Fairly good food at hotel café

The regular menu has a wide selection, ranging from Indian dishes to continental and fusion. Some of the menu items, like the lobster thermidor, were not available. PHOTO| BON VIVANT

What you need to know:

  • For dessert, the set menu included vanilla creme brulee with strawberry essence and sorbet. This particular dessert was a fail.

  • It was lumpy, and the congealed cream had separated from the water. This gave it an appearance of curds and whey in fermenting milk. It was a deep pink colour and was not palatable.

Panari Hotel on Mombasa road is well known for its ice-skating rink. I had never tried any of their restaurants so the Nairobi Restaurant Week presented a good opportunity to do so.

The Black Gold Cafe is inside the hotel building, on the ground floor to the left. The decor is simple, and it follows the standard format of city coffee houses.

We looked at both the NRW menu and the regular menu.

The regular menu has a wide selection, ranging from Indian dishes to continental and fusion. Some of the menu items, like the lobster thermidor, were not available.

The cafe was quite packed so our waiter took quite a while to come for our orders, but he worked hard to please.

Value for money

All around, we could see different patrons partake of various NRW items. We ordered the butternut and coriander puree as a starter. This soup was quite palatable. The main course was grilled highland beef tenderloin with potato gratin, baby carrots, red onion chutney and a port wine reduction. The presentation was good and the beef was decent.

The portion size was large so as an entrée, it was good value for money. Black Gold Cafe also generously provided a complimentary Magnum Creme liqueur for diners. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

For dessert, the set menu included vanilla creme brulee with strawberry essence and sorbet. This particular dessert was a fail.

It was lumpy, and the congealed cream had separated from the water. This gave it an appearance of curds and whey in fermenting milk. It was a deep pink colour and was not palatable. That said, we enjoyed our main courses and drinks, and we appreciated the waiter’s efforts to keep up with all our collective demands.

I would probably come back to Black Gold, simply because their regular menu had an amazing array of offerings.

Their freshly ground coffee, smoothies and desserts were reasonably priced. They also had several offerings that would be ideal for children. Our NRW meals cost us Sh2, 000 per person.

 

RATINGS:

Ambiance: 3.5/5

Food: 3/5

Value: 3.5/5

Child-Friendliness: 3/5

Service: 4/5