Eating in Nanyuki
Nanyuki offers a rich variety of
restaurants and fastfood shops, from the more luxurius, often western
food to small, local kiosks with cheap traditional food.
Kungu Maito/Meat House
Kungu Maito, called Meat House by
locals, is a somewhat large, but very local restaurant serving
traditional Kenyan cuisine. The restaurant is placed outdoors, in a
sort of yard behind a stone wall.
When you enter Meat Marked, one of the
first things you notice is the large, open kitchen, fenced by black
metal bars, where you can watch the many employees going about their
daily work, preparing samosas, ugali and many other kinds of
traditional food. The kitchen is noisy and filled with smoke from the
many stoves and outside the kitchen, beside the tables, a group of
hens cackle around in a small cage. Occasionally a rooster crows
loudly across the yard.
If someone orders nyama choma(grilled
meat, a favourite dish among many Kenyans), you might see an employee
walking by with a freshly slaugthered goat held by the hooves in his
hand.
The price range is low, with samosas
costing around 50 shilling, chapati costing 30 and the price for a
full meal with meat an ugali might be around 200-300 shilling.
Meat House, by the kitchen and the counter
The dining area at Meat House
Dish with ugali, chicken and sauce at Meat House
Checkers grill
This restaurant is
also very local and additionally, turns into a bar at night. It's a
halfway indoor, halfway outdoor restaurant located in a small, yellow
house along one of the many small streets of Nanyuki. At the counter,
a selection of fastfood like chapatis, samosas and other deepfried
snacks lies in a display. Other traditional dishes like ugali,
skumawiki and nyama choma is also available.
Prices are similar
to Meat House, with a samosa costing 50 shilling.
Checker's seen from the outside
Springfield
Another good place
to get a cheap, traditional meal. Four pointy, red roofs makes an
easily recognisable house front, and inside the place is large with
brown walls, grey tile floor and brown tables and chairs. Behind the
counter, you catch a view of the smoky kitchen with large pots
cooking on the stove, probably filled with ugali(traditional kenyan
porridge made from maise flour), and many white-clad workers moving
around in the smoke.
In you corner of
the restaurant, you also find a butchers shop with fresh meat.
Aside from the
typical traditional food, you can also get what is definitely
Nanyuki's largest beef samosa for only 50 shilling. The price range
is mostly the same as at Meat house and Checkers.
Springfield seen from the outside
Inside Springfield
Giant samosas at Springfield! Hand included for size comparison
Chapati at Springfield
Curry Pot
If you need a
break from the traditional Kenyan food, Curry Pot offers a wide
selection of very tasty Indian dishes. The restaurant is owned by a
Kenyan Indian family and is a very small, but cosy place, located a
few streets behind the large Nakumatt at the main street.
The place lies
opposite a local bar named Home Pub and is not very noticeable from
the outside. Inside, there is a few eating tables, a large tv on the
wall often displaying news or dramatic Bollywood movies, and a small
counter, where it is also possible to buy quick take-away snacks such
as samosas, chips and spicy pieces of beef kebab.
The dishes are
somewhat more expensive than at the traditional places. A warm dish
with rice and naan bread usually costs between 700 and 1200 shilling.
If you don't feel like eating out, Curry Pot also provides free
delivery around town.
Curry Pot seen from the outside
Smokey stands
A smokey is the
Kenyan version of a hotdog. As you stroll around town, you'll
probably see this small wagons standing at street corners, outside
Nakumatt or a the large food market by Mitumba.
The smokey is a
smoked beef sausage that is cut open and filled with katchumbari, a
spicy kenyan salad consisting of tomato, onion and chili for 30
shilling.
Aside from the
smokeys, you can also buy a hard-boiled egg that is likewise filled
with katchumbari for around 20-30 shilling.
While the street
food at the smokey wagons might not always look so appetizing with
the greasy sausages and eggs, that has been boiled until the yolk has
a greyish hue, this is actually both a cheap and tasty snack to eat,
and it's available almost everywhere around Kenya.
A typical smokey wagon
Boiled egg filled with katchumbari
Carolina's at Court Yard
There
are many places to eat western food in Nanyuki, but since our guide
mainly focuses on small, local places, we have decided not to include
so many.
However,
if you find yourself in need of western food, Carolina's at Court
Yard, a restaurant owned by a local Kenyan woman, but definitely not
very traditional, is a nice place to go. It's a small place inside
Court Yard in Nanyuki, with the restaurant consisting of a group of
dining tables placed under the shade. The menu contains many different
dishes that are mostly western og western-inspired. The price range,
as expected for a more western place, is somewhat higher than the
previous mentioned restaurants, but still affordable.
Court Yard with Carolina's at the left
