Dar es Salaam Serena Hotel

The Dar es Salaam Serena Hotel on Ohio Street, in the city's business district, runs five distinct places to eat and drink across its grounds.

The Serengeti Restaurant is the main dining room, recently restyled with warm natural materials and a layout that recalls a safari lodge interior. It serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner as a buffet — salad stations, dessert islands, hot and cold dishes, and active cooking stations where food is prepared in front of you. The focus is seafood.

Jahazi is the hotel's à la carte restaurant, named after the Swahili word for a fishing dhow. The room draws on Arabic coastal design — a reference to the Indian Ocean trade routes that shaped Dar es Salaam — and the kitchen sources fresh local seafood and employs cooks from the surrounding area. This is where the hotel puts its more considered cooking.

The Kibo Bar and Terrace is an outdoor terrace, recently renovated, with a wine and whisky list alongside cocktails. It is a practical after-work and sundowner spot. The Pool Bar serves light meals and snacks beside the hotel's private gardens. Bakers Basket, the patisserie and coffee shop, bakes pastries, cakes, and baguettes daily and serves speciality coffees through the day.

All five outlets sit within a 230-room hotel that also has a spa, a business centre, a conference centre, and a pool.