A few weeks, my good friend and I got to visit and experience Bhandini Restaurant at Hotel Intercontinental Nairobi. Hotel Intercontinental is a quiet and peaceful haven right in the heart of the city, close to the Parliament buildings and next to Kenyatta International Convention Center.
There is no mistaking when you walk into Bhandini that it is an Indian restaurant. With the rich exotic aromas, the décor and characteristic ornaments and the staff uniform, everything works towards a full Indian experience through and through. Soon as we were settled down, we were presented with freshly made Indian sweets and fresh fruit juice to kick off our culinary journey across the ocean as we took in the beautiful ambiance and had a look at the menu.
The menu is quite extensive and imaginative and those unacquainted with this kind of cuisine may need help picking a meal. The staff are knowledgeable, kind and attentive though so that should not be a problem at all. For some reason I stuck to a safe and familiar cheese naan and mutton curry. When the waiter asked for preferred level of spicy, I picked mild curry. As much as I’m a lover of chili, I opted against asking for ‘hot’ in an Indian restaurant. I however promised myself that next time I will go mentally prepared for hot.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words and the rest of my Bhandini story is hereby told in pictures.
My starter was a generous serving of mildly spiced and fried calamari chunks.
My friend had spicy boneless chicken and salad for a starter.
Cheese naan.
Mildly spiced mutton curry.
My naan and curry combi.
Loved how my friend’s vegetable rice was presented! He had his rice with even more chicken. This time curried.
Bhandini sees to it that guests do not have to worry about food going cold on the table.
The dessert menu featured a wide assortment of Indian sweets and other exotic names but once again I played it safe and went for good old ice cream. I vowed to get much more daring next time I visit.
The Bhandini experience was certainly a fun and smooth one and and all together something I would not hesitate to experience again with friends and family as soon as possible.
