Garden Bob Swahili Restaurant — Restaurant in Unguja

We walked in at 1PM with no customer in the restaurant. Couple of very disinterested employees grunted that they can serve us some lunch. Looking at the body language, we should have left, but our hunger made us continue to order two items - Grilled prawns and chicken curry with chapathi. 10 minutes later, a plate of something like a fried root vegetable arrived. I asked for hot sauce, and the waiter gets a bottle with hardly anything left and lot of fungus at the opening. I asked for another bottle, which never came. 45 minutes later, we threatened to leave as our food hadn't arrived as yet. He said "two minutes" which I was skeptical of, but the food came. Looks like the quantity is generous and I think that makes the young college kids happy because of the portion size. The prawns were a bit mushy, not a good sign. And the chicken was tough and tasteless. The chapathi was the frozen variety that you warm up on the skillet. We paid the 44K TSH for this and left and bemoaned the taste buds of the previous reviewers. This was the worst food experience in Zanzibar during our 15 days here, not that the other restaurants know how to cook well either. This is not an island for culinary...

We happened across Garden Bob restaurant by happy accident, it was completely empty (always makes me a little apprehensive) but we decided to try it anyway. Fish Soup! Delicious, very bright, clean flavors, with lime, fresh fish, and a vegetable medley, a large enough portion to be a starter for two. Veggie chapati wrap with chips and salad: veggies were sautéed in a garlicky sauce and cooked perfectly, the chips were crispy on the outside a fluffy on the inside, lastly the salad was a delightful mix of julienned veggies and mango in a refreshing vinaigrette dressing. Red Beans with Ugali: a richly spiced tomato sauce with red beans and diced veggies, accompanied by fresh Ugali and the same excellent salad as the chapati. Excellent value, we were to full for the complimentary fresh fruit that accompanies each meal. We will definitely go back. (Update) we went back, again, and again… it was always excellent, when we didn’t eat at Garden Bobs we found ourselves comparing the food to Garden Bobs, and it was never...

Came here as an alternative to beach restaurants. Here's my feedback:

Positive... the food was really nice and worth going again and compared with beach restaurant which are more "tourist places" this restaurant at the village main road is a bit cheaper (in case you bother)

Less good: the food was ordered 19:50, it arrived 20:40. They of course take no credit cards, pay in cash only. I noticed their Schilling-USD conversion rate on the menu is weird... It can range from 1:2000 to 1:2500 depending on the dish you order? I ended paying in Schilling as he could not give USD change back anyway.

Beside that, the table cloth looked like it was not washed in a least a month... Everything felt a bit sticky which you usually don't have at hotel-restaurants.

Food, 5 stars Service a bit slow, 4 stars Ambiente, lacks hygiene at the eating...