Behind the resort buffets, Sharm eats like Sinai: fish landed at Sharm El Maya harbour and grilled by the kilo, koshari counters in Hay El Nour, and cardamom coffee on Hadaba cliff terraces. Three days, one appetite.
Sharm's only genuine souk, in Sharm El Maya: sacks of cumin and dried hibiscus for karkade, Sinai desert herbs, sticky Siwa dates and stacked baladi bread. Stalls run roughly 09:00 to midnight; haggling is expected.
A no-frills fish house behind the Old Market where you choose your catch off the ice bed — red snapper, calamari, tiger prawns — sold by weight and grilled over charcoal, served with tahina, baba ghanoush and warm baladi bread.
The working port beside Sharm El Maya bay where Red Sea boats land bluefin trevally, grouper and bream. Afternoon crates go straight to Old Market kitchens, and captains will sell direct off the quay if you bring a cool bag.
Pavement ahwas serving shai bel na'na' in small glass cups, Turkish qahwa mazbout boiled in a kanaka, and apple shisha under strings of bulbs. Backgammon boards come free with the tea and locals will challenge you.
Old Market institution for Egyptian breakfast: ful medames stewed overnight and finished with olive oil and cumin, taameya patties fried from split fava beans, and feteer meshaltet layered with honey or salty gibna rumi.
The larger of the Old Market seafood halls, doing shrimp tagine baked in clay pots, sayadeya rice simmered in fish stock with caramelised onion, and whole grilled sea bass. Mezze arrives at the table unasked and is charged.
Naama Bay's beachfront Egyptian kitchen, serving molokhia with rabbit, hamam mahshi — pigeon stuffed with freekeh — and moussaka baladi at tables set on the sand. Live oud and tabla most evenings from 20:00.
Italian-Egyptian kitchen built on the rocks below Ras Um Sid lighthouse, plating seafood linguine, wood-fired pizza and grilled calamari as the sun drops behind the Sinai ridge, with the reef wall directly below the terrace.
The market locals actually shop in: a produce souk, butchers' counters and cheap kitchens doing koshari — lentils, rice, macaroni, crisp fried onion and tomato-vinegar daqqa — alongside mango and guava juice pressed to order.
The snack end of the 2 km waterfront: shawarma carved off the vertical spit into baladi bread, hawawshi — spiced minced beef baked inside dough — and sugarcane juice crushed while you wait, eaten walking between the dive shops.
Terraces cut into the Hadaba cliff face and furnished with Bedouin rugs, low cushions and hanging lanterns. Mint tea, cardamom-spiced Turkish coffee and shisha; the mezze is simple but the view over Tiran Island carries it.
The dive-crew bar above Camel Dive Club, pouring draught Stella and Sakkara Gold plus Egyptian reds from Omar Khayyam and Grand Marquise. The rooftop opens at 17:00; SOHO Square's Ice Bar in Nabq is the later alternative.