Restaurant Review: Lansmore Hotel Restaurant

The Lansmore Hotel, Masa Center

A swanky new movie theater with shows in 3D...
A lively courtyard with bars and a live DJ on weekends (well, until 10:30 pm anyway)...
A bunch of restaurants serving everything from Setswana food to pizza and burgers...
A hip new hotel with the best restaurant in town...

Welcome to the Masa Center!

The Masa Center is a new development located in downtown Gaborone in what is known as "the Central Business District." This name may be a little bit ambitious, as most of the gleaming new office buildings that were put up in a hurry by Chinese construction companies are standing unoccupied. It is not clear who thought that the CBD would be a good idea - seems that someone was overly ambitious in their desire to attract businesses to Gaborone and thought that slapping up some attractive buildings and calling it the Central Business District might work in tricking people into thinking that there is actually a bustling downtown filled with industry and productivity... ah, that elusive and intangible element known as "business" ! So far the closest to that we have in Gaborone would be the Government Enclave area, but I would hardly say things are bustling there; you can, however, see lots of depressed-looking bureaucrats shuffling their way to their various ministry offices at 7:30 every morning!

Lamb chops

Fish and potatoes.

Anyway. As you can probably tell from the above description, the Masa Center is the only part of the new CBD that has really taken off. The focal point of the Masa Center is the Lansmore Hotel, which is quickly surpassing the other nice hotel in town, the Grand Palm. The Grand Palm is older with spotty service and a more traditional steak-heavy menu at its main restaurant, the Beef Baron,; the Lansmore has a more modern design, the service is much more with it, and the restaurant is quite trendy with its French fusion cuisine and extensive wine list. We had heard good things about the Lansmore restaurant, so we decided to check it out for our third marriage/ ninth dating anniversary on March 20. *I say "marriage anniversary" because we have two anniversaries: March 20 is our dating anniversary as well as the day we got legally married at the courthouse; May 8 is our wedding anniversary, the date of our actual wedding ceremony and reception*

Creme brulee

Chocolate torte.

We really enjoyed our meal there from the three-course set menu option and concluded that this was the best dining experience we've had so far in Gaborone. For appetizers we had the mussels and French onion soup; main courses were bream with sliced potatoes and lamb chops with mashed potatoes; and for our desserts we had chocolate torte and creme brulee. The service was very good and we were also impressed by the wine list, which offered a much better selection of wines by the glass (i.e. more than one white and one red) than you can typically find in Gaborone.

Here's my Crocodile Restaurant Review Scale:


1= Not good. I may as well have eaten river weeds. 
2= Missing something. Anyone want to hit the river and look for something better?

3= Fine, I guess, but I’d rather eat a hippo.

4= So good, it was definitely worth the swim over here.

5= Forget hunting! I’m eating here from now on. 

Food	So good, it was definitely worth the swim over here! The food was great, but there were only four to five options each for appetizer, main course, and dessert.
Service	Forget hunting! I’m eating here from now on. Very attentive service, with the waiter frequently checking back to see how we were doing. We even got to sample a pre-appetizer soup for free!
Ambience	Forget hunting! I’m eating here from now on. On a cool evening, it was lovely sitting outdoors in the Masa Center courtyard.
Overall Experience	Forget hunting! I’m eating here from now on. The Lansmore is the only go-to place for an upscale meal in Gaborone.

 
Overall I give it a !!