Only a handful of Mombasa Restaurants will Leave You Tongue-tied

Mombasa restaurants are as countless as the sand grains on the city's beaches but only a handful will leave you tongue-tied: Tamarind, Tamarind Dhow and Yul's.

These offer the very best culinary delights in Mombasa and am sure you will find I have not oversold them.

Tamarind

The Tamarind is way up there in Kenya's (not just Mombasa's) Premier League of restaurants.

Tamarind's menu is an ingenious blend of the finest French, Asian and African cuisine. You can also try out their imaginative bitings - I had roasted crunchy coconut pod and am still speechless!

These are guaranteed to whet your appetite, so that you can sufficiently dig into some of the most mouth-watering seafood on earth.

Try their Prawns Piri Piri, Chilli Crab, Lobster Tamarind and Seafood Platter that have earned the restaurant worldwide rave reviews. And because the ocean is only a few feet away, you can tuck in some more with the added assurance that the lobster, prawns or crabs are today's catch.

A vegetarian menu is also available.

But it isn't just the food that will endear you to this Mombasa restaurant. Its high arches and al fresco terrace perched on a cliff overlooking the picturesque Old Harbor are bound to create a memorable ambience, one that you will be toasting to long after you have left Mombasa.

At about Ksh 4,000-6,000 a plate, the Tamarind is pricey (but worth every cent or pence or name it...) so deepen your pockets beforehand. Also remember to go there hungry so that you can do justice to their food. Because the restaurant is pretty busy all year round, bookings are advisable.

Tamarind Dhow

The Tamarind Dhow is Kenya's most expensive and possibly most thrilling dining experience. It is also part of the Tamarind Group that owns the Tamarind Restaurant reviewed above.

Two handcrafted originally ocean-going dhows, "Nawalilkher" and "Babulkher" were completely overhauled and converted into floating restaurants.

The 2-hour lunch cruise sets sail from the Tamarind Restaurant jetty at 1PM while the 4-hour dinner cruise departs at 6.30PM. The latter sails leisurely towards Fort Jesus and then up Tudor creek where it moors. Then...

You won't only leave the Tamarind Dhow gastronomically pleased, the personal service, original presentation and attention to detail will blow you away.

The rhythms of an on-board band serenade you as you tuck into your delicious four-course meal. Sounds like music to your ears and food for your soul? It certainly did to ours.

One more thing...

Advance booking for this dhow escapade is a must. As it is the most exclusive of all Mombasa restaurants, it is certainly well-worth the bother.

Yul's

Located right next to the Bamburi Beach Hotel, this seaside restaurant with an understandably odd name (it belongs to Yul!) offers tasty salads and scrumptious seafood and charcoal-grilled Angus-steaks.

The first time I was at Yul's, I had some excellent skewered beef barbecued along with green pepper, onions and tomatoes.

Two days later, my husband cajoled me into ordering fish with that bit about white meat being food for your health and all. So I reluctantly ordered red snapper, a fish species that abounds in Kenya's Indian ocean waters. I shouldn't have worried. It was grilled to perfection. The ingredients were used so sparingly I couldn't put a finger on them but it was great.

You will gnash at them for getting you hungrier as the aroma from the open kitchen periodically drifts to your table but will forgive them the instance your food arrives.

Their all-natural homemade Italian ice cream, presented in 60 different flavors, is plain sinful and is probably the reason you will be sneaking back there throughout your stay in Mombasa. My favorite ice-cream flavor is always vanilla and strawberry and I had this to my heart's content. Well, almost.

Another unrelated attraction of Yul's is its motodrom racecourse. So, if your 5-11 year olds cause tantrums when its time to leave, don't say I didn't warn you.

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