SugarBowl is the new restaurant on the block in Spring Valley, folded inside Shell Ruaka on Lower Kabete Road. They’ve been open long enough for their pots and pans to hit that sweet spot of seasoning finally.
So now, it’s time for them to face their final boss in this video game of restaurant reviews—yours truly. Let’s see if they’re a solid addition to Nairobi’s restaurant scene or just another “looks good, tastes meh” place.
I’ll spare you the flowery blog and get straight to the point: SugarBowl is a nice restaurant and worth checking out. It’s great in most areas, but let’s be real—it’s not perfect, and I’m here to poke at those cracks too.
So, if you’re still interested, keep reading. If you just wanted to know if it’s any good—yes, it is. But keep going anyway, because I’m covering everything. And trust me, I don’t hold back with critique, since I’m just a “regular guy“, not some influencer getting payments or freebies to promote this place. I paid for my meal, down to the last shilling.
SugarBowl’s Ambiance
The ambiance here is decent, but if you really want to soak it in, skip the terrace, especially on the upper section—traffic dust is not the vibe you want since this place is literally next to the road.
The furniture is standard, though those stylish-looking outside seats are kind of uncomfortable. Inside, there’s some greenery, and the color contrasts are pleasing.
The menu has a nice elegant feel, possibly leather-covered, making it a delight to browse. Overall, it’s a nice spot—think Artcaffe, but with a bit more charm.
Plus, there’s a private pod upstairs if you’re looking for a cozy work nook with couch seating. Just take a note from Daily Cafe & Bistro; they have the best seats around.
Pricing & Value
You know what? Let me cut to the chase—SugarBowl is overpriced. I’m all about value-for-money restaurants, and this ain’t it. If it were some high-end, fancy restaurant, sure, I’d get the premium pricing, but here? There’s no reason to charge those prices for what’s essentially just your average cafe-style eatery.
The first red flag: scrolling through the menu and seeing prices with comma-separated digits—not a great start.
Burgers for KSh 1,500? The only place I’d pay that much for a burger is a proper grill house with specialty beef patties or wagyu, not for the generic beef they’re using here. Then you’ve got salads for KSh 1,400—1400 for leaves? Nope. And don’t even get me started on the mains hovering around KSh 2,000.
Read: The 5 Best Burgers in Nairobi Right Now
This is a casual spot, not a Michelin-starred restaurant, so those prices are a hard pass. Even their breakfast is overpriced—KSh 1,600 for a “full” breakfast that wasn’t even full. I’ve had better breakfasts for KSh 1,200 at similar places.
I feel like the only thing priced normal here is coffee and drinks
Now, to be fair, the food is decent, so value really depends on what you order. Oh, and by the way, the menu on their website is outdated—prices have gone up since then. I’ll include the current menu at the end of this post so you can see for yourself.
Food & Drink Review
Came here for brunch and stuck to the breakfast menu. The good news? I ordered enough to cover most of the bases.
Coffee Review
But first, I started with coffee—an Americano, because it’s usually a good litmus test for how the rest of the coffee might be. Unfortunately, it flopped. The coffee here is mediocre at best, making Java House and Artcaffé taste like barista-level masterpieces—and we both know how average they are.
Also Read: Java House vs Artcaffe: Which Cafe is Better?
Also Read: 5 Best Coffee Shops in Nairobi (Better than Java or Artcaffe)
SugarBowl’s Americano? Hollow, light, and utterly forgettable, tastes almost like an improved instant coffee. Again the coffee here is served so lukewarm for some reason and I promise you it will be cold and undrinkable in the next 3 minutes. The cherry on top? A comically tiny “patco-sized” cookie they serve on the side like that’s supposed to make up for everything.
The only halfway decent part of the coffee experience here is the sweetening options. They’ve got a variety, just like Artcaffé, which at least adds a bit of flair. Your sweetening options? Brown sugar, white sugar, or Canderel; an artificial sweetener.
Unlike Java House, where you’re stuck with a bowl of brown sugar like it’s the 1800s, SugarBowl serves their sugar in sachets—because nothing says “elegance” like pre-packaged sugar.
