NAIROBI BURGER WEEK 2019 REVIEW
Our Rating
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Pricing
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Restaurant Network
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Value For Money
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Likelihood To Attend Burger Week 2020
Summary
My Burger Week 2019 experience was not at par with the 2018 version. Most restaurants seem to be watering down their products and plucking off their best burgers from the offer menu in an attempt to … I don’t know. Needless to say, this has strongly made me consider going for quality over quantity.
Lesson: To experience great burgers, get them when there are no offers.
Your Ratings
( votes)Burger Week!🍔
This year’s Nairobi Burger Week was presented as usual by EatOut Kenya but this year sponsored by VISA. Initially it was set to run from the 5th day of August for 11 days, but it was extended to the 18th of August. All the participating restaurants (those with the 2 for 1 offer) could be found on the EatOut website. You can follow our social media pages on Instagram and Facebook and we’ll be glad to give you these updates as well🙂. I did notice that this year, we had fewer participation from restaurants. I failed to see big names like Artcaffe and Java.
August is my birthday month and burgers are always a treat. After checking out the burger week participating restaurants, I decided to go with Captain’s Terrace Restaurant along Mombasa Road. I Googled their website for their burger menu and it was quite alluring. I had envisioned my conversation with the waiter in my mind:
Waiter: “Good evening, welcome to Captain’s Terrace. Here’s our menu we have the…”
Me: (excited) “Ah, no need! I’m gonna have the Anchor burger please.”
Then we would have an awkward laugh and he would take the menus away and say “You know your stuff sir… “
On Location
Unlike Kendi, I’d never been to Captain’s Terrace. (She’s gonna have a full review for that later)
I confess I struggled with the directions and I have to say here, I’ve never found trouble with Google Maps. This time, the pin I followed almost led me dining with zebra or actually as some dinner for canines.
It was completely off and redirected the cab driver to the Ole Sereni entrance just before Next Gen mall, to a rough path that apparently leads to a KWS camp. 🥺 Looking at it now, I think the cab app had a glitch and misled us. Anyway, here is correct Captain’s Terrace location. Thank you for the directions Kendi.
Vibes
I got there at around 7PM, meaning I missed the beautiful views of the sunset everyone keeps bragging about. 😕
The place was quite packed. The only available seating was reserved. There was a live band playing some tunes and the crowd seemed to enjoy the music. I didn’t see anyone having burgers and well, I guess that was unwinding hour. The ambience was right, the crowd looked mature. Someone was celebrating their birthday as well and occasionally the band leader would mention her name, followed by loud ululations. Go August babies!
The waiter who spotted us though, call him Brian, told us there was no space available inside but he could set-up a table right before the ‘terrace’ i.e. a ballroom of some sort. A big no. Mind you, Captain’s Terrace Restaurant is a conversion of Captain’s Casino, so you can imagine sitting in a place where a slot machine used to be … alone. Just as we were contemplating on leaving, a nice lady let’s call her Maggie came quickly and told me she had a table for us as some guests were just leaving. OK. We followed her as she flashed her eyes at Brayo, who quivered a bit in his boots.
I Wanna Eat!
Remember my vision? Brian brought out a couple of menus, smiled and waited.
“Umm .. Anchor burger please …” I said, feeling a bit meh. Brian was a bit confused that night, or he was new, or feeling meh like I was. I couldn’t tell.
Maggie passed by again and my girl told her that we’re here for Burger Week and she rushed to the back and re-appeared with a ‘Burger Week Menu’. Brayo bana! This menu was different and only had TWO options. Yes, two:
- ‘Can you handle it’ beef something with something and something burger @1400 bob
- Chicken burger @1200 bob
- Accompaniments for either; fries, potato wedges, salad etc
No Anchor burger today Ian, and NO BACON… woosah…
We asked if it would be okay if we selected one of each and Brian obliged, served as drinks and left.
Experiencing the Burgers
An hour and some minutes later, Brayo appeared, followed by another waitress, wait for it…. With four burgers on four plates!! No shade, but I was just done, I knew this was ruined for me. It was quite a laughable scene and we just stared at each other chortling. I mean, clarifications are important, especially in the service industry. You have to re-confirm those client orders man. I won’t even mention how Brayo mixed up the side orders, oh wait … 😁
Anyway, we couldn’t carry the extra two burgers as takeout because we weren’t going home, fortunately the management agreed to take them back and apologized for the confusion.
The chicken burger was quite juicy and well done. Well at least that’s what she said. With my Tambua palate, I’d decided to go for the other one with the fancy name and extras and lord, it was exaggerated to say the least (for 1400/= anyway)
Positive vibes however, it was gonna be a long night anyway.
Payments
As the event this year was sponsored by VISA, one of the requirements during Burger Week, was that to redeem the offers, you would have to pay only via a VISA card. That meant that if you paid via MasterCard, cash or otherwise, your order wouldn’t be fulfilled as part of the offer. This is very important to mention to clients when they order so you’re not like this group of friends we overheard saying that they didn’t know the terms and had to pay full amounts via cash. Important why you should always read the T and Cs of any service.
Final Thoughts
I’m sure my boy Brian will improve. For what it’s worth, Captain’s Terrace restaurant has some really awesome vibes and I really want to go there again, early. Maybe it was the Burger Week rush, maybe not. Maybe it was just a bad day. Regardless, no one should have an excuse to water down their products/services due to unpreparedness because clients will notice.
Do you think my 3.6 vote was fair? Unfair? You can vote by scrolling back up to the Your Ratings section and selecting a star from 1-5!
Bonus Feature
Within the week, I also headed over to the Big Square joint in Garden City just for kicks.
View this post on Instagram
As you can see, they only had 4 Burgers on offer for Burger Week👀; Chicken, Beef, Paneer Tikka and a Veggie Burger. Again, there was no option to order samples from any 2 with the offer.
However, these burgers were kinda small but at that price, understandable. One could easily knock off two, easy-peasy. Maybe I’ll try that ‘eat 4 burgers in 4 minutes’ challenge one day.
*Note: the offer didn’t include any accompaniments.
Here’s What Others Think
Lastly, check out this result from an Instagram poll I ran, a few days after my experience.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!
Howdy!
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This is an accurate description of our experience. Will I try burger week again? Naah, I don’t think so, unless they make big changes on the offers. Restaurants should offer what they serve on any other regular day or turn down being part of the whole thing.
I’m done ranting.
Good job Wainaina and the Tambua team.
Y’all are doing a great job.
Thank you Watetu! 💚
I’ve never had the pleasure of attending these food festivals in Nairobi.
Sisi watu wa Nakuru tuko marginalized.
Anyway, I’m sure you gave an honest rating, Ian. You seem like an honest man.
Hi Mark. They should have also these things out of Nairobi by the way albeit most of the offers being quite overrated. 😐
And yes Mark, honest reviews, like the trailers😄