a large baked sweet potato and enough rice to feed the population of Cairo. Thankfully, pudding was no more filling that a bowl of deliciously sweet mango. How we managed to move from the table is beyond me but with great difficulty we forced ourselves to leave - with the promise that undoubtedly, one day soon, we would return.

Salahadeen is a true gem. Go quickly whilst you can book a table – the word will surely be out soon!!!

We wanted to try Egyptain Food and decided to visit Salahadenn on the recommendation of 'our flat at luxor'. It was easy to book a reservation via email before going on hoilday and the complementary taxis arrived on time as promised. Although you can phone and book while you are there - best do it in advance as the food is slow cooked so they need a bit of notice.

We wanted a bit of an adventure and we got one. As some of you are aware there is lots of regeneration and lots of building works going on in Luxor. Once the taxi crossed the very basic level crossing, we entered the real Luxor and for just a few minutes I did wonder whether this was going to be a good idea.

Amidst all the chaos appeared a beautiful white building that looked out of place with its surroundings. At that point I realised that this was going to be a really good adventure.

This was a superb dinning experience. After pre-dinner drinks in the bar, we were escorted to the dining room which was wonderfully decorated with hand crafted egyptian furniture and art works.

Mara (the owner) describes the meal as a feast and that it certainly was.

Each couse, and there are four of them, was a wonderful experience. It is a mezze style meal with a selection of different things to try, salad and dips and bread to start, followed by soup, followed by vegetable dishes, followed by meat course that was wonderfully slow cooked beef and very tasty. The liver which is a very traditional was beautifully cooked, and I dont like liver!

On one hand it was dissapointing that dessert was missing due the mangoes being too ripe to serve, but on the other we were glad as we were so full we would have been unable to eat anything else.

It was good to try egyptian food, new tastes, flavours and ingredients, we didn't like all of it but that was due to our personal taste, but we did try it all as it looked so good. Some egyptian food is meant to be eaten in small quantities, which is why each course has a selection of foods for you to dip in and try.

It was worth every penny, and an absolute pleasure to drink nice room temperature egyptian red wine (why do some hotels serve it cold!)

we recommended it to friends we had made at our hotel and they too enjoyed it.

Will we come again? - See you next time Mara - it was a pleasure.

We arrived at the Salahadeen Restaurant and Bar, at Mara House Luxor, at 7.30pm on 4th September 2008. Joining the other diners in the bar, we were enchanted by the pleasent atmosphere which the decoration and furnishings created. Although we stick to soft drinks, there were wines, beers and spirits available. (I noticed that Heiniken was LE 10 and most of the spirits were LE35,)
It wasn't too long before Mrs. Vaughan personally led us into the lovely restaurant, where we were seated at a good solid table, on matching meshrabeya chairs. A nice touch was the fountain in the middle of the room, and the elegant drapes which served to partly divide the dining areas
The meal is advertised as an "Egyptian Banquet," which it certainly was. We worked our way through 5 courses, and 19 dishes!
The starter was a selection of 5 cold Mezzas with baladi bread, followed by a delicious soup. Then came a selection of 7 hot Mezzas, also with bread.These were followed by the main course consisting of 5 dishes, which were, rice, sweet potato, lamb tagen, moussaka, and lambs liver with onions. The meal culminated in a selection of sweet Egyptian cakes, washed down with black Egyptian tea and hot Karkadeh (hibiscus).
I would defy anyone to manage to eat everything placed in front of them.
Although there were two dishes which I didn't try (simply because I don't like them) everything else was a treat. Tastes which I hadn't bargained for joined with well known and loved ones to further the experience of my palate. Even though I've lived in Luxor for over 12 months, some of these tastes really took me by surprise!
I thought the cost, at £10 per head, was very reasonable, as it also covered the cost of picking up the diners and returning them to their lodgings when they had had their fill!
We certainly had a taste of the REAL EGYPT. Excellent!