Cultiva Farm Kenya

January 25, 2024

I visited Cultiva quite a while back, over a weekend and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the food. The service though… not quite. But let me speak on the food first. We were there for brunch but apparently brunch is only served till 11? Isn’t the whole point of brunch is that it’s a meal served from late morning to late afternoon? Most places doing brunch in Nairobi refuse to actually do proper brunch hours and I don’t get why.

Anyway, that being said, we resorted to lunch instead. I had the pork belly tacos while my girl had the Korean fried chicken tacos and a mangrove crab taco. The pork belly tacos were the best out of the three, when they said they cooked that belly for 96 hours they weren’t lying, it was so YUM! So much flavour and so much spice and the beetroot tortillas were a nice touch. Drinks wise, they make their own sodas which is pretty cool. I had the passion fruit soda, and loved it!

I also tried one of their many croissants, they have about five different types including a baklava croissant. I had the almond vanilla croissant… I’m still thinking about it to this day! That croissant was so amazing! I may drive all the way back there to get a whole box. (I still haven’t… but one day I will).

As for the service… We reserved a table for 11:30am and whoever I talked to on the phone didn’t tell me that breakfast stops at 11. Anyway, since we were already there, we sat down for lunch. About an hour later, the waitress came to us to say that since we had a breakfast reservation, the table we were on was booked for lunch for 1:30pm so she’d have to find us another table but that would be difficult to do because the entire restaurant was fully booked…

Meaning she expected us to only be there for only two hours? Do they time everyone? Why? What if I want to stay all afternoon? It is a Sunday after all… that did not sit well with us at all. Eventually they let us stay at said table after quite some back and forth which was completely unnecessary and just spoils the mood on a nice sunny afternoon.

If at all patrons are expected to be there for a limited amount of time due to space, they should make that known while someone is making a reservation. This is of course my experience from quite a while ago and I have been back again since and the service was still meh but not as hostile. A few friends have gone for breakfast/lunch and had a terrible service experience too.

But also another friend went this week for a birthday and they had great service so I assume they’ve improved? Also if you go there super hungry don’t order the lasagne… it’s giving a slice of broadways bread, don’t do it.

That aside, it’s such a cute open air restaurant and I love the fresh, airy, farmhouse vibes it gives. The decor is BEAUTIFUL. I’m currently in search of the glass coffee cups they have, anyone with a plug, please let me know.