Review: The Rwizi Arch Hotel in Kampala, Uganda.

The Rwizi Arch pub at the underground in the backyard of the hotel

I was privileged to share abode at Rwizi Arch Hotel at Kansanga area, Kampala together with seven journalists from six African countries from 24-29 June this year.

Together with an equal number of local Ugandan journalists we were attending Financial and Economic reporting course from Reuters Foundation.

During the stay we loved staying at the pub in the back of the hotel taking up the backyard space and the underground floor with a capacity to seat close to thirty patrons.

The pub’s atmosphere though set with a outdoor gardens have the ambience of an extension of the hotel’s dining room with the chairs set at a distance on a soft lighting shades for a quite conversation and dating scene but not for the rowdy football watching crowd as experience in Kenya.

To compound the atmosphere further there is no pool table, ballroom lights or the longer counter bar stools making watching a game to be akin to twiddling with a remote control in your sitting room with the children reading in the background and your wife trying to get her sleep, a quite no shouting affair.

But the huge board which projects games and music is a plus for football watching, though the music is pre mixed and not engaging as there is no dance floor without any DJs.

Though the food is sumptuous as the bar shares the kitchen with the hotel, their drinks are expensive. Kenyan Tusker Lager and Tusker Malt, brands at the bar, go for USh4,500 and USh4,000 respectively while Ugandan special Nile Special goes for Ush3,500. Being a teetotaler, for the two games I watched from the pub i settle for Norvida pineapple and a 300ml Stoney which went for Ush3,500 and Ush2,000 respectively.

The bar counter

I realized the prices were high as which forced me to watch German being bundled out of Euro2012 finals by two Mario Balotelli’s first half goals on pubs along the Kabalagala Street wher drinks are Ush500-1,000 cheaper.

Critique:

With the quite atmosphere for conversation the pub is best for a business meeting and dating and you can easily reach the hotel,6Km from the CBD along Kabalagala Street in a 30 min drive.

On the down side, for foreign revelers seeking the feeling of Kampala’s night life the pub isn’t ideal with setting and would recommend the numerous pubs along Kabalagala streets which has several East African universities.

                              ©Manuel Odeny 29 June 2012, Kampala-Uganda