Woodlands Lilongwe

Had dinner at the restaurant with a colleague. The food was bland and cold. Service was mediocre and the restaurant was dark. Guess they are trying to create a romantic atmosphere by dark and candle light are different things. Won’t come back again. By the way we had Indian food for dinner so cannot comment on their other cuisine.

On December 20th, my wife and I, went to Woodland for dinner. We come often because we like the atmosphere. Yesterday we had an experience that didn't excite me. I ordered a pepper steak with chips. When I was served the food, I saw that it wasn't a pepper steak but a thin slice of beef. This had nothing whatsoever to do with a pepper steak. The meat was so tough and hard that I had difficulty cutting it and eating it. I asked for the cook and asked him what it was supposed to be. He said a pepper steak, I informed him that this is not a pepper steak and not worth the price of 21000 MK. He tells me he doesn't have any other meat in the kitchen, to which I said he can't offer pepper steak. I recommended that he has to buy the meat from Chipiku, they have good quality and also steaks that live up to the name. He said he was buying there, I said, but probably the cheapest thing there is and then it is sold in the restaurant for expensive money and is different from a pepper steak. We bought 2 juicy Sirloin steaks days ago for 6837 MK for our own. I showed him example pictures from the internet of what an pepper steak looks like. That’s a Peppersteak ! Also asked to inform the manager that he would come to our table to take the complaint. No manager came. I wrote an E-Mail to managers address, till today no reply I advise the manager to consider compensation for me, the best thing would be to serve me a steak at your expense on my next visit, which deserves the name and not a slice of meat as thin as a slice of sausage at breakfast. I send pichtures into my mail what shows a filet steak served by Vincent’s at Capitol Hotel Lilongwe. That’s the different, the price in Vincent’s is even not much higher than yours. But the quality is worlds apart. Im waiting still of an answer form the mangement of Woodlands.

Woodlands was a good stopover in Lilongwe. The room was spacious, with a big wardrobe and a verandah where we could sit and watch animals. Dinner was good, with an Indian emphasis. We were disappointed to find that, as in every place we stayed, having travelled all the way from the UK, we were offered a full English breakfast. We happened to be there on the last Saturday of the month and so were delighted to be able to wander around the Farmer’s Market held in the grounds of the hotel. Despite what Bradt says about this being a peaceful location, we found that there was a lot of noise late into the night, both from the road and what sounded like people partying nearby.

I went to the restaurant after over 6 years and one obvious improvement is a bigger bar in an open area unlike the old one which was like hidden in a dark corner. With my two colleagues we thoroughly enjoyed our birthday lunch and happy to have noticed that one colleague liked his veggie dish. The service was excellent and we enjoyed the red wine. The wine menu is perhaps one of the best in Lilongwe. Lots of parking.

We spent 1 night at Woodlands, our last stop before heading back home, Woodlands was very nice, the room was great, everything worked, we had dinner in the restaurant which was very tasty, the only thing was all the waiters were gathered in a group listening to a soccer match on their phones, a bit noisy and disturbing , other than that everything was good. Its also close to Lilongwe Wildlife centre for an afternoon visit. Woodlands is a bit out of town and surrounded by woodland so it was nice a quiet.

Woodlands is a hotel owned by a second generation Indian residing in Malawi and within this there is the restaurant. Visited there for lunch and it has plenty of vegetarian and non vegetarian options. Menu ranges from bhajias and samosas to the whole range of vegetables including paneer options, biryani, naan roti etc. Alcohol is also available here. Seating is semi open air overlooking the pool and garden as well as a patio. There is also air conditioned dining.