Izzi Brunch & Cake

February 28, 2024

This is a place so many of you have asked me to visit for time! I decided to take my time going here to give them time to settle in because I’ve had many disappointments when visiting restaurants when they’re brand new.

I came here for brunch with my bestie and one thing about this place - AESTHETICS👌🏾 It’s giving the visuals Beyonce denied us, whewwww! It’s such a stunning place, I love the minimalistic theme, earthy colours and how open and airy it feels without actually being open and airy.

But as we know… we can’t eat ambience. So let’s get into the menu. It’s quite long even as a digital version - pages and pages of food and drinks. The breakfast options were plenty but all I wanted was pancakes🙈My friend had the avo egg toast (KSH1050) and I got the classic soufflé pancakes (KSH1090) with sausages on the side (they didn’t have beef bacon that day). We both got coffees, a latte for me and a caramel macchiato for her.

My latte came in the most beautiful yet not the most practical of cups. It’s a ceramic cup that is stunningly crafted, but has no handle… and it’s filled with steaming hot coffee. So I couldn’t hold it to drink the coffee as the cup was way too hot but if I wait for the coffee to cool then that defeats the purpose of having hot coffee. I’m then forced to have lukewarm coffee which is meh. I think those cups should be used for cold beverages and not hot ones, and they should serve their lattes in cups with handles or get cups with an insulation layer if they want to keep the aesthetics of it all. Like the double walled glass mugs most cafes have nowadays, those are both beautiful and practical😌

The avo egg toast is a healthy looking meal topped off with spices, herbs, melted cheese and a sprinkle of pomegranates around the plate. If I didn’t hate avocados and eggs so much I’d have tasted a bit but all I ate were the pomegranates, I love pomegranates but I hate that they’re so expensive here. My friend loved her meal very much, her eggs were done right and everything was very tasty according to her.

My pancakes showed up looking exquisite😍 Two fat Japanese style pancakes layered with vanilla frosting and powdered sugar on top. Lotus biscuit crumbs surrounded the dish because Nairobi is not over this lotus chokehold yet and I love that there was a nice handful of berries present as well. Presentation wise - they hit the nail on the head. Taste wise though… we had a slight problem🥴

The pancakes were not soft at all as stated in the description. That wasn’t a pancake, that was cake. You can easily tell the difference between the texture of a pancake and cake and that was already evident. And when it comes to soufflé pancakes, Izze got it all wrong. These types of pancakes are meant to be light and airy, not dense and as rich as these ones were. One bite and I had to call the waiter back… I told him they may have overdone the batter and thus the result of the pancake. He in turn called the manager who told us that that’s just how they make them there, that’s their unique style… ummm, okay I guess.

I’m not going to rain on their parade if truly that’s their signature style but they can’t really expect people to eat cake in the form of pancakes surely?… Anyway maybe it’s just me who got the bad batch that day but I’m not willing to try them again.

I haven’t had anything else at Izze since this brunch but I’d like to go try their lunch & dinner dishes. That pasta in the cheese wheel thing everyone’s always posting looks fun, I hope it tastes good though. My friend also got a mojito (KSH500) as a takeaway and she enjoyed it a lot. I like their takeaway cups, cute and practical - zero spills!

Meh pancakes aside - the service here was good, the waiters were attentive and would check in often (someone please tell Geco👀) and the place has a nice chill ambience to it, I can see why it’s so popular. Whether their food is worth the fancy ambience though is yet to be decided, because so far… I’m not impressed. If you’re going to have the word brunch in your restaurant name you need to make sure your brunch options are exceptional is all I’m saying.