EATING&OUTING: A sublime time to eat

I am a nocturnal creature, burning the midnight oil during the week and hopping from one late night social event to another on weekends. Because of this, I rarely ever wake up in good time for a real breakfast but during the holidays, I sleep and rise earlier than usual. On one of these luckier mornings, I drove, half man half zombie, to Urban Eatery at PwC Towers in Westlands, to meet a dear friend for breakfast. To be quite honest, I think the invention of breakfast meetings is one of humanity’s more unreasonable constructs, right after war and vegetarianism.

When I arrived at our table and took of my sunglasses, I was stunned by the bright morning glare. Taking time to adjust to the light, I quickly scanned the space around us and was pleasantly surprised. The floor space at Urban Eatery is massive, stretching across an entire ground floor wing of Nairobi’s newest and most admired fetes of architecture. However, this room is cleverly decorated and furnished so it feels more like an intimate social space than a sophisticated restaurant of international standard (which it is). To an untrained eye, the jumble of potted herbs, high tables, low couches, magazine racks, long dining tables, wood panelling low hanging chandeliers and more could seem mismatched and messy but they come together perfectly to create different pockets of comfort for diners of different personalities and needs. The set up makes even more sense when you discover that there are four different kitchens, a frozen yoghurt bar and a cocktail bar at Urban Eatery.

ALL-DAY DINING

That particular morning, we ditched the Asian, Mexican, Indian and boozy menus and opted for breakfast options from the all-day dining kitchen. My girlfriend ordered the three-egg omelette made with sautéed mushroom, baby spinach and Gouda cheese and served with a bread basket, butter, jam and a garden salad. Myself: classic Belgian waffles served with fresh fruit salad, maple syrup and whipped cream. I rarely get this feeling but something about the place made me confident that we would not be disappointed and hot diggity dog, was I right!

Belgian waffles are similar to regular waffles except that they are made from a lighter batter and have deeper dimples on their surface. Mine came warm, sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with, honey, whipped cream and a mix of cut apple and grapes. The crispy edges made the waffle slices easy to handle by hand and the milky, buttery, fluffy centre was the best I have tasted in a long while. I would have preferred softer fruit like berries and maple syrup instead of honey but the alternatives were decent and I had some good fun with my food. I was stuffed before I could finish my last quarter of the waffle and only managed to taste a bit of my mate’s omelette, which was a beautiful colour from the green of the spinach and the yellow of the free range eggs and cheese. It tasted better than it looked though I could not see or pick up any hint of the mushroom they claimed it had.

The combined bill including both meals and two iced macchiatos came to about Sh1,700, which we were both very happy to contribute towards. Maybe breakfast dates are not that bad after all!