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Fine dining in Nairobi’s rotating restaurant
Pan-seared king prawns in greek style saganaki (greek cheese) and feta sauce - one of the starters served at the View. Photo | Sylvia Muia
What you need to know:
The View restaurant, Movenpick, Westlands
As the sun sets on Nairobi, the city lights up in an array of colours that make for spectacular dining set up at Nairobi’s rotating restaurant - the View. It sits at the top of Movenpick’s 24-level building and slowly takes its guests on a ride around the cityscape spotting sights such as the lit-up Two Rivers Ferris wheel and catching a glimpse of the full moon.
A sweet non-alcoholic berry-infused cocktail made at the View. Photo | Sylvia Muia
The concierge at the entrance welcomes my colleague, Rukia and me, and asks for our reservation before escorting us to our table to begin our dining experience. We quickly note that the restaurant is almost full at quarter past seven on a Wednesday night. It makes sense to call and book a table online.
We are offered drinking water after we settle in and take in the ambience of the restaurant. The food menu is very Mediterranean with a variety of vegetarian, seafood, and meat options. The options come in starters, soups and salads, then main dishes that can be lined up for a three-course meal.
They serve an interesting assortment of flavoured bread - white, brown, carrot, beetroot and spinach accompanied by a very tasty sauce made with sun-dried tomatoes and herbs.
Spaghetti with prawns, zucchini, orange & cherry tomatoes - a main course dish served at the View. Photo | Sylvia Muia
For starters, I went with pan-seared king prawns in Greek style saganaki (Greek cheese) and feta sauce priced at Sh2400. Rukia opted for grilled calamari and octopus priced at Sh1400. The prawns were a favourite as they were fresh, very well-cooked, and flavourful. As for the calamari, they were chewy as they should be. It is an acquired taste as most usually prefer them fried and crispy. The octopus, however, did surprise us with a delicious and crunchy taste.
The main dishes took almost 30 minutes which was enough to have created an appetite for them as the starters had good portions. By this time, we had made a full rotation around the stationary bar that acts like an axis.
Dry-aged prime beef ribeye steak, grilled vegetables, creamy mashed potatoes, pepper and mushroom sauce - a main course dish served at the View. Photo | Sylvia Muia
I had the dry-aged prime beef ribeye steak, grilled vegetables, creamy mashed potatoes, pepper and mushroom sauce priced at Sh3600. It was a medium-cooked steak as requested and was juicy and soft to eat. It was well-seasoned and the portion was worth the price for a main dish.
My plus one went for the pasta section and had spaghetti with prawns, zucchini, orange & cherry tomatoes priced at Sh2400. The meal is cooked with vodka but as requested they did not use it for her dish.
The portions were very filling that we had some packed as take away. Despite this, we always have room for dessert and ordered the vanilla pavlova priced at Sh1100, which was a bit too sweet for our liking. The tiramisu with whipped cream and topped with strawberries was a win although a bit too pricey at Sh1400. We hoped for a pastry like chocolate cake but all that was available was a lemon tart.
The only downside is that there is only one toilet in the ladies which happened to play loud music.
The View is generally an ideal spot for fine dining especially for those special dates and occasions.
