Food review: #NRW Le Palanka

Hey guys!
Hope youve all had a good week. First and foremost, THANKYOU for supporting this blog! For trying out my recipes and for giving me your feedback. You guys syke me up even as I build this dream of mine, I know that is worthwhile.

So this past week, we witnessed the first ever Nairobi Restaurant week. #NRW
Most of Nairobi's hottest restaurants participated. Each restaurant had a special prix menu specifically for #NRW. The menu was either 1250 or 1750 Ksh and not a cent more. This included tax. For most, this was an opportunity to dine at the best restaurants in the city at a good price and like most I took advantage of this amazing deal.

I must say that it wasn't easy to choose where to go. I had planned to visit about two restaurants this past week but because of last minute things coming up, I settled for dining at only one, "Le Palanka" which means antelope.
I chose Le Palanka because I had read some good reviews about it online. I was a bit hesitant though because  a few people complained about the slow service although everyone had something good to say about the food, so I opted to risk it. "I mean it can't be that bad!"
I was tired and hungry that evening and as much as I would want to say that I went with "zero expectations!" part of me hoped that a good and fast waiter/waitress would attend to us.


Once we got there, I must say that I was taken by how beautiful the outside deco was. The rocks and flowers perfectly complimented by mini-artificial waterfalls. The front wall had graffiti and there were little mini-bomas on the left side perfect for private meetings or small groups of people.

 

When we walked in, we didn't find anyone at the restaurant entrance but we could see some people who looked like waiters chattering away in the corner. Once they noticed that we were waiting, one of them rushed over. I could have chosen to sit anywhere because I could see plenty of sitting space but I didn't want to risk sitting on any reserved tables.

The waiter immediately directed us to the inner dinning room and even presented us with the option of sitting outside on the comfy sofas with an amazing scenery. Since it was chilly, we chose to sit inside instead.
We mentioned that we had come for the #NRW whereby  the waiter brought us the special #NRW menu and waited upon us as we decided between the two starters, two main courses and two desserts. He was quite helpful and answered every question we had concerning the menu.
I chose to have: -

• Chicken Ballotine-spicy warm-filled chicken served with a special salad dressing as a starter.
•  Beef Skewer (Kenya) tender grilled marinated beef fillet skewer with a special palanka dressing as the main course.
• The Banana Eclair-a delicate banana eclair dessert served with a fruit sauce.                     

while my companion had the :-

• Palanka pockets -savory samosas filled with creamy cheese and fresh herbs with chefs garden salad served individually at the table as the starter.
• Braised chicken-wonderful african grilled chicken, marinated and spicy, served with a special rougail sauce as the main course
• The chocolate mint slice-chocolate hot cake with vanilla icecream and mint sauce.

 We also ordered the mocktails to accompany our meal:-

•  Fruit punch -cocktail juice with strawberries, mangoes, pineapple and grenadine
• Hot house crush-orange, pineapple and lime juice with grenadine.  

I'll have you know  that both drinks didn't have any grenadine which was disappointing because without the grenadine syrup that not only sweetens the drink but also creates the sunset in a glass effect, we felt like we just had juice. The drinks were not a part of the #NRW menu so we paid 400Ksh for each mocktail "read juice!"

The Chicken Ballotine was really dry, cold and hard. I was wrestling with it on my plate. It was served with a garden salad that consisted of lettuce, shredded carrots, tomatoes and a special dressing. The starter also came with chopped avocado that was seasoned with soy sauce. It was a bit too salty for my taste but still a good combo. I wasn't as impressed by my meal. On the other hand the palanka pockets were perfectly seasoned. The perfect combo of herbs, cheese and beef meat. I was glad that the pastry pocket wasn't oily or overcooked as is the case for most samosas. It went straight into my good books. The portion was alright, two per person and also came with the same salad as the chicken.

After that, our waiter cleared the table and shortly after, brought the main dishes-approx 5min.
The beef skewers were good and I opted for the special palanka mash to accompany them, which is basically a mixture of mashed potatoes and mashed butternut squash. It came with a few onion rings that were garnished and cooked in herbs-probably on a pan and not the usual deep fried ones. Now I disliked the fact that the meal had no sauce and on top of that, it was served with the same salad we had taken with the starter. I found that rather surprising, seeing that you cant serve a meal with mashed potatoes with no sauce. How now! When I asked the waiter for a sauce, he claimed that the tomato puree sauce placed in a dish in the middle of the table was the accompaniment for my meal. I dont think it was well thought out and I believe this meal would have gone well with a nice thick sauce, i.e mushroom or even a gravy. Serving the same salad again also was such a good idea since one of the very first things I learnt in my culinary studies was to never serve the same accompaniment in a first and second plate.

The chicken was good. It was grilled and served with the same onion rings and salad. We had it with rice instead and we were given the same "tomato puree sauce" to accompany it.
The portions were good and filling but the meal was pretty average and abit dry.
The skewers were juicy but lacked in salt which was better than an overly salty meal *silver lining*

After we had our main dishes, the waiter cleared our table and we then began waiting for our dessert. We didnt expect it immediately though since we were a bit full and we carried on with our conversation. It was about 20 or 25 minutes into our chat that we noticed that our waiter seemed to have forgotten about us by the look of surprise on his face. I must say he looked overwhelmed since the restaurant had already filled up at this point.
 He came by our table twice saying that he was handling it and we continued chatting away.
After about 10 minutes, he brought them out.

