Jones The Grocer: A Luxury Haven for Rare Meats and Cheeses in Cairo

Situated in New Cairo’s O1, Jones The Grocer is an Australian speciality gourmet restaurant, cheese room and grocery store. With a recent Egypt expansion that included the New Cairo opening, and a Galleria 40 branch in 6th of October City, the Australian flagship store adds gourmet delicacies to Cairo’s food landscape.

With both outdoor and indoor seating, the restaurant boasts comfortable tables and couches that make for a sunny hangout spot with a friend over some fresh burrata and guacamole. The indoor seating adds a comfortable and cozy flare, fit for solo catching up on some work while sipping on one of their tasty alcohol-free cocktails.

Jones The Grocer’s menu, albeit limited to lighter cheese-filled creations and expensive main courses, includes rarer delicacies where the pairing between meat and cheese is the main event.

The Holy Guacamole, a classic favorite, is a roast chicken, avocado, beef bacon, and garlic aioli sandwich in brown bread, coming at an EGP 142 price point. The sandwich is on the lighter side, making for a filling brunch or delicate lunch.

The Balsamic Glazed Burrata is a delicious dish that makes good use of the rare, fresh burrata it serves with a side of cherry tomatoes and deliciously candied nuts along with fresh sourdough to go with it. The burrata is another lighter meal that may need another followup to fill a hungry stomach, but again, coming at a EGP 142 price point, it may be above the average price range for a starter.

On the side, the Truffle Parmesan Fries with Truffle Mayo is a good supplement for the burrata, but at EGP 75 a pop, the tasty treat is surely overpriced.

Cheese being the restaurant’s speciality, we would have loved to try the Oven Baked Camembert (EGP 185) with caramelized onions and fresh thyme, but it was unavailable—a common shortage of international gourmet cheeses in Cairo restaurants.

There is a great variety of drinks at the restaurant, the Mango Lime Keffir (EGP 55) in particular is a refreshing splash of summer sure to wake you up, no caffeine needed.

Desserts at Jones The Grocer are aesthetically pleasing, albeit very small. The Work of T-Art dish, a small lemon curd tart with meringue, mango, and mini lemon macarons (EGP 25) is a small bite of sugar to finish your meal with.

The menu offers sweet potato soups and salads as well as quinoa dishes and goat cheese-inspired starters (EGP 50-185), sandwiches (EGP 92-145), sliders (EGP 85-185), and main dishes, from sea bass to portobello, and short rib (EGP 105-390). Their speciality falls in the cured meat and cheese assortments starting from EGP 180 all the way to EGP 950 for a cheese and meat platter, enough for four to six people.

On the inside, the grocery store section is anything but your regular weekly grocery run, with rare jams and jellies, grains and pasta, coffee essentials, kitchen staples, high-end truffle oils and cured meats and cheeses. If you are on the lookout for a specific Italian cheese, a rare marmalade, or truffle-anything, this is the place to go, but it is nowhere near your classic Metro Market or Seoudi.

While Jones the Grocer is a welcome addition to Cairo’s food scene, it is not one likely to be a regular spot for hungry stomachs, but a more lavish meetup for light breakfasts and spendy brunches, or a splurge on dinner with delicacies of rare cheeses and meats.