Well dined at Jahazi

With the promise of fresh seafood, from that very day’s catch, my friend and I found ourselves at the Jahazi Grill restaurant at the Serena Beach and Spa in Mombasa last week.

Jahazi is one of three restaurants at the hotel. The hotel’s main dining area is the Fountain Restaurant.

The outdoor Sokoni is a brasserie-style café facing the swimming pool, which serves an a la carte menu including snacks and pizzas.

Jahazi serves mainly seafood, but other dishes are available as well. The chef’s special at Jahazi that evening was crab masala. I love seafood, so with mouths watering we made our way down the moonlit path for dinner.

As we got near, we could hear soft music coming from the restaurant.

Jahazi is Kiswahili for dhow, and the restaurant is built like one. It has two and a half levels.

On the ground level, the floor is sandy so that it feels like you’re sitting by the beach. Best to be barefoot when dining here lest you get sand in your shoes.

The upper level has a red-tiled floor. This is the most spacious area of the restaurant, with an open area towards the back that can accommodate a cocktail event.

The tables on the upper level are strategically placed at the “windows” opening out to the ocean. The windows are actually just open spaces with makuti coverings.

The half level is an extension on one side of the upper level, with a few stairs leading up to it. It is more secluded but does not have an ocean view.

Quiet dinner

Dinner at the hotel is served from 7.30pm to 10pm. The Fountain can get rather noisy, especially with families with young children. But Jahazi Grill is ideal for a quiet, more private dinner.

We chose to sit at a table on the upper level. The warm ocean breeze blew through the window from which we had a picturesque view of the moonlit ocean. A small band played in the background, and asked for personal favourites.

I ordered the crab masala, and my friend, wary of seafood, asked for the beef medallions.

Several types of bread were in the basket on the table, and we both opted for the warm garlic bread.

A grilled prawn starter set us up for the main course.

The crab masala was served with rice and ratatouille. The masala was medium hot, as I had requested, hot and spicy without drowning out the taste of the crabmeat.

The plain rice balanced the masala perfectly, and the ratatouille was rich and flavourful.

The beef medallions were made with aged fillet, grilled, and served with a mushroom ragout and ratatouille.

I tasted some of the beef, which was wonderfully tender.

Too full for dessert, we called it a night.

Breakfast the following morning was at the Fountain. Breakfast is served buffet style, with juice, fruit, cereal, yoghurt, eggs, pancakes, waffles etc.

After my seafood dinner the previous night, I wanted to try something different with my eggs.

Although it was not part of the buffet, I asked for Eggs Benedict.

Each hotel has its own way of making eggs Benedict. This one was served on slightly toasted bread, topped with seared bacon, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce. The sauce was in plenty, so it formed a base on the plate; lettuce and tomato garnished the meal.

The result was a delicious tower, which I swiftly polished off.

Making the hollandaise sauce can take up to 20 minutes, so it is advisable to give the chef ample notice.

That evening, we prepared for the long journey back to Nairobi. Not wanting to let their guests travel on empty stomachs, the hotel arranged for a takeaway dinner.

The seafood pizza from Sokoni was my obvious choice. Prawns were generously spread on the top, and it had an impressive cheese pull.

Virginia Woolf reportedly said that one cannot think well, love well or sleep well, if one has not dined well.

Consider us well dined.