The 7 best cheap eats in Luxor, ranked
Plate of koshari topped with fried onions at a Luxor eatery
Seven meals under $5 ranked by whether you would actually go back the next day.
1. Koshari from a dedicated koshari shop
Koshari — rice, lentils, macaroni, chickpeas, fried onions, tomato sauce and chilli vinegar — is Egypt's national dish and Luxor's best-value meal. A medium bowl at any of the koshari-only shops around Sharia al-Mahatta or off Television Street costs $1-1.50 and is genuinely filling. The best are the ones that sell nothing else — koshari is all they do, all day, and they are fast.
Ranks first because it is cheap, vegetarian, safe (everything is cooked and served hot), fast, and delicious when done well. Look for a queue at lunchtime; that is the reliable indicator. Add the tomato sauce first, then a small amount of the chilli vinegar, then more if you like heat. Eat it in the shop rather than takeaway — it does not travel well. This is what to eat between temples on a long sightseeing day.
2. Fuul and taameya breakfast at a West Bank café
Fuul (slow-cooked fava beans with cumin, lemon and oil) and taameya (the Egyptian version of falafel, made with fava beans not chickpeas, greener and crisper than the Levantine one) is the standard Egyptian breakfast. On the West Bank, the small cafés opposite Medinat Habu ticket office and along the road from the ferry to the Colossi of Memnon do it for $1.50-2.50 including bread, salad, and tea.
Second because breakfast for $2 that sustains you through a full morning of temples is unbeatable value. Come at 7-8am when it is freshly cooked. The bread is baladi — flat, warm, slightly sour. Ask for extra oil on the fuul. If you see taameya being fried to order, sit down; if the taameya is pre-cooked and reheated, keep walking. This is also where you eat if you are on a $50-a-day budget for the whole trip.
3. Grilled kofta and kebab at a corner grill on Television Street
The cluster of grill houses on Television Street, east of the Corniche, do proper Egyptian mixed grill — kofta (spiced minced beef and lamb on skewers), shish kebab (cubed meat), grilled chicken — with bread, tahina, and a fresh salad, for $3-5 a head. Meat is grilled over charcoal in the doorway so you smell it from the street. Choose the one where the grill is going hardest.
Ranks third because the meat is genuinely good and the meal is a proper dinner. Come at 7-9pm when the grills are hot and turnover is fast — meat sitting waiting for customers is meat you do not want. Ask for the mixed plate (mishakel) and share between two. Bread and salad refills are usually free. A soft drink is $0.50; skip the beer — most of these places are dry. Sit outside if there is a spot; the smoke inside is a lot.
4. Hawawshi from a bakery-grill, hot and messy
Hawawshi is a stuffed flatbread — bread dough filled with spiced minced meat, onion, and sometimes chilli, then baked or grilled until the outside is crisp and the inside runs. A large hawawshi is $2-3 and is a meal for one hungry person. Buy from a bakery-grill that does hawawshi to order, not from a shop where they sit under a heat lamp.
Fourth because when it is good it is one of the best things you can eat in Egypt, and when it is bad — reheated, greasy, cold in the middle — it is grim. Two rules: buy from a place with a queue, and eat it the moment it comes out. Ask for a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of chilli. Eat over the paper wrapper because it will drip. Best late — 9-11pm — when local families are ordering and turnover is at its highest.
5. Shawarma from a stand near the train station
The shawarma stands on Sharia al-Mahatta near the train station carve chicken or beef off vertical spits into a wrap or a sandwich for $1.50-2.50. Tahina, garlic sauce, pickles, sometimes fries inside the bread if you ask. This is the same shawarma as everywhere else in the Arab world, done competently, at a Luxor price.
Ranks fifth because it is reliable and quick but not distinctively Egyptian — you can eat the same thing in Cairo, Amman, Beirut. Come at lunchtime or after 8pm when the spit is at its hottest and freshest; avoid 3-5pm when the meat has been rotating for hours and can dry out. Chicken is safer than beef in Luxor's heat. Ask for garlic sauce and pickles, skip the fries, add a squeeze of lemon at the end.
6. Fresh mango juice in season, at any juice stand
From June through September, roadside juice stands across Luxor make fresh mango juice from local mangoes for $1-1.50 a glass. It is thick, orange, still slightly warm from the fruit, and is one of the best things you can eat or drink in Egypt in summer. Off-season the same stands do orange, guava, sugarcane and karkadeh for $0.50-1.50.
Sixth because it is technically a drink not a meal, but a big mango juice at 11am with a taameya sandwich from next door is a $3 lunch that beats most restaurants. Only order from a stand that is squeezing to order in front of you. Skip anything pre-mixed in a jug. Ice is a small risk at street stands; ask for no ice if you have a sensitive stomach — the juice is cold enough without.
7. Stuffed pigeon at a small restaurant in the old town
Stuffed pigeon — the whole bird, filled with fereek (cracked green wheat) or rice, roasted or grilled — is a proper Upper Egyptian dish and the cheapest way to eat something distinctive rather than pan-Arab. Small restaurants in the lanes behind Luxor Temple do it for $4-6 including sides. Sofra is the tourist-friendly version at $8-10; small local places charge less.
Ranks seventh because it is more expensive than everything above it and because pigeon is not for everyone — you do a lot of work for a small amount of meat. But it is genuinely local, genuinely traditional, and if you eat one non-generic meal in Luxor this should be a candidate. Order it in advance if you can (walk in at 4pm, book for 8pm), because the good ones are cooked to order and it takes 40 minutes.
Before you book
The questions people ask about Medinat Habu, answered with this month’s numbers.
Mostly yes, with rules. Eat food that is cooked to order and served hot. Avoid pre-made salads, cold sauces that have been sitting out, unwashed fruit, and ice at low-turnover stands. Busy places with high turnover are safer than quiet places with the same food sitting longer. Carry hand sanitiser.
Some — the ones near the train station, the Corniche and Television Street usually do. Village cafés and small koshari shops often do not. Point at what other people are eating, or learn five words: fuul (beans), taameya (falafel), koshari, kofta, shai (tea). That covers most of what you need.
Round up by 10-15%, or leave $0.30-0.75 on a $3-5 meal. Nothing at a fast-service takeaway where you paid at the counter. Tipping is expected at sit-down places and appreciated everywhere; small notes matter more than big gestures because change for a $10 bill is not always available.
