Luxor eats like Upper Egypt, not like Cairo: bolti pulled from the Nile at dawn, molokhia with rabbit, bread baked in village clay ovens and hibiscus poured cold on the Corniche. Three days across the souqs, the East Bank kitchens and the West Bank villages.
Behind Luxor Temple the covered bazaar runs into working spice lanes: sacks of hibiscus for karkadeh, cumin, dried molokhia, Aswan dates and hot baladi bread from the corner bakeries. Stalls open around 08:00 and close near 22:00.
A 1930s house on Mohamed Farid Street laid out with mashrabiya screens and low brass tables, serving the city's benchmark mezze: molokhia with rabbit, tagines baked in clay, stuffed pigeon and a spread of hot and cold starters. Daily 11:00–24:00.
Luxor's residential food street, lined with foul carts, taameya fried from crushed fava beans rather than the Levantine chickpea, and asab stalls pressing sugarcane to order. Busiest between the afternoon prayer and sunset.
A Corniche terrace beside the Winter Palace gardens pouring ahwa brewed in brass kanaka pots, iced karkadeh and sahlab in the cool months, with feluccas tacking across the river directly in front of the tables. Open late.
The Nile fish market off Sharia al-Mahatta trades from first light: bolti tilapia, bayad catfish and shal hauled from the river that morning, gutted at the stall and scored for the grill. Trading thins out well before noon.
A street-level terrace in the souq lane cooking Upper Egyptian home food: fatta layered with lamb and vinegared rice, hamam mahshi stuffed with freekeh, and a duck tagine that needs ordering an hour ahead. Rooftop above faces Karnak.
The 1886 hotel's mahogany bar and its terrace above the Nile-side gardens: afternoon tea with basbousa and om ali, Egyptian Omar Khayyam wines by the glass, and the dining room where Howard Carter's backers ate.
Two-level Corniche restaurant facing the river: kofta and kebab off the charcoal grill, hawawshi baked in the bread oven, and tagines of okra or white beans served with rice and baladi bread straight from the clay.
The West Bank's Tuesday market fills El-Gezira village: donkeys, goats and pigeons at one end, then mounds of tomatoes, guava, dates, white cheese in brine and clay ovens turning out bread from about 07:00.
A mudbrick courtyard below the Qurna hills, built for archaeologists in the 1920s and still feeding them: vegetable tagines, roast chicken with rice and its own bread, served under tamarisk trees alongside the excavation crews.
A shaded terrace facing the pylons of Medinet Habu, pouring mint tea and iced hibiscus and serving light lunches of stuffed vine leaves, koshari and tahini salads while the temple wall stands a few metres away.
A rooftop above the ferry village where the sunset lands on the Theban hills: cold Stella, karkadeh and grilled Nile perch with tahini, plus shisha over the roofs of Gezira. Alcohol is poured here, unlike most West Bank kitchens.