It was Friday night and the birthday of one of the hostel
guests so a few of us were going out to celebrate, not that most of the people
here need a reason to go out most evenings. The plan was to leave at 9pm, but
this being Africa and us being a disorganised rabble, we didn’t do too badly by
leaving at 10pm. Plus we got in a couple of rounds of Pointless in the extra
hour, I’ll bring it to Uganda eventually.
We headed down to the main road into town en masse and
waited for a swarm of bodas to descend upon us to set off to our destination.
There was a lot of chat about where exactly we were going and the price and
eventually I set off on my own boda in the direction of Kololo.
As I approached the upmarket district it quickly became
clear that my Carl didn’t have a clue exactly where he was going. We stopped
twice for directions and eventually ended up at a group of bars and restaurants
with no Gusto. Another discussion ensued and with a second Carl accompanying us
we set off to Bubbles (O’Leary the obligatory Irish bar). This was my only
other point of reference, I was told Gusto was nearby, I left Carl behind and
went for a wander around the immediate area and apart from a few posh looking
restaurants I couldn’t find Gusto.
I asked a few more Carl’s who were touting for business, but
they clearly had trouble with my accent as every enquiry about Gusto was met
with a delighted ‘Yes, I know a good guesthouse’. I gave up on this line of
enquiry after the last Carl I spoke to insisted that I get on the boda and he’d
take me wherever I wanted to go, despite admitting he had no idea where Gusto
was. Suitably exasperated I headed back to Bubbles to either drown my sorrows
there or get a boda back to the hostel.
On the way I bumped in to two of our party heading in the
opposite direction, having had a similar fate befall them. With strength in
numbers we expanded our search and some 20 minutes later found Gusto. Everyone
else had arrived and finished their food and at least their first drink. I was
recommended the Gusto burger as the best burger in Kampala, so ordered that
without mushrooms. There was also a BBQ on that many went for and was by all
accounts pretty good.
Whilst enjoying my Nile beer and relaxing after the
stressful journey, my Gusto burger arrived. It was accompanied by some very
good coleslaw and a healthy amount of proper French fries. They were easily the
best fries I’ve had so far since arriving in Uganda, much better than the
greasy chips I’ve had everywhere else.
Onto the Gusto burger, minus mushrooms it came with bacon,
cheese and gherkins. The bun was courtesy of Brood bakery and was a pretty
solid sesame seed bun. The cheese was reminiscent of a strong-ish cheddar and
the bacon was a proper rasher of back bacon, not the usual American style
streaky bacon that is more prevalent here. The patty was interesting, it was
more of a burger schnitzel as it was very thin and easily twice the diameter of
the bun. It made eating the burger more of a chore than it should have been
with frequent mouthfuls of nothing but patty. When I got to enjoy the burger as
a whole there was a tad too much Heinz tomato ketchup which was slightly
overpowering.
That aside it was the best burger I’ve had in Kampala, would
recommend and would go back. 3 out of 5.
After Gusto we went upstairs to Iguanas, which is a fairly
standard bar / club which was very hot, very crowded and very noisy. A few more
hostel residents joined us there and after a short while we headed off to
Bubbles. I was knackered by this point and couldn’t keep up with them so I headed
back to the hostel and left the kids to it. They eventually returned at 6.30am -ish.
I’m far too old for that kind of caper.
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