La Fiamma Brings New Meaning to Waterfront Dining in El Gouna

The designated way to arrive at La Fiamma is aboard a boat, stepping off onto the marina and walking a few short steps to your table for an Italian lunch or dinner. Of course, it’s also perfectly acceptable to arrive on foot—in recent weeks, the likes of Bushra Rozza and Laila Eloui have done both.

When Captain Ahmed Moussa, owner of La Fiamma, opened the restaurant earlier this year, he knew its location was special. Having a waterfront location in El Gouna is not groundbreaking, but having a waterfront location where views of the water are not impeded by boats that are already docked year-round, and where a guest can tie their own boats to the pier as they enjoy their meal, are much rarer. Captain Moussa owns two other locations in El Gouna - Breeze Restaurant & Bar at Abu Tig Marina, and the kitesurfing hotspot Makani Beach Club - neither of which allows this sort of access.“Fanadir Marina is new, and to open something here it had to be something unique and very high quality. So we sat down with Orascom to think what we could open, and that’s when we thought Italian,” says Captain Moussa. Besides its ‘boatability’, two things make this Italian place stand out compared to others. The first is the wood-fired stone oven where its pizza is made, and the second is its shisha. “Very few places in the marina have shisha. But being on the water, it felt right to have it. What united these two was the concept of fire, and that’s why we called the place La Fiamma, or flame.”

La Fiamma’s visual concept is similarly derived from this name. Drawn up by the same brains behind Otto and Eatery, La Fiamma’s interior is designed to feel warm, yet chic. It is a simple, unpretentious design: the only standout feature is a large installation that hangs from the ceiling to mimic a spreading flame.In the kitchen, Chef Julia Gulisano, a chef from Napoli with an Instagram following in the hundreds of thousands, oversees La Fiamma’s culinary experience. When Moussa was setting up La Fiamma he reached out to Gulisano via Instagram - one flight ticket later, he had secured the restaurant’s new head chef.

“Julia has been here since the start,” says Captain Moussa. “She set up our menu and trains our cooks, and makes sure our food is made with the highest quality Italian ingredients.” Some of the fan favourites from the menu Chef Gulisano created for La Fiamma include their Burrata salad, which is served within a bowl made from pizza dough, and the seabass that they top with a warm, creamy lemon and capers sauce. In the pizza department, La Fiamma offers a wide selection of classic and white pizzas, among the most popular of which is the burrata and pistachio pizza.“A lot of our customers also come for our signature cocktails,” says Captain Moussa. “We have the La Fiamma Mule, which is spicy and has ginger, and the very sweet Peach Smash.” Recently, Chef Gulisano also created a seasonal menu for the winter holidays, a set menu which begins with a creamy pumpkin ginger soup with Parmigiano Reggiano fondue and ends with a light, smooth, and delicately sweet berry cheesecake.

Between their chef and their jet set clientele, La Fiamma appears to serve a decidedly upscale experience—but they also have a crunchier side. In the mornings, La Fiamma’s customisable smoothie bowls attract their own early-hours following - whether they arrive by boat or by bicycle.