The Rooftop — Restaurant in Arusha

This is a review for The Grill, which is located within the Gran Melia, but does not seem to have a google account linked. We are guests staying for three nights at the Arusha Melia, after a three night stay at the Serengeti (which is on a whole different level).

We were a bit hesitant about a steak house in Tanzania, but decided to give it a shot. Especially since the Melia website advertises this as a "Premier experience for steak enthusiasts." We ordered a starter salad ($15 CAD), two rib eyes for $60 CAD each (only meat, no sides included) and some sides.

Bread came to start which was promising, but despite being served on a cast iron plate, this was entirely for show and was cold. We asked them to warm it for us.

We ordered a bottle of wine, but then were told that the prices on the menu were wrong, and the actual computer price was ~40% more.

Salad was then brought out, which was a generous portion and good presentation. However, when we started eating it, we realized we were eating completely undressed salad. We had to flag down a waiter after waiting for 10 minutes who brought it out in a small dish for us.

Steaks then came out. They do a cute presentation where you choose a steak knife which is a nice touch. We consider ourselves to be pretty forgiving when setting our expectations low for dining, especially when travelling to a foreign country. We have never sent back any plates before, throughout our travels or in our home country. However, these steaks were completely unreasonable. To start with, this was not a typical ribeye where bone-in is advertised in the price. In addition, the bone is typically one single rib. We weren't clear on how this was cut, but the entire steak was encased in mutiple shards of bone, which required you to attempt carving away the bone from the meat segments. There was no rendering of the steak and the steak was the most rubbery piece of meat I have ever been served at a steak restaurant, and the entire piece was chewy and tendinous. Our steak knives could not even cut the meat without a significant amount of elbow grease and shredding. We were even questioning if we were served steak or if it was pork, there was no flavour or colour to the steak at all. We had to return both these steaks which was the first time I have ever done this in restaurant dining.

They were nice enough to not charge us for the steaks, after we ordered two new entrees.

Overall however, the restaurant is beautifully presented and the staff at the Melia are exceptional and no...

The rooftop restaurant is a fantastic choice for both families and individuals. One of its standout features is the tasteful decor, which creates a welcoming atmosphere. The food, particularly from their American menu, is absolutely delicious and definitely worth trying.

However, I did encounter some issues with the service. At times, it can be quite slow, and it takes longer than expected to receive your meal. Additionally, I noticed that some of the waitstaff seemed a bit disengaged. On a brighter note, the supervisors were enthusiastic and eager to assist, which made a positive impact on my experience.

I will certainly be returning for dinner in the future! A suggestion for improvement would be for the waitstaff to smile more and engage with guests, as well as to ensure they check in on tables regularly to confirm satisfaction before moving on to...

Amazing views and food and service But slow at getting our food/ bill and quite subpar desserts:( not worth getting at all especially with a 40 minute wait for it but superb presentation. My party was especially disappointed about the chocolate fudge cake + very stingy with sauces for some reason 40 minute wait for the bill where they forgot to deduct our 120k bill from (unacceptable)

Dishes are about about 40k, drinks 8-23k I couldn’t find the menu anywhere which was unnecessarily taxing

Minor improvements needed to be an EXCELLENT restaurant. Shame to end it...