7 Best Restaurants in Luxor and the Nile Valley, Egypt

In a tile-decorated 1930s house with an airy upstairs dining space, this restaurant lets you take a culinary tour of Egypt. Dishes range from oven-roasted rabbit with molokheya (a dark green gelatinous soup made from the jute mallow plant) to hamam mahshi, herby rice-stuffed pigeon. The mezze platter with your pick of four hot and four cold dishes makes a great start to the meal—or a meal in and of itself. Sofra also offers a cooking course that takes you shopping in the market before making a meal, or you can sail on a felucca and take a countryside walk before lunch.

Step back into an elegant era beneath the Venetian crystal chandeliers of the dining room at 1886, where you'll feast by candlelight reflected on the heavy silver plates and thick linens. Dishes are French-inspired, and the menu has quite a bit of seafood. Formal wear is required: cocktail attire for women and suits and jackets for men.

The best of the fast-food cafés near Luxor Temple, Aboudi is indeed a welcome break from the chaos outside its front doors. The menu is full of basic sandwiches and grilled meats. If you need internet access, the Wi-Fi here is surprisingly quick and reliable.

Perched atop the Nefertiti Hotel, Al Sahaby opened in the 1930s and has been serving incredible Egyptian dishes to visitors and locals for generations. You can't go wrong with anything on the menu, but consider trying the succulent camel meat pot, served with sides of roasted vegetables and freekeh, a grain that comes from durum wheat.

Don't let the stained tablecloths at this upper-story dining room put you off: communal eats can be a messy business. Standard mixed-grill items share the lineup with less common offerings such as turkey, duck, quail, and rabbit, which must be ordered before arriving. Set menus serve up a choice of meat or fish accompanied by a table filled with salads, rice, and soups like molokheya, a thick green gelatinous soup made from jute leaves.

A surprisingly good find at the southern end of Luxor's East Bank hotel strip, Maxime's has a menu of burgers and fries, as well as Middle Eastern staples. The relaxing atmosphere makes it a great spot to while away an evening. You can even puff on a hookah pipe in the open-air courtyard.

In one of the few remaining 19th-century mansions in town, this relaxed restaurant decorated with old-school photos and furnishings lives up to its name. The menu runs the gamut from respectable pasta dishes to decent sandwiches.