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Livingstone Room - restaurant review

Livingstone Room - Victoria Falls

Having only planned a whirlwind trip to Victoria Falls, we expected to fit in the highlight activities surrounding the incredible Natural Wonder of the World itself, and that was about it… but when the heavens decided to open and jeopardise our plans we had to go back to the drawing board and come up with some new ideas.

Being massive foodies, perhaps even more so when we travel, my boyfriend and I got straight on TripAdvisor to see what the local area had to offer. With the rain thundering down outside, the location was high priority! Luckily for us, there were some great hotel restaurants in the vicinity to our hotel (The Kingdom Hotel).

One, Livingstone Room at The Victoria Falls Hotel was a matter of metres down the road so it seemed a possibility that we could make a dash for it and not look like drowned rats when we arrived. This was all the more important as we had just read that this high-end establishment had only just loosened its regimented dress code to allow males to go without their dinner jackets! Bearing in mind we had just spent two weeks volunteering on a dusty game reserve and lived out of rucksacks we weren’t really backing ourselves to be allowed in!

However, we scrubbed up in our finest attire and hoped they wouldn’t mind that I was wearing (god-forbid!) flat open-toed sandals and glided in to the restaurant full of confidence! As luck would have it we must have done alright (or more likely, the Maître d’ was just far too polite to reject us). We were seated immediately by Philemon who asked us if we would like an aperitif to start. Of course, to keep up with our surroundings (and because we love champagne) we accepted and toasted to our holiday, which was almost coming to an end.

What followed was an absolutely amazing 7-course taster menu, with wine pairings served by warm, attentive staff and a wonderful ambience. There was a relaxed atmosphere with a pianist playing throughout and a number of waiters and waitresses each with their own forte.

The menu below was $45 dollars pp, plus $35 pp with wine pairings, which in our opinion was an amazing deal!

MENU

Selection of breads (Olive, Wholemeal, Sun-dried Tomato and Thyme) with accompanying butters (Basil, Olive and Truffle)

Sparkling wine – Miss Molly Bubbly (only wine I can remember the name of I’m afraid)

Crocodile Amuse Bouche

Ostrich carpaccio and ostrich tartare with a quails egg and rocket

Scallop and chicken (the only underwhelming dish)

Tomato and basil essence ‘soup’

Zimbabwe fillet steak, mushroom, oxtail parcel

Selection of cheeses

“Chocolate egg”

Crêpe Suzette (flambéed at your table)

Petit fours

Despite the somewhat underwhelming scallop and chicken course the rest was absolutely delicious! Ant claims the desserts are up there with the best he has ever tasted and I have to agree. The ceremony of cooking up the Crêpe Suzette at our table just made it all the more dramatic and the citrus smells had us salivating before the food even touched our plates!

10/10 all round: effort, ambience, value, food, wine! We would highly recommend it if you are on a visit to the falls!