Five Senses

November 27, 2024

This fine dining restaurant is located at Galana plaza in the heart of Kilimani. It’s a French cuisine restaurant with an additional African flare to all their dishes. A hostess meets you at the door when you enter to direct you to your table. I found the place quite inviting - warm lighting, ambient music and well spaced seating so it doesn’t look too cramped.

For a fine dining restaurant though, I felt like their decor and furniture was quite dated, giving it a more aged feel as opposed to luxury… I think they need to spruce it up a bit to match their brand and their prices.

Their menu has quite a variety of options, everything sounded delicious! Our waitress, Faith, started us off with a nice little bread basket which I immediately dug into, I love me some bread. I like that the spreads included a beetroot hummus, very yummy.

For starters we had the banana textures (KSH850) and the mayai pasua (KSH350). Now this is not your ordinary mayai pasua please, it’s a mayai pasua with the chef’s twist on it. It looked like a work of art. A poached egg with honey mustard, white bean Alfredo sauce, black bean pesto (basically njahi) and salmon roe (red caviar)… that’s quite a combo. Now I’ve never tasted caviar before, this was my very first time and it wasn’t too bad, it has a nice salty taste.

My friend who ate the mayai pasua said it had an interesting smoked salty taste, she gave it a 7/10. The banana textures on the other hand is a mix of different banana textures i.e. sweet banana, actual banana and plantains. The sweet banana puree was a bit of an acquired taste for me because I’m not the biggest banana fan but the almond foam sitting on top of it helped the taste The peanut bits add a nice crunch to the dish, if you like bananas this dish is something you’d for sure enjoy.

For the mains we had the pork belly (KSH2800) and the poached salmon (KSH3800). The pork belly was a nice big portion, it’s sliced and deep fried covered in Panko breadcrumbs. It sits on top of some Korean bbq sauce served with a side of kimchi. Added some fries to have with it. The bbq sauce was quite light, not as richly bbq-y as I’d have liked. The pork belly itself was very tasty and filling, I did not finish all of it, I think I only ate half the slices - the leftovers the next day were sublime

The butter poached salmon was a nice big piece, surrounded by dollops of avocado puree and purple cabbage puree with a drizzle of balsamic reduction - all this already sounds so good just by reading it. The taste?? Even better! That salmon was so yum! I love the crispy skin as you bite into it, there was a champagne sauce that accompanied it that really elevated the taste even further, so so good. There was some caviar on the salmon too (how do they have this much caviar???), it wasn’t the red one this time, it was black and also had a nice salty taste to it.

The mashed potatoes deserve their own post guys… those are some of the best mashed potatoes I have tasted in a long time So soft, so buttery, just melts in your mouth delicious! If you wanna make my Christmas just send me a tub of their mashed potatoes thanks.

As dinner went on, I took note of how attentive the servers were. Faith and her team would switch out the cutlery depending on what meal you’re having so you’re not stuck with a butter knife for your main course when you actually need a steak knife - they continuously refilled the water in our glasses whenever they spotted the glass was half empty, they have a coat hanger where you can hang your coats, blazers, jackets etc instead of draping them on the chair… This may seem like nothing but it’s little things like these that make a fine dining restaurant a really great experience, paying attention to every single detail.

Please note we weren’t the only ones in the restaurant so they had their attention to other patrons as well showing great flow of service.

Now for dessert - I was clearly forcing this because I was already so full but I really wanted to have a taste of their molten lava cake (KSH1000) and before I called it a night. This cake was clearly freshly made because the rich chocolate aroma hit me as soon as it was placed before me, love the smell of freshly baked goods.

The cake was perfectly crusted on the outside and super soft on the inside. I was too excited I forgot to take a pic of the molten sauce oozing out of it when I took the first bite. That cake was delicious! It melts in your mouth and it has a raspberry sauce inside it instead of the traditional chocolate sauce, I liked that twist. They didn’t have vanilla ice cream that day so they substituted it with cookies and cream ice cream and I think that’s a much better pairing because it was amazing! The chocolate cake + the rich, warm raspberry sauce + the lush ice cream = a perfect mix of flavours that diffuse into each other seamlessly with every bite. Loved it!

5 senses was a delight in every sense of the word. The soft and relaxing music throughout set the stage for a fantastic atmosphere, it wasn’t full so makes for a nice intimate dining experience. It’s not a place you can just walk into on a typical afternoon/evening given the prices but if your wallet has no limits, by all means - walk in at any time and enjoy the delightful food and spectacular service here. For those of us working on a budget, plan accordingly and then visit 5 senses to experience a great gastronomical journey.

Makes for a perfect date night spot, the dishes are unique and fun making for great conversation starters. Also a nice place for events such as birthday dinners, small office lunches/dinners and even solo dining if you’re just a curious foodie who wants to try French fusion cuisine.

I’d love to go back and test my senses again with more of their food, hopefully soon.