Restaurant Review Column

Moshi has a very wide variety of places to eat, ranging from street vendors and tiny “coffee shops” to full-fledged restaurants, some of which are very high-end. I thought I’d write some of our reviews and opinions as we’ve been trying various places out.

El Rancho: Our first night here, we went with a big group to a place that does both Indian and Italian, but which took over the location and name of a long-gone Mexican restaurant, so it’s called the El Rancho. It’s the closest restaurant to the KCMC Doctor’s Compound, just about 10 minutes walk down the same road as the International School. Its Indian food is excellent, with fantastic butter naan. The kids recommend the pizzas, which are about plate-sized and feed one hungry American child. Favorites are the Margarita and the green pepper/onion. They also do takeout (“take away”) but allow at least an hour for them to prepare the food. It’s our go-to standby. We give it 4 stars.

Hardrock Café: Ok don’t get your hopes up, it was nothing like the trademarked chain of Hard Rock Cafes. On our first day after teaching at the preschool we took a dalla-dalla to Moshi Center and got off at the busy, crazy bus station/ taxi stand. It has a 2-story concrete “mall” on one side, and we noticed a painted sign for the “Hardrock Café” and decided to head there for whatever they were serving. Turns out it’s a hole-in-the-wall place with one table and no menu, but at least the sodas were chilled. We asked what the options were for lunch and were told “liver and chips” or “omelet and chips.” We went for the omelet, which was a big fried-egg patty with imbedded French fries. Forrest thought this was a genius idea, the best of both breakfast and lunch, although the tomato sauce (ketchup) was scarce, the table and kitchen did not look clean. We give it 1 star.



Panda Chinese: The Panda Chinese restaurant is set a ways from the road, hidden by a small Tanzanian style open café. In fact, it is an excellent place to eat. The gate into the restaurant is painted a dark red with yellow words on it. Beyond is a small garden and open seating, with indoor seating inside the actual restaurant. The cuisine is authentic Chinese in the sense that it tastes very similar to Chinese food in America. However there are several menu items that cannot be found in America, such as grilled impala, which this reviewer (Thompson) really wants to try, despite the intense debate as to whether impala is actually available, and it is not in fact a mix of stray dog and mutton. The food is well priced, and the spring rolls are very good. We have gotten some spiced beef dishes over rice, and spicy noodles, and thought everything was above reproach. In short, this restaurant is quite good, and this reviewer gives it a solid 4 out of 5, which is subject to change based on the quality of their impala.

Leopard Hotel “Italian Passion”: We went to this place one evening with two other volunteer doctors. The Leopard Hotel looks like nothing from the outside and it’s on a busy street, but the restaurant is in a skinny interior courtyard and is beautifully furnished, with high ceilings and modern art and a lovely open kitchen. A large flatscreen TV in the corner was tuned to CNN. There is also outdoor dining. The food was excellent, we all chose Italian. Very tasty bruschetta is served complimentary, with very ripe tomato. The spaghetti carbonara turned out to be a disappointment, swimming in butter, using Canadian bacon instead of “real” bacon, and missing any sign of green peas. But the spaghetti with mushrooms, and the spaghetti with prosciutto (i.e. regular ham) were delicious. We also had some very good pizzas, with a lovely crust. One of our group ordered a burger, which seemed to take an inordinately long time to cook. Overall, though, we give it 5 stars, especially appreciating its elegance and cleanliness.

Indo-Italiano: We ate at this spot which is obviously popular with tourists on safari. It’s in a backstreet location on a dusty road a block away from Moshi’s main drag, it’s a little hard to find and looks a little worse for the wear. It had separate menus for Italian food and Indian food, and we chose Italian because we were in the mood for pizza that night. The spaghetti with meatballs was good, the café/street atmosphere pleasant enough, but the neighborhood felt seedy and dark (there are no streetlights to navigate back along the “sidewalks” at night). We give it 3 stars.

Deli Chez: We blundered into this place because it happens to be close to where our dalla-dalla lets us off each day. It’s spacious and cool, possibly even air-conditioned, with spotlessly clean glass tables and extremely nice bathrooms. The gigantic menu weighed a ton, and had separate sections for Indian food, African food, “Scrumptious Menu,” Chinese food, Japanese food (including, scary, sushi), Continental food, and sandwiches. They have appetizing photos of burgers and ice cream out front, so it was full of people speaking with American accents. We all tried their burgers, either beef or chicken and although there was an underlying spice/curry flavor to the meat, it was quite passable, had lettuce and tomato on it and served with generous amounts of fries for only 3500 TSH. The long list of ice cream flavors included the usual ones, but also green apple and bubble gum and tutti frutti. The kids tried the chocolate milkshakes, which had the texture right but the taste slightly off. We give it 4 stars and will definitely go there again.