Randomness Guide to London Menu

Kenyan restaurant and coffee shop in Romford.

It's quite smart inside photo, with light-coloured walls contrasting with dark wood-effect melamine-topped tables. Glasses and sugar containers are branded with their own "Kenya Coffee House" logo. Photographic prints of Olympic athletes and scenes of coffee-growing hang on the walls, and carved animals stand on the windowsill.

The menu photo includes Kenyan specialities such as ugali (a thick cornmeal-based porridge/dough) and mukimo (potatoes mashed with green vegetables and sweetcorn), along with other items such as chapati and various curries reflecting the Indian influence in Kenyan cuisine. Pastries and various coffees and teas photo of menu are also available, and it seems to be fine to come in just for coffee. They don't seem to serve alcohol.

Kake visited on a Thursday lunchtime in November 2013. There were no other customers when I arrived around 12:30pm, and this remained the case throughout my visit. Christian soft rock music was playing, not too loud.

I went for the fried tilapia (£9.50 including a side dish), and asked for advice on which side dish to choose. My waiter said that ugali would be the traditional accompaniment, along with a vegetable to stop it from being too dry; so I had the tilapia with creamed spinach (normally £3.50, but included with my main course) and ugali (£2.20, charged separately) photo.

The tilapia was nicely seasoned though perhaps a little over-fried in parts. My waiter explained that normally it would be cooked on the bone, but they'd run out and only had fillets. For some reason the tomato and pepper salsa mentioned on the menu as coming with this never turned up (and I forgot to ask for it). The ugali was fine. The creamed spinach was really tasty, studded with pieces of sauteed red onion.

Service was friendly and helpful. My food took over half an hour to arrive after ordering, which seemed a little slow. No service charge was added to the bill photo, and they chose to include the more expensive of my side dishes in the main dish price, rather than the cheaper one, which I thought was quite generous.

They also do a buffet on weekends (noon-10:30pm, as of November 2013).

Kake's verdict: I'd never had Kenyan food before, and this was a good introduction to it. I'd happily come back to try the curries, and I'd happily eat that creamed spinach again.

Accessibility: No steps anywhere, just a couple of shallow ramps. There is customer parking directly at the front of the restaurant. The seats are half-round armchairs, but not overly narrow. There's an accessible toilet.

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