are you still wondering which restaurant you should dine at before Nairobi Restaurant Week comes to an end? Wonder no more, I’m about to convince you why Wet Lounge at Royal Orchid Azure is a must visit. You will love every moment of it….if you don’t I might even offer to pay for your meal……kidding).
Honestly, Wet Lounge wasn’t in my list of places to visit for #NRW2016. After reading numerous reviews on Facebook by people who were commending their amazing service, lovely ambiance, delicious food and seeing the lovely photos…I was sold. Called them up, made reservations and the rest was just bliss.
Ambiance
The Wet lounge is a very inviting, chic and classy lounge… I didn’t get an opportunity to walk around but I would have loved to see the balcony sitting space. I love how they have played around with different lighting and colour choices from gold, white, brown to orange at the Vip lounge to the red bar stools, the chain link floor pattern and also their seating arrangement is well thought out. I feel that they tend to lean more on the club side than a restaurant really. And because this post is all about food I won’t dwell on the decor :-). Took these two photos off Wet Lounge website just to give you a snippet of what I’m talking about.
Drinks
They have a #NRW2016 wine list selection. I had a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon but if you really plan on indulging in a lot of wine, buying it by the bottle is a better bet.
The Food
Wet Lounge really knows how to invigorate their clients palettes. 1st up was this delicious amuse-bouche – a shot of white tomato soup.
Appetizers
My date ordered the modern Indian accent which was basically a mix of lemon chicken and goat cheese samosa, Delhi chaat, Dhaba chicken and mulligatawny. You better order this starter when you finally make your way to Wet Lounge. I tasted everything from this plate just because I am a glutton. 
My love for good soup is still haunting me guys, you can tell from my choice for a starter. I opted for the Thai chili, lemongrass and coconut soup, shrimp crostini and micro greens. The soup was amazing, I could taste all the ingredients indicated in the menu. But let’s talk about the Crostini….loved, loved it. Given a choice, I would probably order two crostinis for my appetizer 🙂 and skip the soup.
Mains
My date beat me to this order which was the Grilled Portuguese chicken fondant potatoes, bell pepper terrine, tusker beer and honey sauce – still sulking because of how delicious it was! In case you are wondering I couldn’t order the same thing since we made a rule to always sample a variety on the menu so settled for something different. Can we talk about Wet Lounge plating? Fine dining at its best.
After asking our amazing waiter Agnes, what was the most popular dish on the menu, she informed me that the slow cooked lamb shank is a favorite of many but I wasn’t in the planmtain mood which was the accompaniment so ordered Tagliatelle with curried spiced prawns. My meal was basically cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, basil and curried lobster reduction. The pasta was a over-salted so meeh. I like how this plate represents what I was eating. 
Dessert
Thank God our dessert took a minute before being brought to the table. I was so full at this point a breather was well in. I ordered the Theobroma and trust you me this is the IT dessert. I choose it just because the long list of what it contained was appealing. Basically hazelnut and fennel brownie, white chocolate and cardamom panna cotta dark chocolate fudge, chocolate cigars, white chocolate and orange kheer. If this list doesn’t convince you then I do hope the plating does. 
My date ordered the Baba au rhum…. (I see you missing the pronunciation) which included the rum pipette, pastry cream and caramel ice cream – that Vanilla ice cream is life. But the Theobroma takes the crown on this one.
I really hoped to hang around after dinner and enjoy a second drink but after the dessert, my bed was calling.
The Service
I have sampled a couple restaurants in Nairobi and Wet Lounge takes the service award hands down. It is impeccable. Every client is treated equally and they love feedback and your meal comes out in good time. Making a reservation is also such a pleasant experience. And they are quite generous which is a plus.
The Bill
As listed on the #NRW2016 restaurant selection a meal at Wet Lounge is Sh2500 per person. A glass of the select wines for restaurant week costs Sh700 while a bottle goes for Sh3000. If beers are your drink of choice for the evening then one will just set you back Sh350.