Oh, despite the name SugarBowl, they don’t actually serve sugar in bowls. I guess SugarSachet didn’t have the same charm.
So if you were planning to visit SugarBowl for coffee please reconsider.
Fruity Tea
This fruity tea came highly recommended by the waiter as their best offering in the tea section (I’m a tea enjoyer), and I’ll admit, it lives up to the hype.
It’s sweet enough that you can skip the sugar, and the 4 or 5 fruits don’t bully each other—there’s still enough ‘tea’ left in the taste.
Imagine a hot, peach-flavored iced tea, if that makes sense. The pot technically serves two, but let’s be real, once you taste it, sharing is off the table. If you’re a tea lover, forget the rest of the menu and just get this. Honestly, this fruity tea is probably the only reason I’d bother coming back to SugarBowl.
Italian Breakfast
I had my sights set on this Italian breakfast, but my date has this adorable habit of hijacking my picks because, apparently, I have “great taste”. The fruity tea from above? Mine—until she tasted it, and suddenly it was hers.
Same deal as the Italian breakfast. She hates pesto but decided to order it anyway because I guess my initial choice overrides her dislike for green sauces.
I did manage to sneak a few bites, and it was pretty good. The cherry tomatoes and basil? Fine. The egg was cooked to her exacting standards. But the real star? The brioche bun. Lightly toasted, soaking up all the olive oil and tomato juices, with mozzarella melted on top—it was worth the order theft.
As for the salad, let’s just call it what it is: kachumbari with cucumbers thrown in. The only real effort was in pickling the onions, which I appreciated. At least they were sweet, tangy, and won’t leave you with that delightful raw onion breath all day.
English Breakfast
Since my order was shamelessly stolen, I decided to go for the English breakfast (because, according to Ancestry.com, I’m 2% British). And surprise, surprise—it turned out way better than the Italian one, both in terms of quantity and price It comes in two plates. At KSh 1,500, it’s even cheaper than the Italian option, which costs KSh 1,600.
I’ve got to say, I prefer this English breakfast. It’s not a “proper” English breakfast, but we’ll get into that later. What it lacks in authenticity, it makes up for with sheer variety and portions—10 different items, plus spreads. It’s breakfast for the indecisive.
In case you don’t have eyes from the image above I’ll tell you what this breakfast comes with
- Fruit salad
- Sautéed button mushrooms
- 2 fried eggs
- 2 sausages
- 2 roasted tomato halves
- A small bowl of beans
- Bacon
- 2 slices of bread
- A piece of butter
- Fruit jam
That’s a lot of food, and for once, I’m not even complaining about the price—you’re definitely getting your money’s worth. The best part? The bacon, obviously.
Bacon is always the MVP of breakfast, but this one was next-level because of the type and how it was cooked. They used streaky bacon, which is the king of all bacon—it’s the fattiest, so naturally, it tastes the best. Cooked to perfection: crispy but not crossing into hard and dry territory. And the portion? Pretty generous. No complaints here.
Now, onto the sausages. They were done pretty well—so well, in fact, that they had this perfect golden-brown finish all around, with zero burnt patches (looking at you, every other place). Firm, juicy, and just immaculate
Mushrooms—yeah, when I saw they were button mushrooms, I was ready to hate them. But surprise, surprise, I actually loved them.
I’m not sure if they were that good or if my expectations were just that low, but either way, I was impressed. Unlike the sad, bland button mushrooms I had at Caviar Mirage Towers, these were perfectly salted, seasoned, and cooked. They didn’t have that weird watery texture inside, and because they were sliced thin, they were crisp and flavorful.
That said, let’s keep it real: they’re good for button mushrooms. The dried porcini mushrooms I had at La Villa Kitisuru? Now those are still the best mushrooms I’ve ever tasted in my life—no competition.
