From a
to Zooba
In our house, there is no such thing as too much tahina.What is life if not a big, beautiful mess of a sandwich?
We’ve taken Zooba to three continents, run out of food on opening days, cooked our way through a pandemic and continued to serve our fresh take on Egyptian street food through a revolution. No one thought we’d be taking our 12 spice dukka fries from the island of Zamalek in Cairo to the island of Manhattan in New York - but there we were, with our first branch fresh out of Cairo in 2019, on Kenmare Street. Then when we turned 11, we opened a branch in the Grand Egyptian Museum, right under King Ramesses’ nose. Talk about full circle.
Somehow, everything added up and put us on the MENA 50 Best Restaurant List for four years straight. Embracing the charm that comes from our Cairene roots. A little silly, yet uniquely Zooba.
-1.png)
In 2016, we were invited to participate in London’s first Falafel Festival, in the historic Borough Market, and we won a trophy. For Falafel AKA Taameya 'that’s what we call it in Cairo'. The truth is, the grass is not greener on the other side; it’s greener on the inside of our Fava Bean Falafel AKA Taameya that grabbed us the title of best Falafel by 1 vote.
Throughout the last 13 years, Chef Moustafa has innovated, sourced, tasted and fed Zooba. Without noticing, he let the world know that Egyptian food is a force to be reckoned with, and he’s been recognized by the Estrella Damm Chef’s Choice Awards in 2023, and was appointed by the World’s Chef’s Association as well as Forbes as Egypt’s Ambassador for Egyptian Food.
We also have a founder and fearless leader, Chris Khalifa, who we feel we need to mention here. He can’t cook but he does a bunch of other stuff and has a lot of opinions about all things Zooba. Thank you for biting into our little adventure and helping us celebrate our authentic fresh taste, one neighborhood at a time.
Our Values