Zero20

January 18, 2024

Located a few feet away from the Ankole restaurant in Kitisuru,, Zero20 is a fairly new restaurant, and it’s quite a big establishment. They have a fine dining section on the inside and a more casual dining section in the back area.

I was here for a birthday dinner so they had already done a nice little setup for our group in the back area.

The inside section is very formal so come dressed accordingly (though they’re not strict on dress codes). What bothered me about the inside section though was the kitchen and the bathroom are right next to said dining area so when you first enter, you’re a bit confused as to where you should go - the signage helps but it’s just weird that the first thing you see upon entry is the kitchen.

They have a wide menu, covering everything from breakfast, to seafood and burgers. The place is quite pricey so plan accordingly for this as well. Since it was a birthday, this was a perfect opportunity to try many things at once!

My order were the Pork Belly Bao buns (KSH1350/) but I got a taste of a variety of dishes as well like the fish & chips (KSH1900/), the steak (KSh3600/) the risotto (KSh1400/) the beef brisket bao buns (KSH1200/) the Mama’s lasagne (KSH1800/), the chicken ceaser salad (KSH1700/), BBQ chicken wings (KSH1000/) and the beef burger (KSH1700/).

The bao buns were a disappointment for me, especially because I really love bao buns. The bun itself was way too thick, too chewy, and ended up just eating the pork belly on its own because the bun was too much work. The pork belly though was super yummy, it was doused in some sweet sauce that added a nice finish to the pork taste.

The fish and chips were also really good. Though that should be called fish fingers and chips as it was fish fingers that were served - not a slab of fish. Not sure about the pricing of that given it was fish fingers… for 1900/? That’s a bit much in my opinion but still quite tasty and the tartar sauce was perfect.

The steak was okay - I’m not much of a steak girl so I can’t tell you if it was amazing or not but it wasn’t dry, it wasn’t tough, and it was well seasoned. The risotto lacked salt completely, could barely taste any mushroom. The Caesar salad was your typical chicken Caesar salad, just plated really well and they must have added something to the dressing, it had a bit more tartness to it than the usual Caesar salad dressing which I liked.

The bbq chicken wings were quite spicy, barely any bbq sauce - but not horrible. The lasagne - that was more of a meatloaf than a lasagne, there was more mince meat than pasta, and where was the layer of cheese on top?? It was a very confusing dish. Would not recommend. The beef burger was also very well plated but didn’t taste super amazing, the patty alone was quite dry - if it wasn’t accompanied with the bacon, lettuce, sauces, cheese etc… it would be a very boring burger which is sad because the patty is what makes the burger, not the additions to it. I will give their fries a 10/10 though, for every dish that came with fries, the fries were well done & perfectly seasoned:)

For dessert we had a super fantastic cake from Pastry Palace - lemon & blueberry🤤 Pastry Palace always delivers on their flavours and their execution - that cake was so good!

Service wise - we were a table of about 20 people and they only had one waitress serving us making service very very slow. Also given that we were the only ones occupying the outside area, I’m not sure why they didn’t assign more than one waiter to that section. It’s something they need to work on for sure.

Zero20 is great for what it’s meant to give off, this fine dining aesthetic with a casual flare to it but for food that highly priced to not be good… I don’t know if it’s worth the fine dining tag. But don’t take my word for gospel, go try it out for yourselves and let me know your thoughts👌🏾