The fruit salad was decent, for the most part. The bananas and grapes really carried the team here. The pineapples? Eh, they were just okay—not particularly juicy. But the watermelon bits? A complete letdown. Watery and tasteless, like they forgot to choose a real watermelon and just went with a cucumber in disguise. Still, overall it was an okay fruit salad, but it could level up.
Now for the things that didn’t exactly win me over—starting with the eggs. They were cooked in a way I can only describe as odd.
These eggs weren’t runny, as one would expect in a proper English breakfast. The yolks were solid on the outside, and I thought, “Maybe if I poke them, the glorious runniness will flow out.” Nope. The yolk was cooked all the way through, tasting like the yolk of a boiled egg. Let’s just say… disappointment was served on that plate.
Next up: the beans. I appreciate that they went with actual baked beans, but these beans were… not it. It’s like they used the most generic, budget-friendly brand available. The outside had this weird plasticky taste, and while the insides were soft, the texture clash was not a pleasant surprise. Baked beans are supposed to be soft all the way through, not a crunchy shell surprise. So, yeah—beans? Big miss.
Heinz baked beans are the gold standard for an English breakfast—there’s just something about them. Yes, I know they’re a bit pricey, but if you’re going to call a dish an English breakfast, commit to it.
And speaking of commitment, where was the black pudding? (“English Mutura”) I get it—it’s not the easiest thing to find, but it’s not exactly extinct. Farmer’s Choice processes and sells it, so I’m not sure what the excuse is there. Oh, and hash browns? Nowhere to be found. So, yeah, this is not exactly a “full English breakfast” since some key items are missing.
The other disappointment? Being served plain bread slices instead of toast. Maybe I’m just spoiled, but even a proper English breakfast calls for toast or fried bread—not just naked bread slices. However, they tried to make up for it by offering butter and jam spreads, so I guess I’ll forgive SugarBowl… this time. But seriously, if I wanted sandwich vibes, I’d have asked.
Now that fruit jam? Hands down the best jam I’ve ever had. It’s like 10x better than the usual supermarket ones. I don’t know if they whip it up fresh in the kitchen or what, but it’s not that sickly sweet overload you get from most jams.
SugarBowl one’s rich, silky, and has actual flavor depth, with just the right hint of tanginess. It tasted like a dreamy mix of blueberry and wildberry. Honestly, it was so good, it made me forget about the disappointment of my untoasted bread slices… almost.
And for the roasted tomatoes, they were average and could be better roasted to intensify the juiciness because they honestly tasted like raw tomatoes, also salting a little before roasting them upholds the entire flavor, someone tell the chef that
Pineapple Mint Juice
This juice? A bit of a shocker at first sip. It had a chunky texture like a smoothie, which was confusing since the ingredients were just pineapple and mint. So now I’m wondering which one decided to add that extra texture.
Anyway, the waiter recommended it, and while I loved the taste, the texture was… not my thing. There’s nothing technically wrong with the drink—it just didn’t vibe with me personally.
Service
In a casual restaurant like this, you pretty much only get to interact with your waiter, and ours was the best—patient, friendly, basically the ideal human.
So, because of him, I’ll give SugarBowl a 5-star rating on service. But, fair warning, your experience may vary depending on who’s serving you that day.
As for the food, yeah, it takes a while. I’ve seen people venting about it on Google Reviews, but I didn’t mind much—especially since my dish had a bit of everything, so I expected a wait.
Now, if you’re ordering something simple like a pastry, feel free to side-eye the clock a little harder. But for me? No complaints.
Final Thoughts on SugarBowl
SugarBowl shines in service and delivers some standout items, like jam and perfectly cooked bacon. However, there’s room for improvement—think toast instead of bread slices, better beans, and fixing the eggs.
Also, the pricing is a bit high on some items, especially for what you get. A quicker turnaround on simpler dishes would help too.
Overall, it’s a decent spot, and I’d recommend checking it out—it’s somewhat worth the drive and the cash for certain items.
In summary, I’d rate it a solid 4.0/5.0 stars. The average Google rating is 4.2/5.0, so it looks like I’m pretty much in sync with my fellow diners. Who knew we could all agree on something?