Chef Ravinder Bhogal — whose London restaurant Jikoni marks ten years this year and who is opening a second venture, Karam's, in Bloomsbury's Brunswick Centre — recently shared the Nairobi spots she returns to every time she visits the city where she was born. Her picks trace the story of the city itself, shaped by the large Kenyan-Indian community her grandfather joined when he arrived from Bombay while Kenya was still a British colony.
First on her list is Nargis on School Lane, a grill-focused restaurant she associates with her late father. It's the kind of place where everything feels home-cooked, and on a warm day you can eat out on the lawn — just bring mosquito repellent. Then there's Hashmi Barbeque in Broadwalk Mall, a cheap, bustling Kenyan-Indian institution with branches across the city and a permanent queue. Expect grilled Kenyan chicken alongside tandoori, fish with spices and famously addictive chips made from Kenya's waxy potatoes, plus fresh passionfruit and tangerine juices. The room fills with families from every community, which is exactly the point.
For something meat-free, she sends visitors to Chowpaty, a vegetarian Indian restaurant in Diamond Plaza, the heart of Nairobi's 'Little India'. It's the spot for chaat, South Indian specialities like spring roll dosas, crisp fried cassava loaded with cheese and lime, and thin battered potato rounds served over chutney — all at prices that barely dent your wallet.
The wildcard is Trattoria, a traditional Italian restaurant in the old city centre that's been run by the same Calabrian owner for around half a century. He still travels to Rome twice a year, hauling back produce like 'nduja in his suitcase, and has a great origin story: having come to work at the InterContinental in the 1940s, he hated Kenya at first, went home, and only moved back after a doctor read his nightmares as homesickness for Nairobi. Bhogal takes it as proof that the city — its red volcanic soil, its smells — clings to you.
Rounding things off is Sno Queen on Monrovia Street, a kitsch American-style ice cream parlour that has barely changed in over 50 years. Her grandfather took her there every Sunday as a child, and she still orders the chocolate dip, though banana boats heaped with whipped cream and cherries tempt from other tables.
Why should a traveller care? Because these are the places locals have loved for decades, not the ones written for tourists. Together they sketch a Nairobi itinerary covering Kenyan grills, Indian vegetarian street food, an unexpected slice of Italy and a nostalgic dessert stop — nearly all of it affordable. Bhogal's broader point runs through the whole list: good hospitality feels like being restored, and every one of these rooms, from Hashmi's clattering cutlery to Sno Queen's spinning stools, has been doing that for generations.
Read the original on Condé Nast Traveller UK.
