By: Mariam Elhamy
Mood Swing restaurant will swing you into the right mood! Located in a huge vintage style villa beside two other restaurants, Mood Swing aims to be one of the best restaurants in Heliopolis with their eccentric food and their daily live music which will switch up your day. Dishes have innovative combinations of ingredients if you like experimenting with new flavors. We went there on a Tuesday Classics Night and tried out some of their unique signature dishes and drinks. Scroll down for more photos!
Signatures Dishes & Dishes Sampled
Signatures dishes include an international cuisine and sushi menu with many unique signature items that are not available elsewhere. For example, Chicken Lollypops, Festival Salad, Cajun Pineapple Pasta, New York Chicken, Phosphorus Bomb, and for dessert, Swing Cake.
We were welcomed with a shot of lemon, pineapple and strawberry juice. Then, we started off with the famous Mood Swing appetizer platter that included tender but crispy chicken crispers, round buttery twister potato patties, salted fried Kiri balls that explode in your mouth with surprise pieces of smoked turkey, and finally the golden calamari rings that weren’t chewy to the bite. The platter came with three dips of marinara, honey-mustard and tartar sauce.
Then came the Prune Chocolate Pasta, fettuccine pasta with creamy chocolate sauce, topped with walnuts, prunes and pieces of red chili. The sweetness of the chocolate was balanced out with the chili and seasoned with cinnamon and ginger for extra spiciness. This is not a dish for people with a low tolerance for bizarre mixtures!
Next up we tried the Oreo & Walnut Chicken. We were surprised to find that the Oreo sauce wasn’t actually sweet at all, we could distinctly taste the Oreo flavor minus the sweetness and it all balanced out with the perfectly grilled chicken breasts. It came with a side of mashed potato and sweet corn on the cob. If you’re an adventurous foodie, then we highly recommend this dish.
After that came the Mango Konafa Burger, our favorite dish so far, the meat was well seasoned and grilled to perfection, the konafa added a crispy, slightly sweet touch to the burger and we could faintly taste the mango sauce in the konafa, make sure to ask for the curly fries. To wash it all down we tasted the icy cold sweet popcorn and vanilla, and gum frappés, a must try.
We were too full for dessert but it came anyway, so we tried the Summer Fruit Cake, which tasted as fresh as summer with a thin layer of sponge cake and raspberry mousse and sauce. We also gave the Hazelnut Cake a try, crunchy hazelnut pieces and chocolate cake drizzled with chocolate sauce, perfect note to end an adventurous meal.
Other Menu Options that Appealed & Beverages Available
We kept the sushi menu for the next visit, in which we will try the Crab & Shrimp Salad, the Salmon Teryaki Platter, Rich Shrimp, Spider Maki and Hot Swing Lemon Maki.
Beverages available include all kinds of hot and cold beverages on the menu, including soft drinks and fresh juices.
Décor & Ambience
The décor is very elegantly golden classic and modern at the same time. A huge bubble chandelier hangs on top of the pit where live music is played and there are different musical instruments that emit soft light on the walls. There’s also a sushi bar and a VIP lounge as well as a quiet outdoor seating area and valet parking.
Clientele mix: Not too busy on the weekdays. Perfect for families, a group of friends or date-night, just pick the right day where the music is soft. The live music schedule is posted on the Facebook page.
Price range: Moderate upwards, but the music and ambience is worth it.
Tip: Call in advance to reserve a table, some live music nights get very busy!
Contact information
Opening hours: 10:00 am to 1:30 am, live music starts at 9:00 pm
Address: 18 El Thawra St., Heliopolis
Tel: 02 26901923
Facebook: Mood Swing
Instagram: @moodswingeg
