The formal dinner-only restaurant of the Sofitel Winter Palace has an ambitious French menu that includes crayfish and chanterelle risotto with rosemary truffle sauce, and green apple with passion fruit soufflé. While the food does not entirely live up to the expectations generated by the chandeliered, white-linen setting or the menu's elaborate descriptions, it remains the fanciest eatery in Luxor, and a place for special occasions.

Open nightly 7 to 11:30 pm.

Locals and visitors alike wrangle for an outdoor table at this plain but popular eatery in the heart of the Sharia el-Karnak Tourist Bazaar. It's an ideal place to watch the pedestrian parade go by and enjoy simple Egyptian dishes. The food is well prepared if uninspired, covering enough bases of Egyptian and Mediterranean cooking to satisfy everyone. Dishes include skewered grilled meats, chicken, fish, lots of rice dishes, and even pizza. Amoun also stays open late, until midnight or so. Its neighbor El-Hussein—virtually identical, but with food and service a notch lower—catches a lot of the overflow. Neither establishment serves alcohol.

This rooftop restaurant above the main tourist market serves a decent mix of Egyptian and Mediterranean dishes against a panoramic backdrop that takes in the Temple of Luxor, the Nile, and the Theban hills. Sure, it's popular among tour groups—a location above the tourist office will do that—but it's hard to beat that glorious view. Think of it as a good place for a light lunch: The main dishes are fairly dull, so come here to make a meal out of the small mezze dishes. Another plus: Marhaba serves alcohol (not always a given in restaurants in Muslim countries).

Also known as Sheik Ali's Hotel, this small, mud-brick guesthouse facing the Temple of Merenptah was originally built in 1924 for University of Chicago scientists and still serves as a digging-season residence for international archeological missions. A far cry from commercial tourist restaurants, the hotel's daily alfresco Egyptian lunch and European vegetarian dinner, served in a garden courtyard, is open to anyone and is a favorite with the various tribes of Luxor's winter colony of French fashion designers, antiquities inspectors, artists, European dowagers and other local characters. The lovely garden, lined with trees and bougainvillea, is a perfect place to take a break between the rigors of west bank sightseeing. At lunch, there's usually tomato and cucumber salad, fresh-baked Upper Egyptian sun bread, rice with herbs, and whatever fish, meat or poultry the chef has prepared as a main course.

The café takes up three high-ceilinged rooms on the ground floor of a colonial apartment building two blocks from the Luxor Museum and is a good place to pause for a light meal between rounds of sightseeing. Painted deep red, the retro-chic dining rooms are decorated with antique French marble tables, mother-of-pearl inlaid mirrors, old black and white photos, and Egyptian movie posters. The menu includes, soups, salads, sandwiches, pasta and homemade cakes and pastries, and is one of the few places in town where you can grab a cappuccino.

This stylish restaurant in a converted 1930s house, a five-minute walk from Luxor Temple, offers Cairene and Upper Egyptian specialties in a setting that mixes antiques, copper tables, glass lamps, handmade tiles, and old pottery. Try the shourbit kishk (a soup of fermented yogurt cooked with chicken, bulgar wheat dumplings, lemon and cardamom), or the baladi (duck stuffed with carrots, zucchini, arugula, and coriander), and save room for the aish el saraya, a caramelized bread pudding with clotted cream and honey. You can choose to eat in a small courtyard, a ground floor salon or, best of all, on the breezy upstairs terrace, whose sofas and stuffed chairs also make a pleasant place to take a mid-morning or late afternoon tea or coffee. No alcohol is served, but Shisha with flavored tobacco is available.

Open daily 11 am to midnight.