Every Dinner is Built Around a Philosophical Idea at the Palate Club

The Palate Club, a Cairo-based dining concept founded by Marwan Hazem in 2024, is where every menu is built around a theme and every dinner is designed to spark conversation, curiosity, and a little bit of surprise.

Hazem explores his more outlandish creative ideas through his invite-only “Beta Dinners”. These immersive dining experiences are centred around a concept rather than a specific cuisine, allowing him to experiment with more unexpected ideas.

“I just want to clarify that it’s not like a normal dinner that you would go to as a private dining experience. It’s more centred on entertainment, it’s theatrical as an experience," Hazem tells SceneEats. "We do playlists, for example, based on the theme, we create the art, we create the centrepiece, we create everything that goes around the theme. We’re always exploring new ideas."

His upcoming Paper Planes themed dinner explores the idea of freedom through food. “The whole dinner is based on paper planes and freedom and flying,” Hazem explains. “Everything is light and fluffy, and we experiment with very daring and bold flavours.” Laughing, he adds: “Most of the dishes are bird-based… everything that has wings, basically!”

The Palate Club also hosts “Classic Dinners”, which are open to the public. Guests can purchase tickets via Instagram, although spots are limited and usually capped at 15 people. Hazem insists, though, that he doesn’t mean “classic” in the traditional sense of the word: “When we hear ‘classic’, the first thing that comes to mind is French cuisine and so on, but our classic is very different. We do big twists on flavours and presentation.”

Next on Hazem’s list is fashion. Already part of his creative background, he is keen to bring it further into The Palate Club’s future experiences, including the possibility of incorporating fashion shows into these evenings. “Fashion and food are very connected, both play with textures and colours, and both have flavours,” he says. “Fashion has so many sides: the soft and flowing side, and then the harsher and edgier side. We can play with that in a cool way.”