Various meals, The River Nile, and Explorers River Camp

It was NRE’s 17^th birthday and to celebrate they were offering free videos (normally $35) to anyone going rafting or tandem kayaking in August. I was originally planning to do the tandem kayaking for my birthday in early September, but couldn’t pass up the chance of a freebie. It was due to this that I had another really early Saturday morning start to get the free shuttle from Kampala at 7 am.

Dinner, Cayenne, Bukoto, Kampala

About a week before this meal I bumped in to a random muzungu in the old office, who was there for a cluster meeting. I ended up getting roped in to the meeting for no apparent reason, but afterwards we agreed to meet up sometime. That’s how I ended up in Cayenne with a bunch of other muzungu and local randoms.

Dinner, The Little Donkey, Kisugu, Kampala

Since not all of us could attend our last safari reunion we tried again. This time Kristin had been raving about this small Mexican establishment on the other side of town. I had also heard generally good things about the place so had high hopes. The venue isn’t the greatest, it’s just off set from the road with a small courtyard of three or four tables and a small inside seating section. I was late for a change so didn’t get much opportunity to appraise the menu, but went for my standard order.

Eventually my Carne Asado Burrito arrived with a small bowl of genuine jalapenos. The burrito included all the usual and the beef was very tasty and tender. All in all pretty good and slightly better than Javas beef burrito, I’d probably eat here again if it wasn’t such a faff to get too, but I struggle to rave about it. It was good and a nice change, but I’d have to say it was and average Mexican restaurant. That said I do love Mexican. 3 out of 5.

Dinner, Haandi, Nakasero, Kampala

The young couple that I travelled back from Jinja with at the weekend were meeting up with some friends for dinner during the weekend and invited me along. This review is going to be fairly short as I don’t have very good notes due to not knowing what I was eating at the time.

Either way Haandi is a small chain of Indian restaurants with branches in East Africa and two in London. Since it was a fairly large group of people we ordered a variety of different dishes and accompaniments washed down with Nile. It was all good grub and more like a British curry experience. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of curry that I had. 3.5 out of 5 would recommend and return. I’ll even try out one of the London ones when I’m back there.

Various meals, Explorers River Camp, Bujagali

A couple of weeks after my tumble from the boda it was time for the monthly Mountain Club of Uganda (MCU) / Kayak the Nile (KTN) beginners kayak session. Since I missed last month’s session due to my undiagnosed malaria, I was determined to give it a whirl despite my left wrist still giving me considerable grief. I had a lot of strength back and most of my movement didn’t cause too much pain. I shouldn’t have gone for it, but I can be a stubborn idiot at times.

Dinner, The Lawns, Kololo, Kampala

This week was already a bloody expensive one with three evenings out already. Friday night and it was time for something special, one of the premier restaurants in Kampala. The place had been ‘bigged’ up by several former hostel-ites in the past and so I had high expectations for this meal. For me the most important aspect about The Lawns was that it served a reasonable section of game meat, which I adore.

Dinner, Fuego, Kisugu, Kampala

Before Friday I was due to meet up with my safari buddies for a farewell meal with Jill before she went back to the US. Jill also brought her friend along who she’d been staying with in Kampala. We’d arranged to meet at cocktail bar and restaurant called Fuego in between Kabalagala and Muyenga. It’s just up the road from the Ethiopian Restaurant that was attacked by al-Shabbab (the group responsible for the recent atrocity in Nairobi) suicide bombers in 2010. They also targeted Kyadondo Rugby Club during the 2010 World Cup resulting in 74 deaths and 70 injured. Thankfully there have been no other acts of terrorism in Kampala since then.

Very pleasant surroundings at Fuego

Eventually we all arrived at Fuego’s except Ali who unfortunately couldn’t make it until much later. We sat in a nice area in the gardens of the establishment and whilst having a good chat over a drink moved on to the extensive food menu. It was quite large and had all the usual staples and pizza courtesy of a wood fired oven. The owner, who spent a bit of time chatting to us, is originally from Eritrea and so it also has a selection of Eritrean food.

A couple of massive njeras

Unsurprisingly Eritrean is very similar to Ethiopian, a cuisine I’d thoroughly enjoyed in my early days in Kampala. I went for a chicken curry, whose name sadly escapes me, which was served on another massive njera. It was delicious, wonderfully spiced with a reasonably amount of heat. The chicken was good and fell off the bone. I mopped it all up with the njera. 3.5 out of 5. Would return if it wasn’t such a faff to get to from where I live.

Dinner, Mish Mash, Kololo, Kampala

Pretty sure I’ve already mentioned this, but Wednesday nights at Mish Mash have the wonderful double bill of being open air cinema night and burger and a beer deal night. Having met up with my fellow diners from the previous evening we went in to the main outdoor area at the back of the building and ordered our various burgers and beers.

I've never seen it this busy thankfully

Dinner, Nanjing, Kololo, Kampala

One of my friends who was back in Kampala had a hankering for Chinese food, so we met up with another friend to go to Nanjing in swanky Kololo. It had reasonable reviews in various expat forums so thought it worth a look. I arrived late, but not as late as my fellow diners. I’d piled in to a bowl of g-nuts and was well through my first bottle of Nile before they arrived.

Garden at the front of the hotel / restaurant

Lunch, Mr Tasty, Lugogo, Kampala

I’ll keep this one brief. Shit. 1.5 out of 5, but at least this time I got the food I ordered (a Zee burger, one piece of fried chicken, fries and a bottle of Coke).

Longer version, I was down at Shoprite doing some shopping (duh!) and walked past the recently refurbished Mr Tasty, which keen readers will remember for its poor review in my first week in Uganda. Still hankering for a Zinger I decided to give the place another go. I went for a combo meal and got exactly that. The one piece hardly had any chicken on it, but what little there was, was half decent fried chicken. The fries were horrible. I didn’t eat them. The Zee burger was Mr Tasty’s version of a chicken fillet burger but without the fillet. It was passable and helped satisfy the craving despite being nowhere near as good as a Zinger.

Lunch, Cafe Java, Oasis Mall, Kampala

I think this one is out of order as I’m pretty sure I had this lunch when I went to Oasis mall to get my ticket from Nairobi back to Kampala at the Easy Coach offices. Either way at some point I decided to try out the popular Café Javas at one corner of the mall.

Lunch, Good African Coffee Company, Lugogo, Kampala

Rafting was fun, but since I’d spent some talking to the kayakers at Nile River Explorers and after seeing the ridiculous tricks that the guys in the safety kayaks could do I was interested in giving it a go. Mountain Club of Uganda have a special deal with Kayak the Nile and offer a beginners lesson for a decent discount once a month. I was keen to give it a go, but sadly had to cancel as I had malaria.