Nairobi, Kenya

Dec 16, 2024

We landed in Nairobi at 11pm last night, checked into the JW Marriott, but jet lag meant it was hard to get to sleep, and we overslept our alarms in the morning. We gobbled down a quick breakfast and rushed over to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage for the 11am feeding.

We timed it perfectly – the elephants were just coming out as we arrived. We found spots in the crowd as the first group of 1-2 year old elephants eagerly ran into the corral for their gallon bottles of special milk. We took some great pics of them wallowing in the mud and eating some branches strewn around. Then it started to get long as they launched into a speech about the history of the place, and each elephant’s name and story. We stayed through the second group of 3-4 year old elephants, then beat a quick retreat.

With a little extra time on our hands, we decided to try the nearby Karen Blixen museum. The guide made the house tour surprisingly fun for an hour, although it would be better if you have read the book or seen the movie.

Since it was a Monday both restaurants we wanted to try for lunch were closed (Cultiva and Tamambo). Instead we went next door to the Karen Blixen restaurant, which is also in the Karen district of Nairobi – she’s kind of a big deal :-). They have a beautiful outdoor setting and comfy chairs, where the sun was hot and small cats were prowling.

Unfortunately the steaks were basically uncooked – we sent them back and they were replaced with slightly cooked. Very mediocre. The chicken was dry. The wings were sweet not spicy but good. Veggie curry and pumpkin soup were great. Service incredibly slow despite tons of staff.

Then we headed to the giraffe feeding – super fun and quick. We loved their long tongues and active lips. They didn’t like to be petted, though. After 20 mins or so we headed across the street to the nature trail, and walked down to the “river” which was more like a creek. The nature trail can be skipped.

After a short siesta in the hotel, our driver took us over to Carnivore where we were seated immediately. We were greeted by a guy with a tray labeled Dawa, which he translated as “medicine”, and were drinks with vodka, honey, a little lime, and a spritz – surprisingly good. The kids enjoyed theirs immensely, enough that they ordered them again later in the week at Serian camp.

In true Carnivore fashion, the rule is to eat until you surrender by taking down the flag in the middle of the table. We had some starters, but tried not to eat too much in anticipation of the meat coming. Soon they were surrounding our table with giant skewers with entire legs of animals on them, carving off pieces and dropping them on our plates. They had a complete set of sauces as well, with recommendations for each kind of meat.

The ostrich was pretty good, but the croc was a surprising favorite. The beef was pretty rare, but the sausages were excellent. Don’t try the ox balls, they taste terrible.

They did a great job with gluten-free, supplying separate plates overflowing with meat. They also did surprisingly well with the vegan platter, we counted something like 9 different dishes from samosas to peanut curry to veggie stir fry, and enjoyed them all. We ate until we couldn’t move any more and finally surrendered.

Back at the hotel we packed up and fell into bed, exhausted.

JW Marriott Nairobi

Security was insane, bomb-sniffing dogs and metal detectors and gates everywhere
Breakfast was pretty good, omelet bar and a pretty good selection
Exec lounge was weak
Rooms were small, beds were comfortable, light switches were insanely confusing and bathroom design was odd
Nice bridge to Carrefour which was convenient
Overall not bad but definitely not exceptional
We left a pair of AirPods, and when I contacted the manager, they referred me to a housekeeping email that didn’t accept outside emails, and never got back to me. Louisa called and the hotel said that they would call her back, and didn’t. Bummer.

Carnivore