Kigali brags an awe-inspiring and growing range of restaurants representing international cuisines such as Indian, Italian, Chinese and French. In most other towns, a couple of hotels or restaurants serve uncomplicated Western meals, chicken, fish or steak with chips or rice. Possibly as a result of the Belgian influence, restaurant standards seem to be far higher than in most East African countries, and Rwandan chips are among the best on the continent.
Servings tend to be dauntingly large, and prices very reasonable. Buffet or self-service meals are also on offer, often at very inexpensive rates. Smarter restaurants, especially in Kigali, may be closed or take a while to rustle up food outside of normal mealtimes.
Wherever you travel, local restaurants serve Rwandan favourites such as goat kebabs (brochettes), grilled or fried tilapia (a type of lake fish), bean or meat stews. These are normally eaten with one of a few staples: ugali (a stiff porridge made with maize meal), matoke (stewed cooking banana/plantain), chapatti (flat bread), and boiled potatoes (as in Uganda, these are somewhat mysteriously referred to as Irish potatoes) – not to mention rice and the ubiquitous chips.
Chaz John
A popular local haunt, Chez John serves up authentic, country style Rwandan standards namely meat and maize in up market surrounds. The lunch buffet is extremely popular and offers a great opportunity to try a number of local dishes in one sitting. If you don’t like them here, its going to be a long trip around the rest of Rwanda.
Meze Fresh
A fun Tex-Mex place serving huge crispy tortilla and burritos stuffed with beef or chicken and a range of sides. It is hardly authentic Mexican but its tasty, cheap, filling and a cool place to hang out over a few drinks.
Blue café
This American style dinner is great if you are in the heart of town and just want something fast and fatty.
Bourbon Coffee Shop
Head to this popular western style coffee shop where locals and expats queue for oversized coffees and witches, burgers and light meals.
Zen
With tickling fountains and covered court yard dining, this sublime restaurant of fers Kigali’s best Chinese meals as well as Rwanda’s first sushi dishes. This is where the well to do of Kigali come when they want to impress. It is a long way out of the city centre in a swanky neighbourhood.
Khana Khazana
Statues of a rotund Ganesh and a blissed out shiva dot what many a local claim is the best Indian restaurant in Kigali. The menu has a long list of all the Indian classics prepared with panache and the waitstaff are dressed in imitation traditional Indian dress.
New Cactus
This Mexican style hacienda is set on a ridge where you can soak up the sparkling lights of Kigali by night or get a bird’s eye appreciation of the city during the day. It boasts a broad menu of French favorites and for something a little different, some delicious Congolese dishes full of spices and flavours.
Chez Robert
This upmarket restaurant, which lives in a large, converted house with a shady terrace, offers the finest dining experience in the city center. Lots of smoothly turned-out business types roll in at lunch time for the monster sized buffet which mixes Rwanda tastes with old fashioned European dishes.
Heaven Restaurant and Bar
A highlight of the Kigali restaurant scene, Heaven has a relaxed open air deck bistro with a wide-ranging menu drawing from a variety of international influences.
One area in which Rwanda is definitely influenced more by its anglophone neighbors than by its former colonizer is baking: in common with the rest of East Africa, the bread is almost always sweetish and goes stale quickly. In such cases a bunch of bananas, supplemented by other fresh fruit, is about the best breakfast option: cheap, nutritious and filling.
The alternative to eating at restaurants is to put together your own meals at markets and supermarkets. The variety of foodstuffs you can buy varies from season to season and from town to town, but in most major centres you can rely on finding a supermarket that stocks frozen meat, a few tinned goods, biscuits, pasta, rice and chocolate bars.
Fruit and vegetables are best bought at markets, where they are very cheap. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, tomatoes, bananas, sugar cane, avocados, paw-paws, mangoes, coconuts, oranges and pineapples are seasonally available in most towns. For hikers, about the only dehydrated meals available are packet soups. Therefore, all coffee places are very accessible to everyone in Kigali on guide or self drive tour in Kigali – Rwanda.
Add Comment