Onza

June 24, 2026

Onza is a very chic Mediterranean and French restaurant and bar located at Westgate mall. It’s been on my list for quite some time so glad I got to finally tick it off this past weekend.

The setup is stunning, the decor, the mood lighting coupled with the ambient music - perfect setting for a dinner and drinks plan with friends or a date. I came here for dinner with my cousin for her birthday. The wait staff were very welcoming and with or without reservations, you’re sure to get a table here as it doesn’t get too full.

The menu is quite elaborate offering a good mix of various Mediterranean cuisine with a French twist. For starters we had the Cazuella De Gambas (KSH1300) and the lamb kebab (KSH750).

The Cazuella is a shrimp dish, grilled shrimp doused in olive oil and garlic, served with freshly toasted bread. The bread was fantastic! Warm, crunchy crust and soft and buttery on the inside - so yummy. The olive oil mix is said to have red chilli & red harissa but I didn’t taste any of that. There was no chilli at all and the shrimp needed some salt… the bread is what saved this dish.

The lamb kebab was okay but it also needed salt. It tasted quite bland, the grilled tomatoes were a hit according to the birthday girl though, she really enjoyed them. For mains we had the beef stroganoff fettuccine (KSH2200) and the Josper Salmon fillet (KSH3900).

The beef stroganoff was really lacking in flavour and yet again - salt. Do the French have something against salt here? I don’t think they let the pasta cook well into the cream as the cream was more watery than creamy… overall, quite underwhelming and I saw the mushrooms but did not taste any mushroom sauce.

As for the salmon… the salmon was a good size and well cooked, but that’s about the only good thing I can say about this dish. The seasonal vegetables looked like their season was over and that creamy butter sauce was a no for me. I had some mash potatoes on the side but guess what - no salt yet again! I’ve never had a salmon dish I didn’t enjoy and this unfortunately will be my first.

Now that we barely ate the main course, we clearly had room for dessert. I got a chocolate volcano (KSH1200) for the birthday girl and I appreciate that the wait staff presented it to her singing happy birthday ☺️

A chocolate lava cake is meant to have a molten chocolate center that pours when you bite into it… there was no lava-like chocolate pouring out and the cake was too rich for me (as someone who regularly eats cake, that’s saying something).

A lot of places don’t do chocolate lava cakes well in Nairobi, not sure why. The only places I know where they got it right is 5 senses and Argenti - Riverside. They may need to talk to their pastry chefs and see what’s missing.

So out of 5 dishes… none were exciting or enjoyable and for a restaurant with this kind of pricing - Imma need them to do better please. AND they need to add salt as an ingredient.

The only thing I can recommend is the service. Our waiter, Eric Muli, was excellent and very attentive. He was jubilant and even when we shared our disappointment on the meals, he didn’t change his demeanor but kindly apologized and said he would share the feedback to the kitchen.

Onza looks nice but we don’t go to restaurants for the ambience unfortunately. I would not recommend it for the food… just my two cents.