-
Phoenician Restaurant
This new garden restaurant, tucked away behind the Sarit Centre, may well be the first Lebanese restaurant in Kenya. We've heard mixed reports of the food, but there's plenty for veggies and with more starters than main courses, assembling your own mixed mezze offers plenty of scope for a Middle East feast. Live music on Friday.
-
Plaza Café
The Minar chain used to have several branches in the city centre, but now there's just this one, set in the Plaza's basement courtyard. It specialises in mughlai dishes but also does standard breakfasts and African dishes, plus good buffet lunches and plenty of vegetarian options.
-
Porterhouse Restaurant
Steak-lovers should make this discreetly swish 1st-floor restaurant their first port of call: apart from a few token dishes such as chicken kiev, the menu here is entirely dedicated to the art of carving chunks of cow, and with a two-person Chateaubriand for just around KSh900 it's easy to get into the moo-d (ahem).
-
Restaurant Akasaka
A wonderful Japanese restaurant next to the Sixeighty Hotel. It's always a little quiet, but this fits the stylish Japanese décor and the food is very authentic. There's even a tatami room (reserve in advance) where you can eat at traditional low tables. Akasaka runs the full gamut of Japanese cuisine including udon noodles, sushi sets, tempura, teriyaki and sukiyaki as well as great miso soup. Good-value set lunches are also available.
-
Seasons Restaurant
Whatever the season, the cafeteria vats here always brim with cheap Kenyan and Western favourites. The Nairobi Cinema outlet has a popular bar and beer garden, and there are a couple of similar branches around the centre. You can bring in your own booze, food or miraa (twigs and shoots chewed as a stimulant) for a 'cockage' fee.
-
Siam Thai
This attractive restaurant has an extensive menu of actual Thai food (gasp!) and a very good reputation. Unga House can be reached from either Woodvale Grove or Muthithi Rd.
-
Supreme Restaurant
This place offers excellent Punjabi vegetarian thalis (plate meals) consisting of various curries, rice, dhal, bhajia (vegetables fried in lentil flour) and chapatis. It also has superb fruit juices.
-
Tamarind Restaurant
Kenya's most prestigious restaurant chain runs Nairobi's best seafood restaurant. The splendid menu offers all manner of exotic flavours, and the lavish dining room is laid out in a sumptuous modern Arabic-Moorish style. Smart dress is expected and you'll need to budget for the full works, particularly if you want wine or cocktails and lobster.
-
Advertisement
-
Tanager Bar & Restaurant
A cheap and simple Chinese-African eatery right in the city centre.
-
Taverna
A quite sophisticated place tricked out in typical checked-tablecloth style, with lots of pasta choices and good seafood.
-
Thorn Tree Café
For a lunch splurge in an upmarket environment, head for the Stanley's legendary cafe. It's an oasis of civilization amid the madness of the streets and the food, while overpriced, caters to most tastes. Although it still serves as a popular meeting place for travellers, the once famous noticeboard has been reduced to a shadow of its former self.
-
Trattoria
This long-running and very popular Italian joint could hold its head up in Melbourne or San Francisco, offering excellent pizza, pasta dishes, varied mains and a whole page of desserts.
-
Tropez
A handy modern restaurant offering fast grills, curries, chicken and the like. The lunchtime buffet is top value, and the breakfast isn't bad either. There's another branch of the same chain, with sports bar, at Zeep (Norwich Union Towers, Mama Ngina St).
-
Village Market
The open food court here includes Italian, Turkish, German, Thai, Japanese and seafood outlets.
-
Yaya Centre
A small food court with a reasonable selection of cafés and kiosks. The Saffron restaurant upstairs does great Indian eat-in and takeaway food.
