Wilolesi Hilltop Hotel

During her first year in restaurant business, Wilolesi Hilltop Hotel has seen at least three changes of management and staff. One chilly Saturday evening we set to find out whether the changes are for better or for worse.

About a twenty-minute walk from Iringa's main road up the hill, the view from the hotel down the Iringa valley is magnificent. The hotel has invested heavily in building and décor: the restaurant has a number of small, well-furnished thatched-roof huts, which can accommodate six to eight people each; there is a large thatched-roof lounge; there is a restaurant hall for around 20 people; and there is the traditional hotel bar. All these are newly built and look stunningly modern African.

We arrived at Hilltop Hotel around twilight time, and were given tables at the main restaurant hall. The view was as stunning as always, yet there was only one other person in the dining hall—which is not extraordinary at this restaurant. Aside from the pale fluorescent energy-saving bulbs, the dining hall is tastefully decorated, and the table setting is always properly prepared. The professionally prepared tables, with light brown tinted tablecloths that stand in harmony with the room decoration, give a hint of luxury to the place.

Enthusiasm and effort of the staff has never been a problem, and this time was no exception. This time the waiter seemed somewhat familiar with waiting at tables. However, when we got the menu, we found to our disappointment that since our previous visit the menu had shrunk to some three different starters and ten or so main dishes. We first ordered the house shrimp cocktails (4500/--), but hence the kitchen was out of shrimp, we had to settle for vegetable soups (2000/--). For the main course my fellow ordered Beef Carbonado (6500/--) with cooked rice, and I went for Pepper Steak with potato chips (6000/--).

Having dined in this particular restaurant a couple of times, we had reserved plenty of time for the dinner, but this time the hastiness of the service surprised us pleasantly: in fifteen minutes from ordering, as the sun set under the horizon and lights of Iringa began to appear one by one, we already got our soups. And what a pleasant surprise it was! The soup was thick and tasty potage with small cubed vegetables and a hint of ginger and garlic. The texture of the soup was smooth and the home-baked bread that accompanied the soup was at the same time crisp and smooth: simply delicious. We thanked our luck that the restaurant had been out of shrimp.

However, albeit the soup set our mouths watering, the waitress had forgotten to ask us what we would like to drink. When my colleague asked for water, the waiter asked "for washing your hands or drinking?" …And down the drain went the prima facie impression of professionalism. The selection of beverages was the usual soft drinks and water. Sometimes, when the restaurant has wine, there might even be a choice (between “red” and “white”.) Granted, a decent wine cellar or sommelier would be a bit too much to hope for. "Wine glasses" in this restaurant are an interesting feature as they stand; sometimes wine is offered from snifter glasses (meant for cognac), sometimes from flute glasses (meant for champagne), and sometimes people in the table have differently shaped glasses. But in the end, when one cannot select a wine to complement the taste of the entrée, or when the wine is either too warm (a common problem white wines) or too cold (a common problem with red wines) water is much better choice anyway. We settled for water (500/--) and a soft drink (1000/--).

The logistical and architectural choices at Hilltop’s three restaurant areas are interesting. As the food is cooked in a separate kitchen next to the small huts, the waiters who serve customers at the main dining hall have to climb up a steep slope and have to balance with plates and trays to open the door. Of course, when waiters and waitresses come and go, the door is always left open, which, at least in June-August, makes the customers shiver in cold.

We finally got our beverages, and after the wonderful start we were impatiently waiting for the entrées, yet getting them took some 45 minutes, starting from the orders. When the main courses arrived, we found out that “beef carbonado” meant two pieces of beef hammered thin and topped with thick gravy. The pepper steak had the same kind of two pieces of meat with different gravy. As always, one could already tell by looks that the potato wedges were left squidgy; one can rarely get in Iringa those golden colored chips that are crispy boiled, yet soft inside. The amount of rice on my friend’s plate was enough for three, and it was cooked just right so that it was neither too loose nor too sticky.

The scent of the pepper gravy was arousing: the aroma was warm and spicy. My colleague commended the carbonado steak in the same way. The gravy kept its promise: the mildly spicy flavor came with a warm, rich aftertaste. My friend praised the gravy on the carbonado, too. But the big letdown uncovered when we tried to cut the steak. The cut was flank or some other tough cut of beef, and very tough to chew. I actually had to spit out some of the meat as the tendons and fasciae chewed together to form a thick lump of unchewable mass. Our blunt butter knives were no tool for cutting the meat without shaking the table and scratching the plates. The wonderful gravy could not salvage the total failure with the meat; both of us had to leave some meat on our plates.

Strange enough, there were no desserts on the menu, so we skipped that part. Coffee was, unsurprisingly, the usual Africafé instant coffee. The bill was quite expensive in Iringan terms: 18.500/-- for a two-course dinner for two people. As we had paid and were leaving, the issue with underschooled staff arose again: the waiter ran after us, stopped us, and told that unfortunately he had charged us too little for the water. The problem is not the attitude of staff—quite the contrary; the staff seems very dedicated to their work. The problem seems to be a managerial one: staff can do exactly as much as they are trained to do.

All in all, the Wilolesi Hilltop Hotel restaurant has true potential to become the dining place of the town, but a number of minor issues keep on impeding the quality.

Atmosphere: *****
Service: ***
Food: ***