The banana eclair was a first for me-it was basically a banana coated in flour and fried served with chocolate sauce and vanilla icecream. It looked and tasted good yet it took me by surprise because the menu had said it would be served with a fruit sauce and not a chocolate sauce.
The chocolate mint slice was similar to the banana eclair and was also served with chocolate sauce instead of a mint sauce as stated on the menu. All in all it was moist and the mint in the cake was well balanced with the chocolate. 

All in all the presentation for all our meals was exceptionally good. I must say that they were quite some handsome plates. I believe some meals like the chicken ballotine were lacking in taste and the main dishes were good but slightly dry.
Overall the restaurant was beautiful, clean, gorgeously decorated and the ambience was perfect. The #NRW menu was reasonable and set at1250 Ksh. The waiting staff were better than we expected and were on their toes the whole night though there is still room for improvement.

And that my friends was The Le Palanka experience..
Would I still visit again? Sure!!! I would like to see if things are different on a normal day.
It is a good restaurant  and one of the few that offer african and french cuisine.

I recommend this place if you're looking for a nice, chilled evening out.
Check the #NRW highlights on the link below! I'll have you know that Nairobi Restaurant week has been extended to the 12th Feb-how awesome is that! You still have a chance to eat out at one of the best restaurants in town.
You can check out the link below for more info!
http://nairobirestaurantweek.com/

Food review: Golden Spur Steak Ranch Restaurant

Hey guys........so here's a long overdue food review on one of my favorite restaurants, "SPURS!"

 

I've dined at the one located in The Southern Sun Mayfair hotel, in Westlands a couple of times, and I must say, I have never been disappointed.
I find that this is the ideal place for a chilled out lunch or dinner, Sunday brunch, and for any special celebration. I love the ambiance in this place! Couples on one table enjoying a romantic dinner while another family loudly chatters on the next one. They have bouncing castles, a playroom and cyber that cater to different age groups so you don't have to leave your kids at home. Great and quick service and not forgetting some very fresh and scrumptious meals.

I'm a fan of juicy steaks so I ordered the Chedamealt steak that came with some fries, onion rings and a bit of salad. Sadly my steak was a bit tough. This was my first time ever eating a hard steak here. In the past, I had always gotten soft and juicy ones. All in all I still enjoyed the flavor and the delightful layer of melted cheese and a creamy mushroom sauce covering the steak.

We also had Chicken and Cheese quesadillas with salsa and guacamole. They were a bit hard but very tender on the inside. The guacamole was perfectly chilled and fresh.

The Spurs classic bugger was a feast for sore eyes. You could tell just how juicy it was even without taking a bite. It was served with fries and onion rings. I must say it was quite good and filling too.

We also had the buffalo chicken wings that came with two sauces to dip in. They were plenty that I actually didn't make the effort to count them, though I believe they should make them with a nice sauce, preferably barbecue instead of just frying them. They were a bit too plain in my humble opinion but still a good meal and very filling.

We also had Half chicken and fries! The meal was such a winner. The chicken filled half of the plate and it was perfectly garnished with a nice barbecue sauce.

And lastly we had the pork chops and mashed potatoes. The pork chops were nice and juicy, topped with a slice of pineapple and creamy mashed potatoes. This meal was also a winner and extremely scrumptious.

Two things we love about Spurs are the good portions and great service.
Prices range between 600 to about 2000 Ksh depending on what you order. A good steak can go for about 800- 1300 Ksh. The drinks range from about 150-350 Ksh and are served chilled in big glasses! *winning!* The waiters are friendly, very efficient and fast. We were served by a very polite man who even gave us 3 plates of veggies on the house. Since we were celebrating a birthday, they gathered around our table and sang their special spurs birthday song as they brought our cake with a lit up sparkly candle* courtesy of them*

I highly recommend this place any day.
They are on a level of their own.

Big up Spurs!

Food review: Open House restaurant, Westlands

Hey guys, hope you had a great weekend, I sure did. I spent my Sunday evening celebrating the birthday of a good friend of mine with some friends at an Indian restaurant. The restaurant was called "Open House Resaturant" and is located in Westlands, opp The Oil Libya petrol station, right next to the uchumi shopping centre. It was my first time there and I didn't know what to expect apart from extremely spicy dishes which is the norm in Indian restaurants. To be honest, I was abit skeptical since I'm not a fan of overly spiced food or chilli in that case. I was ready to play it safe. :-o

We ordered one starter and a couple or different main dishes.
The starters were all dry meals and the main meals consisted of fish, vegetarian, chicken, mutton and beef stews.
Once we sat down, the waiter took our drinks order and placed two salsa dishes in the middle of the table. The salsa dips were in 3 flavors; mint, chili and garlic. Being a fan of anything garlic, I wasn't as impressed by the garlic dip which I found too light in texture.

