Karambezi Café: Dar es Salaam Restaurant Review

Picture this - a lovely evening, the sound of waves crashing on the beach, the smell of salt in the air. Already perfect enough, but then you add in a restaurant serving excellent seafood - meet Karambezi cafe. Located right on the ocean cliff, with a gorgeous view of the ocean and the night sky, they definitely get a 10 on ambience.

We got a wine for the table - a lovely Chardonnay that went well with our selected appetiser, as well as all the seafood we got.

For starters, we all opted for the pull apart garlic bread. As they describe it, "home baked loaf served straight out of the oven covered in cheese and herb & garlic butter". Doesn't that make your mouth water?! The flavour more than lived up to the description - it was so good that we had to order more! It was like a cheesy dream - among the top 10 garlic breads I've had. Not only was it perfectly garlicky, but perfectly cheesy too. Don't be surprised if you find me there eating this as a main meal with some wine. The only thing that we weren't too pleased about was the fact that the home baked loaf wasn't as fresh as we'd have liked. 

For the mains, I got the Karambezi fish and chips - battered fillet of fish with peri peri & coconut served with garlic sauce. My colleagues got the seafood platter - lobster, prawns, calamari, line fish, Baby White Snapper, crab claws and other delicacies served with 3 sauces; the classic fish and chips - battered fillet of fish served with homemade tartar sauce; and the king prawns - grilled King prawns served with spicy cajun.

I really liked my fish and chips - however, the portion was HUGE and I wasn't able to finish. A certain garlic bread may have been to blame. The batter was thick and flavourful, and when it became clear that I wasn't going to be able to finish, I took to eating just the batter with the garlic sauce, and the tarter sauce, which I'd ordered as an extra.

Verdicts from my colleagues - quoted verbatim.

Seafood platter: GOOD. NICE! 

Seafood platter: The prawns were rubbery, but the platter was impressive. I liked the Tilapia best. The crab was perfectly done - however, it would've been nice to get a hammer.

Classic fish and chips: Well, in the end - I got the fish and chips that I wanted. (Strangely poetic, and we've used this to express our satisfaction in multiple other contexts now!) 

King prawns: Portions were too big. Big prawns aren't usually nice prawns. It was meant to be cajun, but just had a little sprinkle of paprika. 

Seafood platter

Karambezi cafe fish and chips

Overall verdict? I loved the place! I'd love to visit in the daytime, as I bet the view is just GORGEOUS. Have you been? What did you think?

Salt: Dar es Salaam Restaurant Review

Recently, I've been spending a bit of time in Dar es Salaam. I like the city - it's a sleepier, quieter version of Nairobi. Of course, there's no way I could be in a new city without doing a restaurant review, so I seized the opportunity one evening when we'd ventured out for dinner. Interestingly, we hadn't quite planned to go to Salt - we were actually planning to go to a Thai restaurant nearby. However, when we got there at around 8:00 pm, they were already closing (despite it not yet being closing hours). A little weird - and a little early to close for dinner, we thought! One of my colleagues had been to Salt before, and since it was in the same complex, we walked over. Located in Oyster Bay, an area close to the beach and known for good restaurants, we were happy enough to make the switch.

The decor of the restaurant was really cool. Rustic, eclectic - British - and easily adaptable to a casual afternoon or a more dressy dinner. It sounds weird, given that Dar es Salaam is so hot, but I think that a fireplace would go really well with the theme! Not that they'd need to use it, of course.

After perusing the menu, we ordered a bottle of wine for the table. This was the strange part - we ordered the Spier Chenin Blanc, but were told they didn't have it, and were offered the Spier Sauvignon Blanc. A few moments later, we were offered the Chenin Blanc - seems as though the waiter was a little confused! 

We decided to get a few starters before the main meal, which turned out to be a great decision - their starters were amazing, and easily eclipsed the entrees! I ordered the beer battered calamari, while my colleagues got the baked baby brie with garlic bread, the Greek salad, and the prawn cocktail. 

Beer battered calamari

The calamari was amazing - definitely an A+ from me! It was fresh, and flavourful, and the batter was light and crispy. The accompanying sauce was sweet and spicy, and perfectly complemented the dish. The baked brie was "heaven", according to the colleague who ordered it. The Greek salad was proclaimed to be among the top 3 salads they'd tried. However, the prawn cocktail proved to be overwhelmingly rich, and wasn't as enjoyable. 

For the mains, I ordered chicken skewers which came with chips and three sauces, and my colleagues got the pork chops and the Zanzibari curry. 

Zanzibari curry

Pork chops

Chicken skewers

We all agreed that the main dishes were good, but couldn't live up to the starters. My chicken skewers were slightly dry and underflavoured - however, the peanut and mint sauces were amazing. I'm not really a salad person, but I really liked the one they made - the dressing was great! Apart from the tomatoes and black olives, I ate it all. The chips were amazing - perfectly cut, not overly oily, and I could've easily kept eating them. 

The apples gave the pork chops a nice flavour, and my colleague who ordered the curry was impressed with the presentation -  they served it IN a coconut. This also ensured that the flavour infused well into the prawns. While it was a Zanzibari curry, interestingly enough, it almost tasted Creole! 

For dessert, although we were all stuffed by this point, my colleagues decided to order the pecan pie, and we snuck some bites of this. 

Oh. My. Goodness. I wasn't quite expecting such amazing pecan pie, but this was a surprise I was very happy about! It was absolutely delicious, and I can easily say it might be the best pecan pie I've ever had. I'll definitely be returning for it!

Overall verdict? Nice restaurant - a little room for improvement as far as entrees and service goes, but excellent ambience, location, appetisers and dessert!

Have you been to Salt? What did you think? I'd love to hear your opinions!