Tamarind Restaurant Mombasa — Restaurant in Mkomani ward

Please watch out - in this restaurant, the employees would constantly attempt to make you feel uncomfortable of your Far East Asian origin - if not wishing your mood to be spoiled, avoid. However ok the cuisine is, such a restaurant shall pay the cost for their ignorance and lack of basic respect.

The attitudes of the waiters severely tarnish the fine cuisine of this restaurant, and I believe this comes from the lack of diversity training of the owner of the restaurant.

With their strong Swahili accent in English, a few of the waiters one after another were keen on making abrupt and quite condescending compliments about their customer's English (I'm japanese educated in the UK), such as "Wow, your Engrish* is gleat* for an Asian", which has made us feel super very uncomfortable throughout the meals.

Through this profoundly exotic Mombassa Tamarind Restaurant experience, I learned Kenyans generally have strong linguistic inferiority complex in their Swahilised English. We went to this restaurant for a good food, not for paying attention to their or my English, which is irrelevant and silly. Waiters should not insist to bother their customers to this extent as we are only wishing to enjoy our meals that we pay.

For our country's standards, as result, this restaurant is rather average, particularly when its pronounced distasteful communication adds a strong spice to their seafood - quite unforgettable.

We went to another restaurant in Mombassa and the staff were behaving totally normal and nice to us, so it seems Tamarind is especially to be noted poor in...

My partner and I had booked a dhow cruise and dinner with Tamarind Mombasa on Thurs 23rd February and we were looking forward to a wonderful evening. Alas, that was not meant to be! Our dhow's mast grazed an overhead power cable just after crossing Nyali bridge, causing a short circuit on the dhows generator and disconnecting its power. After almost two hours of confusion, panic and poor emergency response, we were told rescue boats would come. What came was a small motor-powered canoe with a capacity of 3 people and 2 crew. Imagine our horror when 6 of us were forced to enter the canoe! So much for rescue efforts by an establishment of world class level!! We were all terrified at the mere escape at sea, when the canoe almost capsized after its motor went off. All this happened when there was high tide and strong current. There was no one to receive us when we finally reached the hotel jetty, no gesture of comfort from the management upon reaching the restaurant! When I said to the manager (lady called Prudence) I would post this experience on social media, she took offense! There was pure negligence from the management team. So here I am, sharing my experience, and cautioning other potential dhow guests to please beware, and ensure all safety protocols are taken before booking.

P.s. After requesting for some form of compensation, they said they would call us in three days. I am yet to...

We are tourists, visiting Mombasa for the first and only time, and I never expected such a horrendous experience at a so-called "renowned" restaurant like Tamarind Dhow. The reputation is nothing but a facade! I ordered the "catch of the day," only to discover that the fish fillet was still raw, completely undercooked. It’s shocking and unacceptable for a supposedly high-end restaurant to serve something so unsafe and disgusting.

What made the situation even worse was the manager's appalling attitude. When we pointed out that the fish was raw, they silently took the plate away without a single word of apology, no acknowledgment, no sense of responsibility—completely indifferent to the issue. This level of incompetence and disregard for customers is outrageous. We weren’t asking for compensation, but the utter lack of concern is absolutely unacceptable for a place with such an inflated reputation.

We will never return to Tamarind Dhow. This experience not only ruined our meal but also tainted our entire trip to Mombasa. Don’t waste your money or time at a place that treats customers with such contempt and carelessness. This was, without a doubt, the worst dining experience we’ve ever had at...