Chimek House

March 25, 2025

This place was formerly the Tortuga Rum Bar (not sure what happened to them) and now it’s a Korean restaurant and bar. Located on riverside lane, Chimek House looks pretty chill and nice for a Saturday afternoon. They didn’t change up the decor as much and no one uses the pool still (including us).

The menu is mostly fast food, including their famous Korean fried chicken. I tried to get an iced coffee but my order was constantly forgotten until I gave up on it and that’s when they remembered and brought it - it wasn’t good coffee.

We tried some Korean fried chicken, a combo that comes with chips and a drink for KSH870. I also tried the fried cupbab (KSH1390) and the Tteobokki (KSH1090). The cupbab is like a rice bowl with fried chicken and veggies, mixed in with a hot sauce. It tastes really nice, I expected it to be more spicy but it didn’t take away from the taste, it was quite a flavourful dish.

The Korean fried chicken was just okay for me. I’ve had much better in other Korean places, so this one was just okay. The sauces I chose for accompaniments were good - the yangyum (sweet & spicy) and the kanjang (garlic & salty) - the yangyum one was too sweet for me, and I preferred the kanjang better.

The Tteobokki was also just okay for me - it’s a rice cake dish that is an acquired taste and for me the taste wasn’t coming through.

The service here was very wanting. The place was empty but it felt like we were begging to be served, the waiters were slow and I don’t think they were familiar with the menu as such because they sounded confused about anything we inquired on. There’s also a language barrier as the manager/owner seems to communicate in Korean and English but wasn’t understanding our requests from the waiter… this is mostly a training issue so they need to work on that.

Is this a place I would come back to? Not likely - nothing was impressive including the food. There’s other Korean places in Nairobi that do a better job such as Ain Korean.