Hemingways Nairobi

We stayed at Hemingways Nairobi for two nights - 5th & 6th October - as a restful end to a week-long safari and to celebrate my mum’s 70th birthday. This hotel is absolutely gorgeous, with stunning location, buildings, furniture and decor. It screams luxury. The rooms are just incredible - beautiful and cosy/welcoming. The only reason I have given 4 stars instead of 5, is because of a very bad experience in the restaurant on the first night - we had to ask to get some drinks, the main course took about 45-60 mins to arrive (even though I had stressed that I am diabetic), and when the food did arrive, it was cold and incorrect for one of our party. We spoke to management, who took our feedback very seriously and they apologised profusely (even offered us free dessert). Our waiter, John (I think his name was), also apologised and looked genuinely distraught about our feedback. I really have to stress, John was fantastic and none of our complaints were his fault in the slightest. John was wonderful and we have nothing but praise for him. Since providing this feedback, the restaurant staff made a huge effort to make up for yesterday, apologising again. We’ve just come back from our second dinner, which was the total opposite and was perfection. Food arrived promptly (especially for me as a diabetic), was delicious and the service exemplary - our waiter Newton was absolutely fantastic. I think as a general comment, I otherwise noticed that communication from staff could be lacking a bit - for example, letting us know whether they had ordered a cart to take us back to our room, or checking in on us. At times it felt a bit like we were forgotten about. But I hasten to add that when we did interact with staff, all of them were lovely and friendly. It turned out last night they were having kitchen issues with lots of guests to serve, which is completely understandable - it just might have helped to let us know about this, as we would have completely understood and not been so disappointed. As a side note, the checking in process felt like it took an extremely long time (and again, with no updates while we waited). Overall, if you are looking for luxury, this is definitely the place for you. Aside from the one bad meal at the restaurant, we have otherwise loved Hemingways - I also really want to praise the staff for trying to make it up to us tonight; especially decorating a table for my mum’s birthday and providing a delicious cake!

We had a wonderful welcome from Hemingway’s. Food excellent. Great accommodation and very friendly staff. It was the start of our holiday and it could not have been better. We could not recommend Hemmingway’s more.

Your hotel is stunning. The entrance, lobby, restaurant and surroundings are spectacular. I arrived in the wee hours of the morning and was quite taken by the elegance. I felt relaxed immediately. My Porter, Jones, took me by golf cart to my beautiful room where he introduced me to all the lovely features. I was traveling solo and i enjoyed and made use of the two sinks. The bathroom, closet and shower were spacious and accommodating. The bed was extremely comfortable. The lighting and charging sockets were well placed. After spending a day on tour, I had a lovely curry dish for dinner. It was a slightly chilly evening, so the waitress accommodated us with a heated lamp. Your hotel afforded a much relaxed two nights to send me off on a 14 day safari. I returned to your hotel for my last night’s stay in Africa. Once again, the accommodations were impeccable. On both occasions, I thoroughly enjoyed your breakfast. I helped myself to a variety of fresh fruits and juices and thoroughly enjoyed the salmon Benedict from the menu on both occasions. I was dining alone and my server, Abigael, was so kind, knowledgeable and friendly in a most professional way. She made me feel most welcome, comfortable, and was extremely attentive to my dining experience. Jackie, the restaurant manager, followed up to make sure my dining experience was impeccable. Mildred was most helpful in making sure I checked out in a timely manner, luggage was in the proper place and attended to my cash request. You have a world class hotel. Not only will I highly recommend, I will return.

My wife and I stayed here for a total of four nights -- two before our safaris and two after. It's a beautiful property with lovely views from all of the rooms. We stayed in the Stanley Suite first, then the Meryl Streep Suite at the end of our trip. Both rooms were the same. Very nice four-poster bed, dual sinks, walk-in closet, a safe and a spacious balcony. Except for one lunch while out on a tour, we ate all of our meals here. The food was very good: burgers and crocodile burgers for lunch, lasagna, prawns and Indian food for dinner. The service was great and we had some excellent servers. They are locals but have all adopted western-style names so that we can pronounce them. Kind of a shame they have to do this. But our favorite server, Eunice, told us her given name and we had no chance to pronounce it. James, Abagael and everyone there was fantastic -- warm, personable and eager to provide great service. On our last day there, we had an 11:30pm flight out of Nairobi, so we bought a day pass and were able to stay in our room until 7pm. Then we had dinner and off to the airport. We highly recommend this hotel!

The Hemingways property in Nairobi has beautiful grounds, the staff were warm and attentive and we felt very well looked after. We stayed before our trip to Maasai Mara and returned after our trip to the Serengeti, it was a nice and relaxing place to stay and the food and drinks were superb