Café de Paris – Excellent food

If you like to eat out like me, you’ve probably learnt to roll your eyes at claims about the best this, the most authentic that, the perfect this, etc. So, when I saw the menu at Café de Paris claiming they had the best burger in town I cheekily thought, let me be the judge of that. 

Café de Paris is located on Churchill Avenue in Alexandra Park, a low density suburb in Harare. Areas close to this location are Avondale, Borrowdale, Groombridge and the city centre. The café is hidden behind a few shops in a small complex so don’t panic if you don’t spot it as soon as you get there. The complex has a very clean and neat feel about it which the restaurant keeps up with. There is sufficient parking.

Once my companion and I got to the café, we got a little lost looking for the entrance and for someone to assist us. Let me help you right from the start, the little place with all the pastries? That’s it! That’s your entrance should you need staff. It was a hot winter afternoon in June 2023. You read right. In the Winter, Zimbabwe is cold at night and warm to hot in the day time. We were glad that their outside tables had umbrellas. We were told there would be a twenty minute wait so we walked around the lovely complex as we waited. When our food came, it looked amazing! The burger looked like a tower of perfection. My lunch companion had ordered the beef and in my humble opinion, the plating up was fit for a fine dining restaurant. Neither my companion nor I wanted to miss out on what the other was having so she had a quarter of my burger and I had a quarter of her beef. Yes, we were at that table that sophisticated people give the side eye. I had chosen to have my burger meat medium and they got it just right. I could taste each and every ingredient, fresh and full of flavour with perfectly melted cheese unifying them all! My companion’s beef was also medium as requested and with every tender forkful, I really did wish we had gone halves. 

For dessert, I had humble pie. Without a doubt I had indeed eaten the best burger I’d ever eaten in Harare!

The restaurant was not busy when we visited. It was during lunch on a week day. While I loved the food at this pretty café, I was a little disappointed with having to look for staff in order to be seated. At the end our bill was a bit higher than we thought and when we questioned this we were told the price of drinks had changed during the course of the meal. This sort of service just didn’t match the excellent food.

All things considered, this place did make us feel like we had found a little gem! Their prices were reasonable especially for such excellent food. I would definitely go again, I would love to taste the pastries next time. I would highly recommend Café de Paris for couples and small groups.