A new Egyptian restaurant is coming to the Jubilee neighbourhood after having operated as a ghost kitchen for three years in Cook Street Village.
The new spot will be called CairoMum, and it will be operated by the same owners who brought Egyptian flavours to Victoria via Mama Nadia’s Kitchen.
CairoMum will open at 1807 Fort Street, in the former location of Hong Kong West, which had been in business for over 30 years, but recently closed up shop.
The owners of this new hub for Mediterranean cuisine are husband and wife duo Ahmed and Sondass Muhamad.
Ahmed says that the name change was made to distinguish their food as Egyptian cuisine, specifically, but they still wanted to pay homage to the woman that inspired their cooking.
“Mama Nadia’s Kitchen, we named it after my mother-in-law, so we named it after her because she loves cooking and always shared her love through cooking,” he told Victoria Buzz.
“If she loves someone, she always wants to keep cooking for them or bring them her food, that’s how she shows her love.”
With the new name and new restaurant, the Muhamads wanted to mitigate confusion over their food and flavours, but also keep the maternal origins of their food incorporated, because they say they want to build a community around their cooking, as Mama Nadia would have done.
“We want to do something for the community,” explained Ahmed. “Sharing our love through the community that’s there.”
“We believe in creating a sense of belonging, a space where people can connect, enjoy a meal cooked with love, and feel cared for. We want to serve the community, not just food,” Sondass added.
Ahmed says that finding the new location was a bit of an ordeal.
After operating out of a commissary kitchen in Cook Street Village, Mama Nadia’s moved to Victoria Public Market for a short time before being given the news that they had to vacate their new home to make way for a new grocery store.
That was back in July, which left the husband and wife duo without a kitchen or shop for six months before they penned a deal to take over the Hong Kong West space.
“In that time we saw between 30 to 50 places,” said Ahmed.
“Some places had too high a value, some places didn’t have a hood [vent], other places were too high rent.”
He said the process of looking for a new space was exhausting and time consuming but came to a happy ending with the spot they eventually found.
“I said, ‘hey guys I’m really interested in taking this place over,’ so I went there and saw the space and I liked it.”
Once CairoMum opens, Ahmed says that the food will be very similar to what they were cooking at Mama Nadia’s, but they will have the capacity to do so much more.
Some of their most popular dishes that are making a comeback are their ‘Juicy Lamb Shank,’ their ‘Koshari,’ as well as their ‘Chicken Schwarma’ and ‘Falafel Wraps.’
The lamb shank is slow-cooked until it’s fall-off-the-bone tender, and infused with deep, warm spices while their falafel is tender, light and fluffy on the inside with a satisfying crunchy exterior and will be made daily from scratch.
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But before they open to the public, Ahmed says there is a bit of work to be done yet to make the space their own, including painting, decorating and some other minor renovations.
The Muhamads hope to open CairoMum to the public and serve their signature Egyptian flavours by early December.
