The last time I had seen Robyn was with her family at the Trout Farm restaurant in Timau, Meru County. She was little more than knee high in those days.
I met her again on Sunday, also at a restaurant. This time, it was at her own place – the Noir Gallery in Muthangari Drive, Nairobi.
It had been open for a couple of weeks and, apart from its roadside and unmissable signboard, its only advertising has been on Instagram and by word of mouth. We were not sure what to expect.
We drove into what seemed at first a typical Lavington house and garden. But then came the surprises.
The house is not typical at all. The rooms are spaciously open, and there is a small inside garden.
As its name suggests, it is an art gallery as well as a restaurant. And there will be music too.
The large and elegantly furnished inner dining room looks out to a lush garden, with a variety of palms and other mature trees.
We chose to sit in a gazebo, with a good view across the lawn and to the canvass-shaded bar set in a corner near the house.
Lucas, one of the waiters, took our drinks order, giving us time to scan the menu. It is a menu that deserves a good study. It is certainly an eclectic one. “Fusion” is the word. Let me give you a few examples.
First, of course, the breakfast. There is the Street Fused Breakfast of two eggs served with toast, sweet potato wedges, bacon strips, beef kofta and grilled tomato. The Traditional Swahili breakfast has mahamri, mbaazi, tambi, ndizi tamu, viazi karai, vitumbua, katlesi and an ukwaju dip .
There are small plates with such offerings as Chicken Satay, Empanadas (a traditional Spanish pie), Prawn Tempura with pineapple tartare . Among the soups are Asian Noodle with a choice of chicken, seafood or vegetarian – and, one of my favourites, Tom Yum, a hot and sour Thai soup cooked with shrimps.
There is a Thai dish among the mains – the Red Curry, served with steamed basmati rice and a choice of chicken or beef. But I went for what Lucas recommended – a delicious Swahili dish of fish cooked in coconut sauce.
And to show how varied the menu is, there are Asian stir fries, classic lasagne, pasta dishes, chicken tikka and Mexican quesadilla wraps, and a grilled roast turkey sandwich, “layered on a spread of fresh guacamole, honey mustard and cheese”.
When Lucas told us the desserts and said “chocolate molten cake”, my wife laughed and said “That’s John’s”. True.
It came on a plate with the cake in a small bowl – crispy on top and hot melted chocolate underneath – and the cold vanilla ice-cream on the plate decorated with golden beads of sugar. Exquisite. Again, delicious. I will be back for more.
So, there is a lot that is attractive about the Noir Gallery – the stylish rooms of the house, with its artworks; the jungle feel of the garden; the extensive and imaginative menu. We had a brief chat with Robyn.
She pointed out that the house is so open and airy, and most of the tables are spaced out in the garden.
She is well aware of the challenge she would be facing even without the coronavirus – the competition is fierce and Nairobians are fashion conscious and fickle.
But she has chosen a good location and set a very high standard in the menu, the cooking and the presentation. Not only that, her place is more than a restaurant, and so she has given herself a chance of varying the offerings and ringing the changes.
