Ventana Review: Nairobi Restaurant Week 2017

The first Friday of Nairobi Restaurant Week 2017 found my mum, my sister and I at Ventana on Lower Kabete Road, celebrating a "Dhawan women's night out". I'd been there before early last year, and I'd enjoyed my experience, so I was eager to try it again. The NRW 2017 three course menu for dinner and a cocktail was 1,950 Ksh. per person, which was a pretty good deal.

For my cocktail, I chose to have a Chivas Collins - Chivas, lemonade and soda water with apple slices. To be honest, I wasn't the hugest fan of this one. The Chivas taste came through almost harshly, but it did have a pleasant aftertaste. Apple gummy bears, if I'm being honest! The presentation could've been better too - the regular supermarket straw slightly dampened my enthusiasm for the drink.

For my first course, I chose the chicken tortilla soup. Given the name, I was expecting some sort of creamy, Tex-Mex goodness. I was definitely surprised when I got something reminiscent of an Indian curry! There was fenugreek, tomatoes, green onions, corn, avocado and tortilla chips. I quite liked it, although I would have made a slight change - add the tortilla chips later on so that they remained crunchy.

Yes, all three of us started with the soup. Runs in the family, some might say!

For the main meal, my sister and I settled on the sesame chicken, while our mum went for the tikka chicken. The presentation of both of these was quite lovely. The only weird thing was that the restaurant forgot to give a spoon for the tikka until prompted.

The sesame chicken had a lovely flavour, although I detected more honey, soy and pepper than sesame. The spice level was perfect too! Unfortunately, I think the chicken was a wee bit overcooked, as it was a little bit tough - as was the rice.

The tikka chicken was a pleasant surprise. It had a creamy tomato base, and was not overpoweringly spicy. Different than tikka chicken in most Nairobi restaurants, but different in a nice way.

Tikka chicken with naan and rice

Sesame chicken with rice

For the dessert, we decided to get one of each and share - a sticky toffee pudding, the molten chocolate cake and a sorbet.

This was EASILY my favourite course of the meal!! The sticky toffee pudding was amazing, and I need to return for it. While the molten chocolate cake wasn't exactly... well, molten... it was still good, and not sickeningly sweet. Perhaps a different name would have served the dish better? The sorbet was delightfully refreshing on the warm January night, and unless I'm very much mistaken, was a mix of strawberry and tree tomato.

Overall experience? The service was fast and friendly, and the ambience was nice too. The food could've been better overall, though. I'm willing to give it another shot for the food - as I said earlier, I've been to Ventana once before, and loved what I ordered then.

Have any of you been to Ventana yet? If so, what was your experience?

The Mayura: Restaurant Review

Happy new year, everyone! It's been a while, so I thought to break tradition and post on a Tuesday this time - I'm sure you're in need of new restaurant recommendations, right? Located in Kenrail towers, the Mayura is an Indian restaurant that you may not have been to yet. I'd heard about it, but never been, so when I was invited to do a review, I naturally jumped at the chance. Located in Kenrail Towers, the ambience of the Mayura has peacock-themed, warm interiors. There's a lot of space to sit down, both inside and outside. The restaurant is the brainchild of Rajiv Segal, who has a corporate background and being from Delhi, had a high standard of quality and had developed a distinctive palate, which he wanted to bring to the people in Nairobi. The menu was chosen for us by Rajiv (and boy, did we eat a lot!). For starters, we had some paneer tikka, mutton chops, fish amritsari and banu kebab (chicken). The paneer tikka was absolutely amazing! The paneer was fresh...

How to Organize Your Closet

Today�s guest blogger is fellow Her Campus Blogger Network member, Ak Brown! This is the first post in a series of posts she�ll be doing on The Kenyan Nomad. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have! Ak�s bio: Fashionable with a hint of unconventional rawness, that's what I used to describe myself and my blog Mind of a Fashionista. Started in 2013, I have transformed this blog along with my best friend into a diverse source of fashion, style, and beauty news, trends, tips, and tricks while also conveying opinions that normally don't go with the "norm" opinion. It's morning, 6:58 to be exact. It's time for you to get up, get ready, and get going. After showering, brushing and flossing your teeth you head over to your closet and say to yourself "What in the f***". Shirts are hanging off of their hangers, pants look like they got up for a late night drink and passed out on the floor, and long story short, your closet looks like an abomination. But y...

What Does Ramadhan Mean to Me?

Another guest post by my good friend, Aniqah Khalid, of Maisha , about what Ramadhan means to her. This month of fasting for Muslims around the world has just started, and I know that many of us non-Muslims have questions about what this month actually means to them. Enjoy! This is an extremely complex question to answer in a long point form manner. How I can answer this, however, is in a more metaphorical way. Ramadhan is coming home after a long hard day. Coming home, kicking off your shoes, finding solace in familiarity and comfort in its security. Ramadhan is that strong pain killer for when your body aches that you cannot sleep at night, you cannot eat and you simply cannot think. Ramadhan is that small open window in a hot and stuffy room. Ramadhan is that drop of water that can save the thirsty beggar. Ramadhan is what many pay hundreds and thousands of dollars on therapy for. Ramadhan is the light feeling after being forgiven and after forgiving. Ramadhan is fuelling the car af...

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