Tin Roof Café in Karen is an outdoor café set away from Nairobi’s malls, where you eat at metal tables under the trees. The kitchen serves salads, toasted sandwiches, and burgers, with vegan and gluten-free options throughout the menu. Ingredients come from local suppliers, and the café avoids plastic straws, using recycled takeaway boxes instead.

The space has a farmhouse feel, with mismatched cushions and milk buckets repurposed as lamp shades. You can sit on patterned cushions in the sun or under the shade of the trees, drinking locally roasted coffee or a fresh smoothie. Breakfast includes smashed avocado and poached eggs; later in the day, the kitchen plates pizzas and desserts, including a gluten-free chocolate brownie.

The café opened in 2013 as a response to Nairobi’s shrinking green spaces, offering a quiet place to eat outside the city’s rush. It is part of a small chain with a second location in Langata, both built around the same idea of fresh food in fresh air.