Daisy's Café

Lunch here is a salad or a sourdough sandwich taken beside the pool. Daisy’s Café is the garden café at The Retreat, the wellness house next door to Giraffe Manor in Nairobi.

A garden café built around light meals

The kitchen keeps to what suits a garden table: salads, burgers, sourdough sandwiches, homemade desserts, and a list of artisanal drinks and teas. It is casual food, put together for a long sit rather than a formal service, and it works either side of a treatment at The Retreat as easily as it does for a walk-in lunch.

The drinks are the other half of the appeal. Teas and made-to-order drinks carry the middle of the day, and the sweet side is house-made, so the café holds up as an afternoon stop and not only a lunch one.

Open garden, poolside light

The room is airy and nature-facing, with open garden views, poolside surroundings and soft natural light doing most of the work. It reads as serene rather than busy, and the pace is set by people staying at The Retreat as much as by anyone arriving for the day.

Sitting next door to Giraffe Manor puts the café in one of Nairobi’s most recognisable pockets of hospitality, and the Safari Collection setting shows in how the space is kept: unhurried, green, and social without being loud. Dress is casual and walk-ins are the norm.

Order the sourdough sandwich first

The sourdough sandwich is the easiest way in, a straightforward plate that fits the garden setting and leaves room for dessert. A salad is the lighter alternative and a burger the fuller one, so a short menu covers both a light pause and a proper lunch.

Finish with something from the homemade dessert side and an artisanal drink or a pot of tea. That is the shape of a visit here: an unhurried table in the garden, a light plate, and a long drink, with the Nairobi setting doing the rest.