Maru Maru Hotel, Zanzibar — Hotel in Mkunazini

Good View Off Food | Made Me Sick For 2 Days Now!!!

They served me a ‘fried old fish that was probably off and stocked for days or even weeks that was almost rubbery, hard and dry! They obviously recycled it from being fried to creating a new dish by using a new sautéed masala sauce, hoping that the customer wouldn’t notice and sell it off so they wouldn’t waste the meat!

After consuming some, I immidiately told the waiter Joseph that the food was bad, but the management didn’t care. Instead, they offered me a free brownie. I got upset, and I told them that that is not the point! You can’t just offer a brownie to compensate for bad food!

So I rejected the offer and just asked for the bill and paid everything.

We spent over $45 on our bill and left without giving a tip this time.

My concern is that, being a 4-star hotel, they should know that the meat is not edible anymore and shouldn’t risk customers getting sick!

They should never serve old meat and try to recycle it by simply soaking it in a new masala sauce that even dogs wouldn’t eat.

It’s a trash food! It has passed its’ best, and they should throw it if it’s already an old stock!

I know that $10 is still some money for them to make if they sell it, and surely they feel bad about throwing away old meat if they can hide it using a new sauce, but I'm seriously in pain shitting water every hour, suffering from diarrhea for 2 days now.

Can’t leave our hotel room, and worst, it’s our honeymoon in Zanzibar.

We just arrived 3 days ago, and eating there on our 2nd night since we arrived was a big mistake!

I’m just glad that I didn’t finish the whole pot after sensing that the fish is old; if not, I might end up feeling worse than this.

I’m curing myself now by having papaya on the islands to clear out my system.

But as of now, I can only stay indoors. I just feel bad that even the waiters insist that the manager in charge that he talked to that day didn’t want to take action about it.

I hope no one would suffer in the same situation as I have now.

Also, I don’t recommend the large glass cocktail most waiters are pushing you to avail for 40,000 Tanzanian shillings or $15 for a sundowner; it’s a rip-off.

They use cheap local liquor and fill the glass with lots of ice. It’s Instagrammable in selfies, but it’s nothing close to a cocktail. It’s a pity.

The view is nice from the top, but the hotel should keep an eye on how their chefs evaluate the quality of meat that is still safe for consumption or not. I hope that the chefs are kind and are not trying to keep the fresh meat to themselves and trying to sell off...

Service: Poor restaurant service - extremely slow, lots of mistakes, general apathetic attitude towards customers Restaurant manager exhibiting concerning behaviours towards staff - we saw him flashing a torchlight to get his staffs behaviour throughout service. It was really demeaning and off putting to watch. It seemed as if the culture amongst staff is poisoned to create a toxic work environment which was disturbing to see Not welcoming during mealtimes, snarky attitudes and poor hospitality training Reception staff did not greet us or say goodbye. Any small request seemed like a big problem e.g. our ask to replace missing items from room such as being short of towels

Room: Very dark, gloomy and quite depressing Very loud Missing towels with no replacement Fridge was extremely dirty and turned off when we arrived. No one bothered to explained this to us The cleaning staff were nice and helpful, friendly in the corridors.

Food: Breakfast food was good spread with lots of options, however the breakfast service (e.g. ordering cooked items etc) was not explained to us on our first day. We were left to figure out where everything was which was frustrating and confusing given the size of the breakfast spread. Food was inconsistent - we ate there a few times and some things were pretty good, others were unpleasant Restricted access to filtered drinking water from the fountain after breakfast time which seemed odd

Overall, the location is great but the behaviour of your restaurant manager is extremely concerning and made us feel uncomfortable to see how he ordered staff around in a demeaning and aggressive manner - this needs to be looked into. As a result you have staff who were unbothered, sloppy in their service, unfriendly and generally made us feel like we were a hindrance...

My husband and I have just got back from a wonderful trip to Zanzibar and we chose the Maru Maru for our 3 day Stone Town base. We were very pleased that we made this choice. The hotel is in an excellent location right by the old fort and easy to find. |Check in was busy but seamless ...the lobby staff were amazing and looked after our bags so we could go and have a wander as we were informed that our room would be ready in 30 mins. We informed the staff that we had a really early morning check out on the 6th of Feb and they said they would get a packed takeaway breakfast for us! We asked for a quiet room and we got that at the front of the hotel on the second floor. The room was absolutely spotless and everything was explained fully with regards to the mini bar. Our air con had a small leak but that was fixed within 10 mins perfect. We went up to the roof top bar and were made to feel very very welcome....excellent views and we ate at the resturant that evening. The swahili food was delicious. Breakfast the next morning was amazing too we loved the indian options...again all the staff are great. |We spent the whole day sight seeing in Stone Town. An unforgettable experience. We returned to have our last meal again at the rooftop resturant. The resturant supervisor got the kitchen to make Dosa with potato masala for me specially ...it not normally on that night but this touch was great ...again delicious food. We stayed for a night cap and have an early night for our early start the next morning. we had our wake up call , seamless check out ......and guess what....waiting for us in lovely Maru Maru bags were our packed breakfasts. Thankyou.|What an amazing hotel with the most wonderful...