Laqué Lex
Google
I entered this beautiful rooftop establishment, where I was seated by the pool and then immediately forgotten. There were literally approximately 14 guests scattered throughout the dining area, with maybe 5 servers, yet still I had to pick up my phone and dial the Sankara Hotel lobby, long-distance, to complain about the neglect I was facing. I was then transferred to the Chef, or someone who answered and declared to be the chef who offered to come greet me himself or send someone “immediately”, where another 5 minutes elapsed. Now I think it’s ridiculous that I had to make a long-distance phone call in order to get a waiter to greet and take my order.
As a Bonvoy member, it’s so disappointing to know Marriott standards do not extend to Nairobi. Another pet peeve was that I specifically asked the hostess if Shisha (hookah) was available on the roof and she said yes. A few TripAdvisor reviews indicated that rooftop offered that service. To my dismay, the waiter who eventually came by to grab my order informed me that Shisha is not available on the roof.
Geoffrey, the waiter, was very apologetic, and he really did try to reset the tone, which I greatly appreciated, but between being hungry and the ridiculous manner in which I had to get service, THEN learning that there’s no Shisha…. Ugggghhhhh!!!!
Now on to the food:
I ordered the Red Snapper (2800 KSH), and asked to substitute the sides with creamed spinach (500 KSH) as an entree and paired it with a bottle of Rose (6k KSH).
The red snapper was flaky and flavorful; very pleasing! The creamed spinach was more spinach than cream, and could have used a bit more cream cheese in the recipe but it may be perfect for others. After that entree, I found myself still hungry so I added an order of spaghetti carbonara (1700 KSH).
Let me just say, the BEST part of this entire dining experience was the creme brûlée (1k KSH). I’m a HUGE snob when it comes to this particular dessert, and I was worried when I saw words like “lemongrass” and “passionfruit” but let me tell you, it WORKS!!! It was so delicious, I ordered (2).
Again, it was a very rough start to this dining experience, but ultimately, I’m glad I decided to stick around. The food is very much worth it, I only hope they aim to work on the customer service bit (and not let people feel like outcasts or ignored) and I also advise they do a data scrub on the internet to remove the four square, all about Kenya and TripAdvisor articles that indicate Shisha is an option.
Thank you to Geoffrey who really saved the experience, I appreciate it.
