Foodies Kenya All About Kenyan Food
My first time at the Sarova Stanley’s Thorn Tree Cafe was during the Nairobi Pizza Week last year. Before that, I’d picture the image of how the place looks like from the colonial themed novels about the Brits in Kenya. We had a great time at the place with the bae, and food partner -in-crime, @Spazbender. The Pizza was awesome and the service was excellent. Only thing we didn’t like was the beer part, maybe they should include milkshakes in the Pizza Week Offer next time; makes much more sense *Someone please cc @EatOutKenya this*.
During the Nairobi Restaurant Week (for those who are in the dark, read more about it here), we both wanted a restaurant in the CBD as it would be easier to get home after dinner. Seeing as there not so many options, we decided to stick with a tried and tested place to minimize the probability of disappointment, so Thorn Tree Cafe was an obvious choice.
Starters
We arrived to the restaurant at about 7:30 going to eight and were shown to a table of two by a very lovely stewardess. We opted to sit inside as opposed to the terrace because of the lighting (you can’t exact take pictures in the darkness, now can you?) We had a very lovely chat with our waiter for the day who kept up with our millions of questions and was quite funny and charming the entire time we were here ( I think his name was Antony, I am really poor at memorizing names). I went with the Salmon and Crab Roulade while Spaz went with the Smoked Duck salad.
As we waited for our meals, we were treated to freshly baked buns and a glass of complimentary Nederburg dry wine. If there’s something Sarova gets right, it’s these buns. The waiter came back with some buttered fish bitings which were really good I was tempted to ask for more.
Our salads finally came and I must say I liked the plating of the salmon n crab. I have never been a much of sea-food fanatic so I ended up eating more of the veggies. The sauce drizzled on top of the lettuce on both our plates was really yummy. Spaz’s duck was also good and the portions were quite sizeable. We were almost full even before the main course.
How pretty was this salad though?
Main Course
Spaz went with the beef while I chose the chicken. I can’t say much mine; the chicken breast was a bit dry and I didn’t like the sauce either; the broccoli and carrots were bland and the mash potatoes were unexciting. The beef on the other hand was everything; it came smothered with in some thick mysterious gravy that tasted heavenly. The texture and flavour of the gravy oozing from the beef onto the mash potatoes changed the whole dynamics of the meal. For a minute or two , I was quite jealous.
Dessert
This was the crowning moment of the evening. On this one, I will let the pictures speak for themselves coz they were that good. We even got a complementary scoop of icecream from the chef 🙂
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Remarks
Generally, the experience was worthwhile. I’d give a 6/10 for the food and a 9/10 for the excellent service.
