Pallet Café: Have a meal with a cause

The Pallet Café is a garden café located in Lavington, opposite Lavington Green Mall. The restaurant lends an artsy, green-conscious vibe to the quintessential brunch setting with its open-air concept and pallet furniture. It attracts the kind of customers that match its ethos – the multicultural, sustainability-conscious, artsy type.

What sets Pallet café apart from other similar artsy, sustainability restaurants in Nairobi is its vision for providing great food and amazing service while promoting the training and employment of the deaf community in the service industry. With their #I’m Deaf, Pallet Cafe aims to foster awareness and fight discrimination against the deaf community in the service industry. 

I was a little intimidated walking into Pallett Café. It’s like going to a restaurant in a foreign country whose language you don’t know. Even though using sign language isn’t required, one doesn’t want to be offensive. I was quickly assuaged of this fear. The vision of the restaurant is to provide great food and amazing service and it delivers. That the staff is hearing-impaired is a by the way.

The service is definitely on the better side. I was in and out in under one hour and there were seven other tables including a group of ten. The waiters are attentive but they would have to be. Still, it is a nice thing to experience, especially in customer service. While customers are encouraged to use sign language and there are items on the menu with hand signs, the staff has notepads on which to communicate with guests. 

The menu is a western-style cuisine with extensive healthy options for breakfast and lunch. I ordered the restaurant’s signature dish – Zoodles or zucchini noodles, a low-carb alternative to traditional pasta.  This is the only place in Nairobi that serves them. There are three options: seafood, chicken, and Mediterranean (vegetarian).  I knew I made the right choice when the amazing smell coming from the kitchen was my order being made. The meal was flavourful. The zoodles themselves didn’t have flavour, much like traditional pasta doesn’t have one but they were fun to eat. The chicken was tender and delicious. It had deep flavours. You could tell it was marinated well.

There is a lot to recommend about Pallet Café. Their vision of inclusion of the deaf community in the service industry is executed well and doesn’t come off as a gimmick. Aside from fostering awareness, it is a wonderful space to relax but if you are so inclined, there are other social activities available like yoga and art classes. There’s also a spacious play area for children to run around.