A day at Dara’s Ice cream

Who in Egypt doesn’t know Dara Ice cream! As described in Cairo360, this small local ice cream shop located in New Cairo and Shiekh Zayed. It opened only two years ago and as stated in Trip Advisor, is now marked as one of the main destinations for tourists visiting Egypt with a 4 star rating. 

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So what is it that makes Dara Ice Cream so special? Many say it’s the well made ice cream flavors and others say the warm, cozy atmosphere. As described by one of the food critics in Scene Eats it “has an insane amount of flavors that you could choose from, with each one of them made to absolute perfection.” Well to me, it’s the ice cream love that shows in every detail of this small shop that gets me hooked. Hooked to the point that I made Dara my weekly outing with my Dad for more than a year. Let me tell you about this ice cream love. It starts with the smell of the waffles.

Last Friday, as we do every Friday at 5pm, I took my dad to Dara. From the door, I could smell their fresh made waffles that they then fold very carefully and put under either the milk chocolate or white chocolate taps. Waiting in line to choose my flavors, I get to look at Dara’s (the founder) pictures making the ice cream and visiting many ice cream places around the world. These pictures always remind me that this ice cream is made with love and passion from its owner. 

As we got closer to making our order, I saw the board that is handwritten and that has all the flavors and mixes. For me, I always choose the Dark chocolate with hazelnuts and my dad chooses the Coffee with pecan, however, this doesn’t mean that we don’t read the board that has all the flavors every time and make some serious ice cream discussions around our choosing criteria. I have to say it’s one of the highlights of the experience that can’t be missed.

Finally, the time has come to get our ice cream. Greeted with a perfect smile, the server asks me and my dad if we have decided what we want yet. I have to say that we sometimes say no just to try out some new flavors then choose our regulars in the end. We observe the server as he opens the ice cream barrel and starts creating this perfect round ball of ice cream heaven. It’s mesmerizing. Also another highlight of the experience.

Then we took our ice creams to sit down. The shop is always filled with teenagers and families all talking and laughing. My dad just loves getting into conversations with complete strangers. As he holds his ice cream cone in one hand, you can find him discussing the latest economic crisis and its impact on the political stability of the MENA Region. This is when I usually decide that it’s time for coffee. However, this time, since we are in COVID’s 3rd wave, we decided to take our ice cream outside in the open air and just talked about our plans for the Summer. 

We went home as always feeling grateful that there is such a place that we love so much. Thank you Dara..