                 

     

For a starter, we ordered the chicken tikka served over a flame with a shredded cabbage and carrot salad with a nan at an extra cost of 100 Ksh. The starters all ranged between 700-850 Ksh which I found to be too pricey seeing the main dishes costed the same. I'll be honest, for 750ksh I expected a larger portion of chicken :-( All in all the chicken was very tasty and spiced just right. It was boneless and in chunks. I had a problem though with them serving the salad on the dish over a burner and I think it should have been served separately.

           

The nan was served in a small basket. It was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, perfect
for all those chapati or nan lovers. The portion was big and fit for that price and it can be shared in between two people.

For the main dish, we ordered the ginger chicken masala, Goan fish curry and the chicken tikka masala. I must say I rather enjoyed them all and my friends were quite content with the taste and generous portions of each dish. The ginger chicken was very gingery for lack of a better word. The fish curry and the  the chicken tikka masala were both very good and not overly spicy. Seeing I am not a chili lover I was glad that all the meals were perfectly mild as we had asked them, though they can make it as per preference.

The only things I wasn't as pleased about were as follows:
- we weren't offered any water to wash our hands nor any hot towels
- the prices indicated on the menu didn't include 16% VAT or the 2 % service charge which were added on the bill.
-they closed relatively early at 10pm just when we were looking to enjoy some extra time after our meal.
-half our meals were served much earlier than the others, approx 20 min which was strange since the two had ordered their meal before everyone else
-no name tags on the waiters

All in all it was a really good meal and we also enjoyed our drinks. We had strawberry and tangerine juice which were a favorite to everyone on the table. The mango lassi was also very good and it tasted like a blend of mangoes and maziwa mala.

Ambience: 4/5
Food: 4/5
Service:3/5

Bonus was that they served us the cupcakes while singing in a group.
If you happen to be in the mood for some spicy Indian cuisine, I recommend this place any day.

Food review: What's in my takeaway bag!?

Hey guys!
Happy Friday-ing as a friend of mine would say! :-)) :-))

So I'll have you know that the food reviews have began. *insert fireworks!*  I will be letting you in on the best dishes to sample at some of the best restaurants in this city. Apart from that I figured I'd also review some bakeries and let you in on the best places to buy the best pastries. I'm calling this the "what's in my takeaway bag!" section of my blog.
Thought I'd start with an all time favorite, the Shell Bakery in Westlands. First of all you might be wondering what a bakery is doing at a petrol station well I don't know either! Lol 

Been buying pastries here for about 6 yrs if not more. They have maintained their good quality all through. Here you can buy fresh bread in all shapes and sizes, i.e baguettes, brown or white, sugarless, pita bread, ready made pizza bread, you name it!  A loaf of bread usually goes for about 100 Ksh  which I believe is pretty reasonable seeing they bake it on that same day. *you gotta love taking a nice fresh loaf home and smelling it the whole way back! I usually cut off chunks on the way :-) #dontjudgeme*
They also offer a large variety of cakes, i.e passion fruit, fruit, blueberry, mocca, raspberry, etc. a slice is usually 350 Ksh while a Swiss roll slice of either the white forest, black Forest or chocolate goes for 250 Ksh. They also bake butter cookies-the good kind you know, not the kind that is so hard you wonder why you didn't buy some Marie biscuits instead. Cummon now! A pack is usually priced at 220 Ksh.

One thing I love is their different types of pastries like jam tarts, fresh strawberry tarts, eclairs, muffins, samosas, cheese and ham croissants, etc. This is really the go-to place for just about everything including vegetarian pastries like the pizza pocket, vegetable samosas, plain croissants, oat crunch, etc for those who aren't meat or dairy lovers.
Ive tried just about everything in this bakery and I highly recommend them! 

Today I passed by to get a takeaway breakfast, okay I confess I go there almost daily. Sigh!
Instead of the usual mandazi or chicken pies, I opted for the meat pie and chocolate donut for me and my workmate.
I loved how crispy the crust was. You can tell they folded in the butter just right. Meat pies should be crispy and not crunchy my fellow bakeries. And the meat was fresh-there's nothing worse than biting into a stale meat pie! Yuck! The pie was actually pretty warm when I got it and I smelt it the whole way to work without taking a bite. That was hard!!
So I can say a good 4/5.
Why not a 5? Well it was a bit more salty than I expected, they'll get my feedback on that. All in all.  It was a WIN!

As for the chocolate donut, I must say I love a good donut and I wish there were more places that made good donuts in this city. I've been disappointed so much in the past. Most look good but have an awful taste, others just have too much yeast or  are just plain hard! So I can say that these guys have a  solid recipe that I have enjoyed over the last couple of  years.
Soft inside with a smooth chocolate coating! Def a WIN! 5/5 though I wish we had dunkin donuts in Kenya though! Still praying! :-) :-)




















So that's it's for today! Check them out. All week from 8-10 pm! Yes even Sundays! @ Shell petrol station opp oil Libya Westlands.

Sincerely Jaz and that's What's in my takeaway bag today!