Kahvalti Cafè

January 25, 2024

I came across this place on Instagram’s explore page, I saw a few people talking about it and the food looked nice so I decided to try it one day.

It’s located on Lenana road, in the lobby of 197 Lenana Place office building. It’s quaint and not super spacious but it fits the cafe aesthetic really well. Cosy seating all around and great lighting especially in the corner seating areas.

They have a bright pink flower arch at the entrance which I really didn’t think was necessary given their decor is mostly earth tones but I assume the flower arch was meant to complement the fuschia umbrellas that cover the tables at the centre of the restaurant. It’s giving very forced IG vibes.

I came here for brunch with my usual brunch crew and given it was a cold day, I was excited for a hot meal and some good coffee. The menus presented to us should have been the sign for us to exit because why was it just a simple menu printed on A4 paper that looked like it had been stashed in the corner of the kitchen for weeks? This place opened recently so the state of the menu was a bit confusing. It didn’t depict a brand new cafe with a brand new flower wall… but we said you know what, let’s give them a chance since some influencers said it’s good.

I got a coffee (KSH350/) and beef sliders (KSH1550/) as everything on the breakfast menu had eggs (which I don’t eat). My friends decided to try the eggs florentina (KSH1000/) with a Spanish latte (KSH400/) and the chicken Alfredo (KSH1250/) and a Targonne-tangerine lemonade (KSH500/).

I have to add that when we asked about any dish here, the waiter seemed very clueless about all of them. He either had to go back to the kitchen to find out or check the cafe’s Instagram page right in front of us to let us know what’s what about the dishes we asked about. We can chalk it up to he’s probably new and doesn’t know much about the menu but that’s where training comes in and clearly here - there was none.

The eggs florentine looked really nice even for me who doesn’t like eggs, but the reddish sauce was a bit wanting. We were told it’s a beetroot sauce that I think is mixed in with the original Hollandaise sauce that’s usually on eggs Florentine. The bread (not the expected English muffin) was old. The chef assured us it was made fresh that morning but one thing about my girl Abi… she knows her bread and that bread was old. Even the way it broke apart you could tell it had been stored in the fridge for sometime.

The beetroot-hollandaise sauce mix wasn’t a good mix, it looks interesting on the dish but doesn’t taste as good. Overall the whole meal wasn’t great, she didn’t finish it😬 Now the sliders were a good size, bigger than your basic sliders. Presentation looked great, the fries were really tasty. The burger buns were cold though… which is a big ick to me because when you’re making burgers/sliders etc, aren’t the buns usually toasted? These ones were just defrosted, sliced open and condiments spread on them and everything assembled to give it a full look.

Toast your burger buns please, it really adds to the overall taste. The burger patty was very thin - so everything else in the slider was overpowering it but because I was starving, I just ate them as I wasn’t willing to try anything else.

The Chicken Alfredo was the only meal we actually enjoyed here. It wasn’t cold! It was creamy, flavourful, and had a good amount of chicken in it… a tad bit salty but compared to everything else we had, this was such a minor thing and the whole dish was yummy. The bread that accompanied it as a side was also old bread. They kept denying saying they had it freshly made but that bread wasn’t fresh. They should have just accepted and just taken it back but it’s okay. I’ll highlight the Targonne drink too because that was really good. It’s a tangerine based lemonade which was super refreshing.

When it came to settling the bill, yet another hiccup - their card machine wasn’t working and for a new restaurant, that’s not good. Yes, I know the majority of the city runs on Mpesa but as an establishment you can’t have that as your ONLY means of payment because you can’t assume that everyone uses Mpesa. This visit was a month ago, I’m hoping by now they’ve sorted that and have a working card machine.

Overall for a place that I see being sang about on IG, this wasn’t the experience I was expecting and I don’t know if I’m willing to try again for trying’s sake.