Hotels in KenyaNairobi

Nairobi Serena Hotel Nairobi Kenya Kenyatta Avenue P.O. Box 46302 00100 Nairobi Kenya Hotel Rating :

HOTEL DESCRIPTION: The Nairobi Serena is a quiet sanctuary in a flower-filled garden amid the noise and bustle of one of Africa’s most dynamic cities. Shaded by jacaranda, bougainvillaea and acacia trees, the hotel is a haven located just moments from the city’s business centre and also from most of its attractions, including art and cultural institutions, shopping, nightlife and entertainment. The Nairobi Serena Hotel has long been considered Nairobi’s leading hotel for its standards of accommodation, food, service and amenities, and is a member of the Leading Hotels of the World. The elegantly designed bedrooms feature intricate timberworks inspired by Pan-African designs and most have views of either Nairobi’s skyline across Central Park or of acacia groves and lush gardens. The main restaurant, Mandhari, offers some of Kenya’s finest cuisine and the Maisha Health Club is the best in the country. The hotel also boasts up-to-date business services and exceptional conference facilities. SHOW MAP

HOTEL ACCOMMODATION: There are 183 air-conditioned bedrooms and seven suites, including the ultimately luxurious State Suite, and a whole range of different cuisines on offer ranging from Kenyan to Indian, Italian to Creole. Apart from its renowned health club, the hotel has a fantastic outdoor pool. Excursions on offer include game viewing at one of Serena Hotel’s main Safari Lodges, visits to dance and cultural centres, and trips to the Great Rift Valley and the Lakes of Nakuru and Naivasha. For the business traveller, the hotel also offers full conference facilities and a business centre.

HOTEL FACILITIES: At the Nairobi Serena Hotel we have gathered together all the services you require and incorporated them into the calm of the hotel complex. They include: The Hair Gallery Our exclusive in-house hairdressing salon offers a broad range of hair cutting, styling and colouring whilst world-class manicure, pedicure and make-up services are also available. Hazina - the Serena Treasure Trove ”Hazina” means treasure in Kiswahili and our gift shop offers a treasure trove of handicrafts, traditional gifts, jewellery, carvings, ethnic fashions and evocative books.

Café Maghreb - a visual and culinary feast
Our relaxed and informal Moroccan-styled all-day café, which takes its inspiration from the Swahili word Maghreb meaning “west of the setting sun”, features a vibrant décor that reflects the jewel-hued stalls and bright-polished coffee pots of the Kasbah. As for the menu, it is international in style, reflects the best of eastern and western cuisine and features a globetrotting selection of themed menus throughout the week. It also allows for al fresco dining with views over the shimmering waters of the pool.

Evoking Ethiopia - The Aksum Bar
Taking the ancient Ethiopian town of Aksum as its mystical muse, this spacious and innovatively designed bar opens onto lush gardens where evening cocktails and Sunday brunch are served. The décor blends brilliantly eclectic Ethiopian wall hangings, fascinating ethnic crafts and a whimsical umbrella-hung ceiling with the calm modern-day sophistication of a world-class hotel. As well as a broad range of international labels, fine wines and fresh juices, the Aksum Bar also offers a world-class cocktail line-up.

The Pool Bar - An Oasis in the heart of the City
For a more relaxed, sun and sky ambiance why not try our al fresco Pool Bar, which offers all the cool of an oasis, in the heart of the city. Looking out over the shimmering blue waters of our heated pool, shaded by the rustling palms of our tropical gardens the Pool Bar décor suggests the brilliant white arches, sparkling mosaics and fountained courts of a sultan’s palace. As for the menu, it features an all-day selection of hot and cold snacks, ice cream sundaes, mid-morning pastries and spicy evening appetisers whilst the drinks line-up includes an international cocktail selection, a range of fine wines and spirits, Italian-style coffee, herbal teas and a broad selection of fruit cocktails and chilled juices.

The Bambara Lounge
Named after the Bambara tribe of Mali and decorated to a West African theme that majors on hand-carved Camphor wood panels, each depicting an African legend, the Bambara Lounge offers 24 hour service to resident hotel guests only.

The magic of the Mandhari Restaurant
Exceptional ambiance, exquisite cuisine. The uniquely situated ‘Mandhari’ restaurant enjoys panoramic views over the bright lights of the city and the gentle green lawns of Nairobi Central Park. It also offers an open-air dining terrace overlooking the pool, a frescoed dining room, gentle piano music and impeccable service. Famous for the delicacy of its cuisine naturelle the ‘Mandhari’ menu choices include; Indian Ocean seafood, wild game, fresh-caught river fish and some inspirational oriental, vegetarian and Swahili dishes.

The Mandhari Experience (By Jane Barsby)
Lapis blue water shimmers over Moroccan mosaic while a loggia-shaded terrace tumbles wax-green creepers and trumpet blooms. Blurred outlines of trees suggest meandering park paths and beyond both rise the lilac-grey skyscrapers of down town dusk. You could be anywhere. But if you had to make the choice – it probably wouldn’t be the centre of Nairobi. Yet this is the terrace of the first-floor Mandhari Restaurant, the finest of the Serena Hotel Group’s restaurant line-up and the flagship of her culinary fleet. Here you can dine al fresco and by candlelight, whilst watching necklaces of headlamps thread the city’s arteries, lights switching off floor-by-floor in glittering office towers, and searchlight beams from incoming jets piercing the skies over Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

Inside the Mandhari Restaurant it’s a different landscape altogether. As you might expect given that the name means ‘landscape’ in Swahili. Here the entire length of one wall is taken up by a hand-carved fresco in all the soft coffee, cream and rose pinks of Kisii soapstone. It actually depicts the knuckle-dent outline and wooded slopes of Nairobi’s famous Ngong Hills but it could just as easily be a medieval frieze in a Tuscan monastery. Elsewhere there’s a draped and mirrored Bedouin tent for the intimacy of private dining and a wall of windows onto the balmy darkness of a Nairobi night. The effect, with candle glow lighting, lavish draped tables, stiff starched napery and the lush tinkle of a grand piano is civilised, chic and encouraging. The menu should make good reading.

Which it does, being both international eclectic and essentially Kenyan. Choices include, for starters, Carpaccio of Ostrich, Escargots Ravioli Tossed in Truffle Oil, Fettuccine in a Gorgonzola Sauce and Crab Chowder with Lemon Grass. The entrée choices are even harder to make and range from Saddle of Gazelle with Poached Pears to Fillet of Pork Coated in Chestnuts and served with a Tamarillo Sauce, with all manner of ingenious vegetarian options in between. As for the seafood, choose from Black Bass Baked with a Lemon Soufflé, a bewildering selection of seafood, lobster and big-game fish choices and some simple but luscious Jumbo Prawns that come sautéed in garlic and butter alongside a mound of aromatic rice with a side dish of al dente vegetables and fresh-cooked local spinach. ‘All that glitters is not gold’ when it comes to descriptive menus? True, but the Mandhari delivers on its promise and the ingredients are allowed to speak for themselves, being neither hidden behind sauce nor over presented in glaze, gratinée and garnish. As for the wines, the selection is slick and the service light-handed. And, in the unlikely event that you have any appetite left after sampling the best of the above there is also a daunting dessert trolley laden with chocolate seductions, fruit concoctions and torte to tempt the most rigorous of pudding refusers. Tempted? You should be, for the Mandhari is not only a class act, but also a hard one to follow.