You wake up with an inkling that after the night of cocktail-swilling revelry that was your birthday eve, you might have made a drunken fool of yourself. Who wants to waste their day moping and hiding in shame when you’ve the entire weekend all planned out?
It was one of the most epic birthdays celebrated with my favorites. I’m still reeling from all the memories made. One of the highlights was lunch at an Italian boutique restaurant located along Moi South Lake Road in Naivasha.
A little back story of how I came to learn about this gem. We were interviewing Chef Joseph at Nairobi Safari Club and he said whenever he was in Vasha he always had lunch at Matteo’s Italian Restaurant. Their good food came highly recommended.
“We wanted to make people aware of good Italian food. We wanted to create a simple place where people could enjoy a great meal and great value. A homely place where they’d get together with friends and feel like they’re part of our family, Matteo’s”
Their menu available on their website here, is very detailed with the correct pricing of every item on there. I love it when restaurants do this. We didn’t get a chance to check out the lounge/bar area as it was booked for a private function so we settled in the restaurant.
Their service was stellar with the chef welcoming us with a bruschetta when we arrived, followed closely by our drinks.
They have an array of really great wines and a 20% discount if you buy a takeaway bottle. I had a Cielo chardonanny which was their wine of the day.
For our starters, I ordered their mushroom soup with tomatoes and potatoes, you know what they say about Kikuyus and their warus. Would I order it again? Probably not, it was quite bland and the soup lover in me was a tad bit disappointed.
My person ordered the vegetable Lasagna and it was probably one of the best dishes of the day. I ditched my soup as soon as I had a mouthful of this starter. The egg plant, layered with mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese and au gratin was such a flavorful cheesy dish. There was even a side of Parmesan cheese just in case you were feeling extra. And we went in with all that cheese. Eggplant is so underrated but when cooked good it is right up my alley.
For our mains, the plan was pasta or to try something new, still trying to comprehend how I ordered Classic baked lasagna bolognaise. We all blame the delectable vegetable lasagna.
Bae had a platter of assorted fried seafood the deep golden fried calamari, prawns and fish chunks. Interesting combo right here. It was my birthday lunch celebration but bae was making better food choices than I was. Why did I pass up a chance to devour the Grilled Norwegian darne of salmon, coated with Dijon mustard and pistachios? We must return to Matteo’s for this.
I had totally made a pig of myself by the time I was done with dessert. A delicous chocolate mousse.
Matteo’s pizzas are a popular item on the menu going by the number of families who were making orders. They range from Sh700-Sh130, Pastas from Sh1100-1650. Main courses Sh1300- Sh1800.
Matteo’s is an intimate restaurant set on a quiet location that would be ideaL for a birthday party, office christmas party, lunch date, dinner et al. They are open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am – 10:30pm. Lunch was a delight, I would actually drive down there from Nairobi when the road trip bug comes calling.
