Pickled Cafe & Bar

August 26, 2026

Pickled is a cafe & bar located off Olenguruone Avenue in Lavington - where Nabo Bistro used to be.

They took over the Nabo space last year and really revamped it, giving it a very boho-chic vintage style that is befitting of an up-market cafe. It’s surrounded by a lot of greenery, I really love that there’s a variety of plants everywhere inside and outside. There’s a yummy eucalyptus bush at the entrance that made me very happy.

I came here for brunch with a friend on a cold Sunday morning and was very ready for a hot cuppa and some yummy food. The menu is quite straightforward i.e. they have breakfast/lunch/dinner. They focus on artisanal sandwiches and have a good drinks menu too so a little bit of everything that you’d expect at a cafe.

My critique on the menu design though is it comes off as very flimsy since it’s just text printed on plain A4 paper, and maybe they do that to allow for menu changes when need be but is that sustainable given the menu could be affected by food/drink spills etc? Feels like a lot of wasted paper to me but maybe they have the resources to sustain that.

All that aside - we ordered a few items i.e.: lattes, feta samosas (KSH500), the burrata & pesto sandwich (KSH1300), the breakfast bagel (KSH950) and a slice of apple pie (KSH650).

Unfortunately their coffee machine wasn’t working that day so we couldn’t get any hot drinks. I had to have normal black coffee which is no fault to them because sometimes ish happens but just didn’t hit the same. The feta samosas were a hit, so tasty and that jalapeño dip was a perfect accompaniment.

The burrata & pesto sandwich was so good too! Love that they use their own sourdough bread and it’s layered with pesto, rocket leaves, tomatoes, olive oil & fresh dollops of burrata. I just found the portion quite small for that price and with an accompaniment of just crisps (there was no pickle as stated on the menu). I feel like fries as an accompaniment over crisps would make this a more filling meal both for my stomach & my wallet.

The breakfast bagel was where they really lost the plot. It’s a typical bacon egg and cheese which (for those who know a good BEC bagel), is meant to be quite full of bacon, egg and cheese. This bagel was quite small, not as good for a bagel baked here (coffee & bagel still win the bagel Olympics) and there was not enough bacon, not enough cheese and the egg was quite bland, it needed some salt & pepper.

As for dessert… the apple pie was abysmal. A sad excuse of an apple pie, do you see that crust? It did not come warm and the scoop of ice-cream is charged at an additional KSH150. I’m very picky about pies because people don’t make them well and I feel like if you’re not gonna make a good pie - just don’t have it on the menu, si must. Or maybe just outsource from proper bakers such as O’s Oven who make fantastic pies and partner to sell their pies at your establishment, that way everybody gets a piece of the proverbial pie.

The service here was very slow and they kept the same staff from Nabo bistro (which also had a similar problem), not sure why they’ve not worked on training them better.

Overall experience here clearly wasn’t great so I don’t know if it’s worth a repeat visit for me.