(Old) Winter Palace - La Corniche, 1886 and Victoria Lounge

The Winter Palace has two restaurants, a lounge and a bar, all of which are open to non-residents. However, the hotel does not welcome 'browsers' who just come to look at the inside of the building. You will have to explain to the doorman the reason for your visit - either to make a reservation or to take a meal.

The hotel has a cover charge for non-residents of LE100 per person per visit. Although this is taken off the cost of a meal if you have one, it makes going to the hotel for light refreshment very expensive.

Afternoon tea is usually taken in the Victoria lounge or outside on the balcony. There are two alternatives on the tea menu, one at LE60 and one at LE70. However, unless you are resident, the minimum charge of LE100 applies, so to have tea will cost LE100, whichever option you choose. You may as well have something extra, to top up to the LE100 that you have to pay anyway.

Other main meals are taken in one of the two restaurants. Both restaurants are open from 7pm until about 11pm.

The smaller restaurant, called the 1886, is Silver Service. Smart dress, including a tie AND jacket for gents is required. The rule used to be jacket or tie, but both have been required since mid 2008. You can borrow the jacket, or the tie, or both, if you don't have them. It is necessary to book (at the Royal Bar). Prices are relatively high by Egyptian standards, but you can still eat very well, in surroundings unmatched in Luxor, for less than the cost of a decent meal in an English Steak House. A bottle of an imported wine will double the outlay.

There is live music, usually from an acoustic guitarist. The menu is more interesting, varied and much more extensive than the menu at La Corniche. It is written in French with English translation. There are lower cost and recognisable options on the menu as well as the more exotic, such as fois gras. With careful selection from the menu you can eat for roughly the same as at La Corniche, around LE350 for two courses for two people, without wine or other expensive drinks. Alternatively, you can have a really exceptional meal for which you can easily spend twice as much.

Service is not as good as in the smartest restaurants in European capitals but the ambience encourages tolerance of the imperfections.

The larger main restaurant is called "La Corniche" (also used by residents for breakfast). Here, there is a more traditional, international, menu, but it is much more limited that the menu at the 1886, with about five meat meal choices and a similar number of fish options as well as soups, appetizers, salads and desserts.

Like at the 1886 the menu is written in French with English translation. By and large the prices are marginally lower than at the 1886 but not significantly so. With a soft drink or water, two people will have a reasonable choice of two courses for around LE350. The 1886 has a greater number of options and although the prices start at about the same level, they go much higher.

Smart dress is required. Although in La Corniche tie or jacket are not compulsory, admission will be refused if dress is too casual. The hotel's reception have told us that it is not necessary to book. Our experience is that, if you are resident at the Old Winter Palace, a table will be found easily, but if you arrive from another hotel pre-booking at the Royal bar resolves any question about whether there is a table or not.

The standard of service used to be as high as you would expect from the grandeur of the surroundings. Two years or so ago however, standards appeared to have fallen. Although not back to excellence, things have improved more recently. The waiters do not always remember the protocols about serving and clearing from opposite sides; replacement cutlery is delivered in the hand rather than on a plate or server, but the meal plate is usually squared so that the logo is positioned at 12 o'clock and covers are now removed simultaneously from all meals at a table. Little points, perhaps, but symptomatic of the standard of service which is a little better than it has been but, frankly, still a little sloppy for the class of hotel.

The amount of meat or fish provided with a meal in either of these restaurants is generous, but, as you expect from a 'high class' restaurant, portions of accompaniments are small. You will not achieve your five daily portions of vegetables here. Two slices of carrot and a large eggcup of potato or rice will accompany your meat. But it will look pretty. The quantity of the food always been so, and recently the quality has improved too. Nevertheless, overall you just can't help feeling that the meal and its service could easily be so much better.

One advantage these restaurants both have over the competition is their location, within the most famous and ostentatious hotel in Luxor, with access to the very grand Victoria Lounge and the impressive Royal Bar. Arrive at least an hour before your meal, use those facilities and soak in the ambience. After your dinner take tea in the lounge or coffee in the bar, knowing that royalty and high dignitaries have been there before you.

Unless you are resident at the Winter Palace, you would probably not go to the Old Winter Palace restaurants regularly, but it is a place to come once or twice during a Luxor holiday to celebrate a special occasion or for a last night farewell meal. If you do not expect perfection, if you take advantage of the lounge and the bar, and if you set out to enjoy the occasion rather than just the eating, then you will be pleased with the evening.

The Winter Palace restaurants are easy to find within the Old Winter Palace hotel on the Nile in the centre of town.

 

Review updated March 2010
Prices at March 2010