EATING OUT: Peace be upon your meal

Fresh salads served at Amani ya Juu restaurant in Kileleshwa, Nairobi. PHOTO | MADAME CONNOISSEUSE

What you need to know:

  • The restaurant only had outdoor seating and with only about seven tables spread around the garden.
  • This is one of the first restaurants I’ve been to Nairobi where I felt like the cost matched the amount and quality of food that was served. You could taste the freshness in each ingredient.
  • Each salad also came with an artisanal sourdough bread which was divine and made me wish I could get an actual loaf with some olive oil!

I’ll be honest; while stuck at the roundabout just around Prime Bank, I’ve always seen the sign ‘Amani Ya Juu’ and thought it was a church.

There’s something about the words ‘Amani’ and ‘Juu’ that just seems like it’s the kind of place where weary souls come to seek hope, prayers and uplifting.

When a friend therefore asked to meet up there, I wore a skirt so long there were chances I would trip on it at some point in the day, mostly because I wasn’t sure if we were going to be praying or discussing business.

The restaurant only had outdoor seating and with only about seven tables spread around the garden, was quite intimate – it felt like dining with friends and family at a first-born daughter’s graduation party.

There was a designated kids’ play area with a swing set that was out of bounds for repair but still, jovial toddlers ran about barefoot or with clothes stained with mud as parents watched on.

We were given our menus promptly and I was rather pleased with all the healthy foods listed. I was drawn to the salads, because it seemed like just the kind of place that would have tomatoes and sukuma wiki growing in a patch of land somewhere out back. They had options for full and half portions, and my friend suggested I get a half salad because their portions were apparently huge.

I ordered the Amani house salad which, according to the menu, was to come with mixed greens, chicken, bacon, egg, black olives and feta cheese (or blue cheese, if preferred) – the everything salad. I however specified that I didn’t want bacon, and my mango juice was also to be sugar free, because I’m slowly becoming one of those people.

My friend, who’s vegetarian, got the Acacia salad with mixed greens, tomatoes, olives, onions, green pepper and croutons with a light garlic and Dijon mustard dressing.

This is one of the first restaurants I’ve been to Nairobi where I felt like the cost matched the amount and quality of food that was served. You could taste the freshness in each ingredient and while the poppy seed dressing was just a little too sweet for me, it still worked.

There must have been some communication breakdown between the waitress and the chef because my salad had the bacon I had specifically asked to be left out (I just pushed them to the side of the plate), and my juice, which she insisted was sugar free, actually had sugar.

Each salad also came with an artisanal sourdough bread which was divine and made me wish I could get an actual loaf with some olive oil!

This project was started in 1996 with four refugee women and turns out they also do some really good work in the community (there had to be something positive behind a name like that!). Pop into their cosy store with fair trade, beautifully made garments, bags, quilts and more.