The Trout Tree Restaurant
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Built in and around a huge Mugumo (Sacred Fig tree) overlooking the Burguret River, alongside colobus monkeys and tree hyraxes, this is one of the most original places to eat in Kenya’s Central HighlandsIt is located less than 100m off the main Kiganjo-Nanyuki Road, on the Burguret River and 3 km from Nanyuki Civil Airstrip. 

The Burguret River, whose source is Mount Kenya, cascades through the grounds of the restaurant feeding pools filled with trout. The Sacred Fig is a gargantuan matriarch, which envelops the restaurant, its branches supporting the wooden platforms that form the floor, its canopy offering shelter from the mists and rain. In the summer the shady coolness of the grand behemoth is one of the best escapes in Nanyuki.

Upon entering Nanyuki, the piratical fishbone sign is the first thing that welcomes you. A graveled path descends off the main road into an indigenous forest in which many Colobus monkeys have made home. The rich smell of fish cooking and the damp mustiness of thick woodland as bird’s twitter along to the roaring of the river filling the air. There are two stories at different heights for seating and a third adventurously high platform for the brave and the monkeys.

The restaurant mostly serves smoked trout and cucumber salad, trout chowder, trout curry, tandoori trout, whole grilled trout – char-grilled is best of all. If you’re lucky, you might be able to fish for your supper and have it cooked for you afterwards.