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Carnivore could just be Nairobi’s most famous restaurant, and it’s a remarkable place to visit. Opened in 1980, it made its name serving game meats – here you could order wildebeest, zebra and even giraffe. In
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2003, ‘Restaurant Magazine’ ranked Carnivore as the 47th best restaurant in the world. A ban on game meat the following year meant a shift toward less-exotic meats, but it remains an iconic Nairobi experience. You’ll find it not far from the city center, in the southwest Nairobi suburb of Langata.-
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Arrival & the BBQ Pit
Entrance to the restaurant Arriving at Carnivore, it’s easy to wonder what’s going on. Armed guards check the vehicles, the car park is often filled with black SUVs, and uniformed waiters in colonial-era uniform (we swear we even saw aRead more
pith helmet on one of our visits) greet you almost as soon as you step from the car. That’s because Carnivore is where Nairobi’s politicians and wealthy businesspeople bring their out-of-town guests to impress them.From the car park, head down the dimly lit, catwalk-like entrance, which is lined with dated safari decor circa 1984, to the main restaurant. Here you’ll be asked whether you want to go for the buffet or à la carte menu. For the full Carnivore experience, choose the all-you-can-eat buffet, which is what elevates a visit here above anywhere else. On your way to your table – ask to be seated around the green inner courtyard – stop to contemplate the glowing embers and open flames of the great BBQ pit. Like a cross between a blacksmith’s forge and a gathering of witches’ cauldrons, the pit is where all manner of meats, mysterious and otherwise, envelop you with their cooking smells. -
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Order a Dawa
Dawa cocktail Take your seat, get your bearings and take a deep breath in preparation for what lies ahead. Watch the swirl of waiters and dishes emerge from the kitchen. At first, you’ll be asked to order drinks.Read more
If you’ve been in Kenya for a while, chances are that you’ll already be acquainted with the delightful properties of the cocktail known as a ‘dawa’. If, on the other hand, you’re newly arrived, you’re in for a treat.With considerable theater, a wandering cocktail waiter passes among the tables with everything he – it’s usually a man – needs to make the perfect dawa from a tray hanging from his neck. At your order, he will start doing magical things with the dawa’s essential ingredients: vodka (sometimes rum), honey, lime, sugar and ice. With such enticing ingredients, it should come as no surprise that the name ‘dawa’ means ‘medicine’ in … There is a nonalcoholic version, but it’s nowhere near as good as the original. Enjoy! -
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Begin With Starters
Table setup Assuming you’ve chosen the buffet option, the waiters will now bring your soup and explain how the experience all works.Next, they’ll bring you a two-tiered tray. Salads – the antidote to all the meat that willRead more
follow – occupy the lower tier. On the top tier are the sauces. As each meat arrives at your table, you’ll be shown which sauce to pair it with. And crowning the trays is a cute little paper flag, branded with the Carnivore emblem. As the waiters will tell you, once you’re full you remove the flag and lay it down in a sign of surrender. -
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Choose Your Meats
Waiter carving meat It’s time now for the main event, and it’s worth waiting for. In a steady procession to your table, waiters arrive bearing great skewers of roasted pork or beef, which they’ll carve right onto your plate.Read more
Or marinated chicken or pork spareribs. Or for something slightly more exotic, you might be offered oxtail, cuts of crocodile, chicken livers, ostrich meatballs served on a sizzling hot plate, or even testicles of unknown provenance. Order as much or as little as you’d like, and if you particularly enjoyed something the first time around, don’t hesitate to ask your waiter to find you some more.Pacing yourself is key to enjoying the experience. There’s nothing worse than going too hard, too early, only to find you don’t have room when a favorite dish comes around. Consider a mid-meal pause while you take a breath, lighten things up a little with some salad, and perhaps even stretch your legs. Then dive right back in until you’ve had your fill. -
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Surrender, Then Try To Find Room for Dessert
Ice cream and fruit coupe There comes a moment in every guest’s time at Carnivore when you realize that you simply can’t eat any more. Sometimes such a realization comes gradually. For others, knowledge comes in a sudden, uncomfortable awareness thatRead more
you’ve overindulged and that you may well explode if anything further passes your lips. To avoid temptation overriding good judgment, this is the moment to reach for the flag, turn it on its side and admit defeat. The waiters may try halfheartedly to convince you otherwise, but you’re now free to settle into your chair and plan the rest of your day.Even if you can’t face anything else resembling food, dessert is part of the buffet. It could be cheesecake or crème brûlée, or even a more cleansing fruit salad. Whether you can find space left to indulge is entirely up to you.
Nearby Attractions
Lunch at Carnivore is a good way to break up the day between other experiences. You could, for example, spend a morning in Nairobi National Park before lunch at Carnivore, and/or return to the park later