The 20 Essential Nairobi Restaurants

"You can’t talk about Nairobi’s history without mentioning Thorn Tree, an open-air cafe that sits within Sarova Stanley, the oldest hotel in the city. The cafe gets its name from a massive acacia tree that grows smack in the middle of the space; in the ’50s, the tree served as a post office of sorts for patrons, who would pin letters to its trunk. Today, it’s still an ideal meeting place, particularly for business travelers and history buffs keen to take a tour of the hotel, which has hosted guests like Ernest Hemingway and Franklin Roosevelt. Time your visit to partake in the hotel’s lavish Swahili breakfast buffet for a chance to sample coastal dishes like mahamri (fried doughnut spiced with cardamom), mbaazi (pigeon peas in coconut milk), bhajia (spiced, deep fried potatoes), mkate wa sinia (rice bread), and kaimati (fried sweet dumplings)." - Wendy Watta, Soni Adriance