The steamed dumplings at Peking Restaurant in El Sheikh Zayed City, Cairo, have a filling of soft and salty minced beef inside thick skins, similar to boiled Northern Chinese shuijiao, but even more sturdy. The two dipping sauces served with it are tomato-based; one a thin ketchup, the other a far thicker, spicy sauce studded with chilli seeds.

Instead of chopsticks, knives and forks are set on tables in the dining room, decorated with wooden Chinese lattice work on the ceiling and traditional scroll paintings hanging on the walls.

This branch of Peking Restaurant is one of nine dotted across the Egyptian capital. El Sheikh Zayed is one of Cairo’s new cities, built three decades ago on the west bank of the Nile River. It is part of the Giza Governorate, which includes the Sphinx, the Pyramids and the spectacular new Grand Egyptian Museum, which fully opened in November 2025.

While not quite as old as the Pyramids, the first Peking Restaurant was launched in 1963 by Yan Hongyah. His son Hani Yan now owns the chain.

“We were the first Asian fast food in Cairo, likely the first of its kind in Egypt,” Yan says.

Yan Hongyah left China at a time of turbulence, with the Nationalists and Communists vying for power, and the growing Japanese aggression that culminated in 1937 with the second Sino-Japanese war.