Barra Beach Resort — Hotel in Dar es-Salaam

This could easily be a 5 star review but there were a few things that need the management team's attention.

THE GOOD: The place is stunning! The service is superb (Judith , the server you were a star! ) Also, a special shout out to Lucy( reservations). Great phone customer service skills. ( a rare skill in this city). Kudos to the management team, your staff is the best I have seen in Dar!

The vibe is vibing! So chill and relaxing. I loved the fact that it is family friendly establishment. It is a place where both kids & adults can have a good time. The playground area is top notch with enough activities to entertain kids for hours. Charging extra for the playground is genius, it makes the place less crowded and easier to manage. The giant screen to watch football was on point!

THE BAD How do you serve food with no utensils?

How do you bring water to wash patrons ' hands with no hand soap? Especially with no utensils ( unless you ask). This is unhygienic.

The little tomato sauce you put in those shells is cute but not enough. So one has to keep asking for extra tomato sauce. So maybe get a bigger shell? But I prefer this idea than having the same bottles reused by millions of people like in a lot of restaurants here. ( Karambezi).

THE WORST I travel all over the world and my favourite thing to do is trying out new restaurants. I am a foodie ( unapologetically so).

As far as I am concerned, food and customer service would make or break a place. I would rather go to a hole in the wall with amazing food than a a fancy place with mediocre food .

Barra Beach, I hate to say this but your food and drinks were the worst I had in Dar. You really need to hire or retrain your chef (or whoever came up with the recipes).

I ordered Beef Mishkaki - they were old, chewy, dried up, tasteless, I literally gagged! They were definitely not freshly made. They tasted like they were made a while back and stored in the freezer. And you would microwave them to serve as needed

So I ordered the grilled Changu fish. I only ate one side, it was also dry and tasted like rubber.

Apparently the grilled chicken was fine ( not great). And the fries were good.

The drinks were even worse! You really need to scrap your drink recipes. There's no reason for a beautiful, high end place like that to have subpar cocktails.

I ordered a Tsunami cocktail - it tasted like Listerine mixed with tons of sugar. So I returned it.

I was convinced by the waitress to order a "Sex on the Beach", she was apologetic, and she felt this drink would be solid. Bless her kind heart , it was not. It tasted like someone dumped a bunch of extremely sweet syrups together, they looked pretty in a glass, and that was going to do it. Yes, your cocktails were unbelievably bad. We all ended up drinking soda.

The point of this review is not to be nasty; I just want you guys to do better! You have a gem of an establishment, you deserve 5 stars! But please please I beg you! Revamp your food & cocktails menu.

I really loved Barra Beach and I would love to come back. This time I would just stick to wine and the curry dishes. I mean you can't go wrong with the flavorful Tanzanian...

Beautiful place, terrible service & misleading policies

I visited Barra Beach Resort in Dar es Salaam yesterday. While the location and setting are undeniably beautiful, the service and management left a lot to be desired.

From the moment we arrived, the reception was cold and unwelcoming. The staff barely greeted us, just a nod and “What do you want?” When I asked for two entrance tickets, they simply said it was 20,000 TZS without explaining that the fee could be used for food inside.

Once inside, nothing was clear. There were no signs showing where you could or couldn’t sit, where the restaurant area was, or which seats required extra payment. We wanted to sit in certain seats but were told it was an extra 30,000 TZS just to access the pool area. This fee didn’t include towels or any amenities. The pool required a wristband (also 30,000 TZS), but the water was so dirty you couldn’t see your feet. No clear directions to showers, changing rooms, or towel stations were given.

We had booked a specific table with a 1 million TZS minimum spend, right next to the pool, yet pool access wasn’t included. The waiter tried to claim our bill had reached 1 million when it was actually 950,000 TZS, seemingly trying to overcharge us.

Ordering drinks was another headache. The champagne menu had spelling mistakes, and the waiter clearly wasn’t familiar with the drinks. I had to return the champagne four times until I showed him a Google photo of the bottle, at which point he told me I probably didn’t know these champagnes. I do, in fact, know my champagne.

Food orders were wrong, wrong sides, wrong dishes, inconsistent portions. We waited an hour and a half for cocktails. The bill at the end was a complete mess, with incorrect charges everywhere. Even after calling the manager, we were told our seats should have included wristbands, but then they reversed and said we had to pay separately.

In total, we spent about 1.3 million TZS and swimming was still not included.

Bottom line: The resort is only good for taking pictures. The service is slow, disorganized, and at times feels dishonest. Definitely not a place for relaxation, more like a recipe for...

Beautiful Barra, I wonder where things went so wrong. By charging TSH 20,000 at the entrance, you clearly aim to position yourself as a premium venue. But premium clients expect premium service – and that is exactly where the experience falls short.

Service is extremely slow. We ordered three dishes at 16:00. Two only arrived at 16:45, and the third at 17:15. Drinks also took far too long to be served.

The new reception desk is another disappointment. Guests now have to look up at the receptionist, who on our visit was neither warm nor welcoming. How hard can it be to put someone with a beautiful smile at this critical position?

I understand that the setting is perfect for Instagram photos, and many visitors may be happy with that. But I sincerely hope you can provide more value than just good pictures, by training your staff to deliver service that matches the premium image you...