Quick answer
The best seafood in Egypt is in Alexandria, where you choose fish and prawns from an iced display, pay by the kilo and have them grilled, fried or baked, with dips and salads on the side. The Red Sea towns of Hurghada and El Quseir cook reef fish such as grouper, and along the Nile and Lake Nasser the fish is tilapia and Nile perch. Eat seafood close to the coast and cooked through.
Where is the best seafood in Egypt?
Alexandria is Egypt's seafood capital, followed by the Suez Canal cities and the Red Sea coast; inland, along the Nile, fish means freshwater tilapia and perch. If seafood is a priority, plan at least one long lunch in Alexandria.
The reasons are geographic. Alexandria sits on the Mediterranean with a fishing fleet working out of its Eastern and Western harbours, and its food grew up with Greek, Italian and Levantine influences. Port Said, Ismailia and Suez also have strong fish traditions, though few travellers eat there. The Red Sea resorts have plenty of fish, but many visitors eat it on hotel buffets rather than in local restaurants, which is a missed opportunity.
In Cairo, good fish restaurants exist, and Nile cruise kitchens serve fish most days, but neither compares with eating by the sea. Our Alexandria day trip guide shows how to fit in lunch between the sights.
How does ordering work in an Alexandria fish restaurant?
You walk up to a counter of fish and shellfish on ice, choose what you want, it is weighed in front of you, and you tell the staff how to cook it; dips, salads and bread usually arrive while you wait. There is often no fish menu at all.
- Choose: look for bright eyes, red gills and firm flesh. Staff will suggest a weight for your group; around 300 to 400 grams of whole fish per person is typical.
- Agree the price: fish and prawns are priced per kilo, and prices vary with the catch and season. Ask the price per kilo and the weight before it goes to the kitchen, and check whether salads and bread are included.
- Pick a method: mashwi (grilled, often coated in a mix of bran or flour, salt and spices), ma'li (fried), singari (baked with tomato, garlic, capsicum and onion) or in a tagine.
- Wait for the mezze: tahini, baba ghanoug, salata baladi, pickles and a bowl of rice or fish soup usually come first.
Some of Alexandria's seafood restaurants have been feeding families for generations. Kadoura, near the Eastern Harbour, and Zephyrion, by the sea at Abu Qir east of the city since the 1920s, were long-established names at the time of writing, but restaurants change, so ask your guide which is cooking best now.
Which Egyptian seafood dishes should you try?
Order sayadeya, the fisherman's rice, plus grilled fish, fried calamari and a prawn tagine, and you have tasted the Alexandrian seafood table.
- Sayadeya: the signature dish. Rice is cooked in fish stock with deeply caramelised onions until it turns brown and fragrant, often with cumin, and served topped with fried or baked fish. Variations are found from Alexandria to Suez.
- Samak singari: whole fish or fillets baked in a tray with tomatoes, garlic, green chilli, capsicum and lemon.
- Gambari (prawns): grilled, fried in butter and garlic, or cooked in a tomato tagine in a clay pot.
- Kalimari: calamari rings, fried and served with lemon and tahini.
- Kaboria (crab): blue swimmer-type crabs, usually cooked in a spicy tomato sauce and eaten messily with your hands.
- Shorbet samak: fish soup, often with prawns and calamari, served before the main.
Common fish include denis (sea bream), qarous (sea bass), barbouni (red mullet, small and best fried) and bouri (grey mullet). Names vary from coast to coast, so point if in doubt.
What seafood is there on the Red Sea?
On the Red Sea you will eat reef and open-water fish such as grouper (hamour), snapper and emperor, along with calamari and prawns, mostly grilled or fried with the same mezze as in Alexandria.
Hurghada has a fish market in the old district of El Dahar, and the seafood restaurants nearby let you choose and weigh your fish in the same way. In El Quseir, the old port south of Safaga, and in Marsa Alam, simple local places cook what came in that day. Dive boats and snorkel trips to the Giftun Islands often serve a lunch of grilled fish on board.
Two notes for responsible eating. Avoid ordering parrotfish and other reef grazers if you can, because they help keep coral healthy. And skip any shark on the menu. Our guide to Red Sea marine life explains why the reef needs them.
What fish do you eat along the Nile and Lake Nasser?
Along the Nile, the everyday fish is bolti (tilapia), usually fried whole or grilled, and around Aswan and Lake Nasser you may also eat Nile perch.
Tilapia has been eaten in Egypt since pharaonic times and appears in tomb paintings, often shown being caught in nets or speared from papyrus boats. Today much of it is farmed in the Delta. In Nubian restaurants on Aswan's west bank, a typical lunch is fried tilapia with rice, salad, tahini and bread, sometimes with a vegetable stew in a clay pot.
Lake Nasser, behind the High Dam, supports a fishing community, and Nile perch from the lake is a firm white fish that turns up on menus in Aswan. Nile cruise kitchens usually serve fish fillets several times a week. Fresh water fish is always eaten well cooked.
What is feseekh, and should you try it?
Feseekh is grey mullet that has been salted and fermented for weeks, eaten traditionally at the spring festival of Sham el-Nessim, and every year badly prepared feseekh causes cases of botulism, so visitors are best to skip it.
The custom is ancient, and Egyptian families take it seriously, buying feseekh from trusted sellers and eating it with spring onions, lemon and bread. The Egyptian health ministry issues warnings each spring. If you are curious, renga (smoked herring) is the milder, safer cousin on the Sham el-Nessim table. Read more in our Sham el-Nessim guide.
How do you eat seafood safely in Egypt?
Eat seafood near the coast, at busy restaurants, cooked through and served hot; be cautious with shellfish inland, and avoid raw or lightly cooked seafood at simple places. Choosing your fish from the ice display lets you check freshness yourself.
Prawns, crab and calamari are best in Alexandria and on the Red Sea. On the Nile, stick to cooked fish and leave the shellfish. Lunch is a better time for seafood than late at night, when the display has been sitting all day. Our food safety guide covers the general rules, and if you want a few days of Alexandria seafood built into a Cairo stay, ask us about adding Egypt's second city to your itinerary.
Frequently asked questions
Is seafood good in Egypt?
Yes, especially in Alexandria and on the Red Sea, where fish is fresh and cooked simply. Inland, fish is mostly Nile tilapia, which is good fried but less varied.
How much does seafood cost in Alexandria?
Fish and prawns are priced by the kilo and vary with the catch, so always ask the price per kilo and the weight before cooking. A seafood lunch costs far less than in Australia, but premium prawns and large fish add up.
What is sayadeya?
Sayadeya is the fisherman's dish of Egypt's coasts: rice cooked in fish stock with caramelised onions and spices, served with fried or baked fish.
Do Egyptians eat fish on Fridays?
Some families do, and Christians eat fish during parts of the Coptic fasts, when it is allowed though meat and dairy are not. Fish is otherwise eaten any day, especially on the coast.
Is feseekh dangerous?
It can be. Poorly fermented feseekh causes botulism cases most years around Sham el-Nessim. Visitors are best to avoid it, or try only the smoked herring (renga) instead.
