Restaurant review:

High times round the Anfoushi bend

The outstanding solo effort and the fisherman's tale of woe

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The deliciously aromatic wafts of sizzling spices turn your gastric juices into hideously needy children. At Al-Anfoushi, Alexandria's celebrated fish market district, after traversing a convoluted terrain of misdirection, dead-ends and near-terminal despondency, I was finally guided by the beacon of Tarek Qadoura 's sterling and widespread reputation to a dining spot accessible only to privileged and unknowing insiders.

Tarek gets his nickname from a 20-plus year stint as chef at the up-market fish restaurant. Deciding it was high time he spread his culinary wings to his own advantage, he recruited his brother, a Saladier at the restaurant's other branch, and his apprentice cousin to jump-start a solo effort.

Taking the Corniche's final bend and stepping into the second corridor after Al-Shuhadaa Mosque, I trek between green warehouses into the heart of a vessel-producing lumberyard and quickly locate the source of the superlative wafts, a taqleiya that practically assaults your olfactory system. The rough-n- ready cooking station of benches, pans and stoves gives way to skeletal hulks of boats-to-be and beyond them a quaint dining gem in a culinary wasteland of the lacklustre and vapid.

Plastic chairs are planted into the sand round crude wooden tables, and less than 10 feet away the low-tide surf breaks lazily onto the shore and a line of miniature fishing boats. The litter and debris only adds to the place's working man's charm, and takes little away from the spectacular waterfront view of lighthouses and villas or your guaranteed lungful of wholesome and invigorating sea breeze. The only nuisance is the occasional minor dust storm kicked up by a stray baladi dog chasing away an inferior cat.

Tarek tells me not to order, he's preparing "the works", and I'm joined by his elder brother Sami who introduces me to a few neighbouring diners. Genial blue-collar folks, boisterous families where the biggest veil invariably gets the last word, and the occasional zany character -- one recently acquired a reputation for being perennially in need of bath -- offer their greetings. Sami then segues into a gloomy tale of futile battles with a municipality that seduced his fisherman ilk with promises of loans to construct boats, only to deliver them sporadically and demand immediate payment of unreasonable interest rates. He points to his half-built tragedy that may never contend with the waves, its yellow paint job now crusty and brittle from neglect, its bulk sighing heavily with dejection, and I'm sold instantly on pursuing the story.

Given Tarek's day job, dinner starts at 9pm. So even with the activation of a few extra dormant light bulbs visibility remains poor. But that won't impede the gusto with which you attack this savoury spread. The marinated eggplant starter can give the most confident of mousakkas a run for its money and may throw your appetite a curve ball, leading it astray from the fish dinner it signed on for. I can't identify the fish, but by now my palate is wholly oblivious to such academia. The little fried critters (dubbed barbon locally), like the calamari, are unexpected light and crispy; you can keep digging into them freely throughout your meal without them weighing you down. The piquant arm-length truncheon, split in two and cooked with concentrated doses of garlic, tomato, and cumin, is a testament to the decocting expertise of a man who knows how to keep his Alex moxie intact as he expertly juggles the tasks of chef, manager and affable host ever-armed with effortless bull's eye witticisms.

Get here while you can. In the hopes of formalising his (now very successful) business, Tarek intends to move up to the outdoor café on the street with the onset of Ramadan, and into one of the renovated warehouses after Eid. And while his recipes couldn't possibly suffer as a result, it would be a shame to miss out on the inestimable ambiance perks of this location.

Abu Noura

Across from Layaly Al-Anfoushi café, Al-Anfoushi, Alexandria.

Tel: 012 240 7869.

Open from 9pm to late.

Dinner for two: LE100.

By Waleed Marzouk