REVIEW: At Rainbow Towers

Starter at Kombahari at Rainbow Towers.

THE MOST recent outing was to Rainbow Towers. A group of 30 food lovers had the run of the hotel – meeting first in the Aviation Bar for welcome drinks, moving on to ground floor restaurant KombaHari for starters and finishing up in the 15th floor executive suite for the final courses.

Innocent Masuku has recently taken over as Executive Chef at the Rainbow Towers. He has a huge task on his hands supervising 65 chefs in three restaurants as well as 24-hour room service and seems enthusiastic about the challenges ahead. He met us in the Aviation Bar — tucked away behind the sweeping central staircase – and introduced us to the array of options for the night out.

Starters were prepared in the KombaHari. Described as Afro Asian fusion, the restaurant boasts cooking stations where food is cooked in front of you Mongolian style on hot flat griddles. Our group divided into three – depending on which starter we chose. It was a nice way to introduce us to each other, provided a chance to mix with different people and have conversations around the food.

My husband opted for the bream and seafood bisque served with smoked scallops. My choice was the venison terrine – already prepared in-house – served with sautéed duck liver. Clustered round the cooking station we could choose how our livers were flavoured from an array of condiments on offer – ginger, garlic, soy, chilie, vinegars.

Perhaps too ambitious in locations and option, the menu offered a choice of four mains – all quite complicated. We waited far too long on the 15th floor for our mains to arrive – certainly at least an hour – causing Joseph to step graciously into the breach and start managing!  Although pretty hungry by the time it finally arrived, I found the duck disappointing and failed to detect all the promised flavours. To be honest It didn’t taste that different from the beef tornado.

The bream got lost in translation – or the elevator – forcing fish lovers to be satisfied with salmon. Wine upstairs was a rip-off $7 a glass as opposed to $3 down below. Presume when you are staying in the executive suite you expect to pay the price – but seems like hotel rules should be swayed for such a special showcase.  All the same, it was a great night out with interesting starters and good conversation. Wish Innocent Masuku luck at Rainbow Towers and look forward to more gourmet explorations.

g.jeke@yahoo.com