A platter of tabbouleh salad. PHOTO/Kadumukasa Kironde
It helps when you own the land and well-nigh 20 years ago back in the year 2005, Café Javas opened its first café on Bombo Road coterminous to City Oil. If memory serves me right, a couple of years earlier, Café Pap, on Parliament Avenue had made its debut and clocked 20 years last year.
By all accounts, the advent of Café Pap on the Kampala dining scene was a phenomenal success and in this much booze-loving city went against all odds to hold its own. However, the oldest café in Kampala was Ban Café, which opened in 1993 and was started by Richard Banya and closed shop a few years back. Great oaks from little acorns grow, and nothing succeeds like success and who would ever have imagined that the former Café Javas, lately branded as CJ’s would one day become a household name!
Today, rebranded as CJ’s, they can rightly boast of being the leader of the pack with no fewer than nine outlets in Kampala and Entebbe. Five in Nairobi with another one to be opened in Eastleigh shortly and a couple more in Mombasa before the end of the year.
One of the challenges cum mistakes, many new eateries in Uganda (and elsewhere in the world) make, is to start the venture with a wonderful and vast menu and in many cases replete with beautiful photographic illustrations featuring a veritable array of mouthwatering food. I say daunting and challenging, because having just one restaurant effectively means a relatively small catchment clientele vis-a- vis the likes of CJ’s, which literally has thousands of diners every single day year in and year out.
This ensures that whatever is on the menu is constantly being tasted and consumed, giving rise to optimum perfection of whatever one chooses. The central kitchen, which apart from allowing a savings of at least 10 percent in mass purchases for the outlets results in a reduction in unit cost, but also allows for standard recipes and operating procedures; plus a good 80 percent of the total food production can be made at the base and delivered to the outlets before first light. Going back in time, to the very beginning and looking at the first Café Javas menu as it was then known, it was a mere four pages compared to the one of today which is 40 pages and then some. The breakfast menu comprised fried eggs with toast or a choice of three omelets: Spanish, cheese or mushroom. Pancakes and French toast were also available. Today’s CJ’s breakfast menu is the Big on Breakfast and is truly gigantic with more than a score of different items including pancakes, waffles and omelets.
The CJ’s fit breakfast or the loaded chapatti combo to mention just a couple, and now they have added two new items viz. roasted chicken and egg breakfast combo and the breakfast smash burger, steak and egg breakfast and the CJ’s breakfast sausage roll combo.
Lemon and herbs. PHOTO/Kadumukasa Kironde
Whereas the lunch and dinner menu of that era would be considered moderate and hermit like at the time, Café Javas was a mere tenderfoot and neophyte at the game, and with all due respect, chose the path of moderation and growing organically.
Step by step, they have grown the business plus the all-important menu gradually introducing new items from time to time, while at the same time keeping the ear to the ground and listening to their savvy and well-travelled devoted customers.
The first lunch and dinner menu of Café Javas had one soup of the day, a couple of savory salads, one fruit salad, a mere handful of sandwiches and a few hot sandwiches. They also had a few burgers, grilled steak, fish and chips and a few sides such as rice, fries, and garlic bread to name just a few items. Period. Today’s main course menu is simply humongous with all the favourites plus the new ones such as Buffalo burgers, fish burgers, chicken pesto sandwich wrap, Tabbouleh salad, Jerk chicken pasta, lemon and herb chicken et al.
Pizza and pasta, an array of burgers were introduced as well as wraps and quesadillas. Do not forget the wide range of CJ’s desserts ranging from the classic black forest, chocolate fudge, dry fruit cake and others. Pastries galore are also available as well as waffles and pancakes. When it comes to drinks CJ’s are in a class of their own with an untold variety always done to perfection and always available. The new CJ’s menu is merely par for the course in their never ending endeavour to keep up with the times and we should expect more changes now and again during the course of time.
As the French would say, avec la patience en arrive a tout to which I add the Baganda saying: Gakyali Mabaga (so little done so much to do)
Open: Breakfast, lunch and dinner every day
The Bar: Coffee, tea, latte, mocha, chocolate, dawa teas, iced teas, coladas, mojitos, hand crafted lemonades, specialty juices, real fruit smoothies and gourmet milk shakes
The damage: Allow at least one Shs100,000 for a couple.
Sound level: Good
Parking: Available
If you go: They are open every day
RATINGS: Not to be missed, worth a visit, OK/so so, don’t waste your time.
