Great portions at night club restaurant

That Gipsy Bar in Westlands was opened when I was two years old is flabbergasting. Imagine how much you have changed in the past two decades – the people and events that have come and gone. This bar has been standing all those years.

Today, when I think of Gipsy, it is not its food that first spring to mind. I have tried popping in two or three times on the odd night out and the place is always tightly packed with heels and short dresses jostling for space with loud music and even sweatier bodies on a crammed dance floor.

Drunken expats, middle class Kenyans and working girls living the good life!

This past Saturday, I sceptically met up with a friend at the restaurant for lunch and couldn’t help noticing how different the place looked in the daylight – almost like I was actually seeing it for the first time. We got a table in front of the pizzeria.

There was no activity upstairs but downstairs, there were about two people in the sports bar, two packed tables in the original bar and most of the tables in front of the pizzeria were filled making for a relatively busy day. With fresh passion juice served promptly, we got out menus and placed our orders.

PLEASANT SURPRISE

For the starters, we had bruschetta which came served on a wooden board. The bread was layered with feta cheese, black pepper, tomatoes and cured green olives which added a nice salty flavour, complete with a dash of olive oil. I could have eaten a dozen of those babies.

The pizza menu was a pleasant surprise, with classic Italian favourites like funghi (mushroom), prosciutto (ham), napoli and margherita, priced at an average of Sh1,000. I have an affinity for vegetarian pizza and the ortolano we ordered had courgette, eggplants, tomatoes and mushrooms which always add a rich, earthy flavour to pizza.

Hot off the oven, the mozarella had that gooey stretchy texture which has got to be part of the joy of eating pizza. The portion was also perfect for sharing.

Gipsy’s main menu has an array of options, from vegetarian to steaks and burgers, but the seafood section caught my eye.

I’ve been spoiled by the fresh seafood at the coast and sometimes shy away from such dishes in Nairobi, but the flame-grilled jumbo prawns in butter, pesto, garlic and green chillies priced at a whooping Sh2,750, and which I was told are a house favourite, were begging to be tried.

The prawns were well done but just as I had suspected, needed the lemon it came served with to add that juiciness that can only come from having been taken from the sea in the morning and thrown in a pan by lunch time.