Music, mature crowd and cocktails
Meat platter at Sky Lounge- has Drumsticks, pork ribs, sausage Photo | Pool
What you need to know:
- Sky Lounge is on the 11th floor, and as it towers over Nairobi, you can enjoy nice views especially if you sit on the high tables along the perimeter
- The crowd here is mature and there is a band playing
I was invited out to Sky Lounge for a gin and jazz night which happens every Friday. It’s a slow month, and I didn’t want to have to “chonga viazi”, so I wanted to know if it would be a Sh 3,000 kind of night or a Sh7,000 plus one. She assured me that there are sharing platters on the menu, and you would get a free set of drinks with the order. Then, since there was a happy hour, you could get two cocktails at Sh950. It sounded like a plan to me, so we met up at the hotel.
Sky Lounge is on the 11th floor, and as it towers over Nairobi, you can enjoy nice views especially if you sit on the high tables along the perimeter. The crowd here is mature. We had however reserved a comfortable lounging sofa, close to the stage, so we could see the band perform. Boy is that band good! There’s a lead singer with a beautiful voice, a pianist who would get into the groove and start dancing, and a saxophonist who knows his way around that instrument.
The sharing platter was Sh2,400, and it was a generous helping of chicken drumsticks, pork ribs, sausage—all lathered in a delicious sweet and sour sauce, accompanied by one plate of fries and a small helping of spicy kachumbari. The accompanying free gin and tonics were really good as well. I was having a good time at this point.
We decided to take up the happy hour offer which ends at 8pm, and after debating between the cuba libre and mudslide, settled on the latter. The downside of their offer – for the customer at least- is that your 2 for 1 drink has to be the same one. The mudslide had vodka, Kahlua, Baileys and a dash of cocoa powder for garnish. It’s a good dessert drink. The downside? Sky Lounge gives you like two shots of it in a big cocktail class, then add a lot of ice, likely for volume. We felt a bit cheated—like you could pour your two drinks into the same cocktail glass and it wouldn’t even fill it halfway. To buy that at full price? Child. Then Scott the Violinist came on, and all was forgotten.
At 8.30pm, the band packed up. Shortly after, we took our cue and left too, planning to visit again sometime.
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