Cafe Zambezi — Restaurant in Southern Province

Café Zambezi definitely a hidden gem behind an old storefront! My first experience here was about 6 days into my 4 week volunteer assignment in Livingstone, our volunteer house decided to meet here that Friday night for drinks, some of them had already been here before.

To my surprise, the place has so much going on which was pretty cool, as you enter there is a coffee shop & OMG a beautiful dessert bar that enticingly greets you, then a gift shop; followed by 2 indoor/outdoor dining areas with a bar, talk about perfectly bringing the outdoors in or the indoors out, I won’t spoil it for you, it’s something you have to experience for yourself (preferably on a Wed, Fri, or Sat night when the band is playing); then another lavish dining area tucked away in the corner; if that’s not enough there is also an underground bar area and 2 massive lounging areas, warning it’s so comfy that you may not get up, seriously; and finally the pool, beautiful grounds, self-catering kitchen, and guest rooms.

That night we started out in the lavish dining room area, the tables are very intimate but perfect for large groups as well. A few of us was really struggling with the food at our guest house which was suppose to be a mix of local & western dishes but…. so we decided to ordered food here to go along with our drinks. So glad I did, for the 1st time in 6 days I finally had an enjoyable & flavorful meal. I ordered the beef pizza and also sampled from some of the other volunteers (masala pizza, chips, croc bits), everything was great! Later we went down to the underground bar for a few more drinks. Not only were the food & drinks great, but the ambiance throughout the place was cool.

Since I didn’t leave room for dessert that night and loved the vibe, I decided to go back for the dessert the following night, there are several options of cakes & muffins on the menu, including one of my favorites, red velvet cake! I was supper excited, but was quickly disappointed to find out that they had ran out for that night. However, the staff wouldn’t let me stay disappointed long, they quickly arranged for a slice to be brought in from one of their other restaurants in Livingstone, it was definitely worth the short wait!

This was just one example of the stellar service I always received each time I was here. As a result of great food, service, & ambiance, I ended up frequenting this place repeatedly during my entire time in Livingston, which was extended to about 7 weeks.

The menu has a wide variety of offers including local favorites, great portion sizes & prices; excellent drinks; a great spot to watch the game; live entertainment on some nights. It’s definitely the hang-out spot for tourist and locals; I would always run into friends at the café and made quite a few while here plus acquired some family as well.

I can’t just recommend the Café Zambezi experience, you might as well make yourself at home by booking the guest rooms to get the whole experience, you will definitely feel at home at The House of Zambia,...

The Hotel called the police and asked them to detain me when I was trying to cross the Zambian border. At check out they didn’t know if I had payed or not (there was no electricity at the time), so I just told them to charge the credit card I had done the booking with. Which was also what I had agreed on with the receptionist when checking in. No problems till then, the receptionist told me they would do that. Their incapacity to to their job and charge my card at the right time, led them to the extremely unproportionate measure of asking the police to detain me. They put me in a cell at the border police station, my passport was taken from me and I didn’t know if they were going to put me in jail at a Zambian border town in the middle of nowhere. The police was asking me to give them the money to pay for the hotel, which I ended up doing in order to avoid jail time. Crazy scary experience. Why wouldn’t they send me an email or call me to fix this like civilised people? ||||There were also parties every night at the hotel until 23:30 or later. Screams, people jumping in the swimming pool right outside the rooms, and the pool bar that is kind of a little nightclub. Parties were from locals and tourists. Electricity worked only for 12 hours a day, that is in all of Zambia, but with the size of the hotel, you would think that they could get a generator. ||||If you want to rest, have electricity, be able to use wifi or stay out of jail because other people cannot do their job right, this is not the...

The Hotel called the police and asked them to detain me when I was trying to cross the Zambian border. At check out they didn’t know if I had payed or not, so I just told them to charge the credit card I had done the booking with. Which was what I had agreed on with the receptionist when I checked in. Their incapacity to to their job and charge my card at the right time, led them to the extremely disproportionate measure of asking the police to detain me. I was in the police station, my passport was taken from me and I didn’t know if they were going to put me in jail at a Zambian border town in the middle of nowhere. There were also parties every night at the hotel until 23:30 or later. Screams, people jumping in the swimming pool right outside the rooms. If you want to rest or stay out of jail because other people cannot do their job right this is not the place to stay. Crazy scary experience. Why wouldn’t they send me an email and fix this like...