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Stan Higgins
Zimbabweans older than 40 are likely to remember the popular and ubiquitous advertising campaign of the Cold Storage Commission from the 80s and 90s in which a bull called Samson was the ‘spokesperson’ for the CSC, exhorting people to enjoy prime Zimbabwean beef.
Come to 2024 and the name Samson lives on, not in the CSC but at a fairly new Harare restaurant which is called Samson and in which the scrap metal statue of the bull that once stood outside the CSC headquarters take pride of place.
There’s a natural link to all this, with Nick Havercroft having acquired the CSC to rehabilitate it in coming years and decades and he also being the operator of Imba Matombo, the well-known Harare hospitality venue that is home to Samson restaurant.
Being called Samson, it does of course lay claim to being a steak house, one of a very few in Harare, and so the menu is fairly strong on beef content.
That doesn’t mean vegetarians can’t find fare, but it does mean that meat-eaters will be the ones to most cherish and experience of dining there.
Imba Matombo is a delightfully-situated establishment that was opened in the 1990s atop a hill in north-eastern Harare, where Glen Lorne meets Shawasha Hills, and the main feature of the property is a suburban hotel or lodge offering accommodation, conferencing and banqueting, dining and social opportunities.
Samson has been created as a new feature there in the recent past, after it was taken over by the Havercrofts.
Nick’s brother, Mark, a longstanding hotelier with a great deal of local and international experience, is running it for him and working hard to re-establish it as a pillar of the Harare hospitality scene.
Samson has an indoor dining area and bar, with a covered veranda that hosts more seating, while a splendid feature is a wooden deck that reaches out from the building over the hillside that drops into a deep valley, wooded and attractive, it’s a delightful venue with one of the most attractive aspects of any dining establishment in Harare.
We dined there at lunchtime and enjoyed a veranda table, as well as a set menu focused on beef provided by Chef Noddy, who has a history in hotels and cruise ships and who has been recruited to set up a good set of dining experiences for guests.
On the a la carte menu, beef dishes included a tomahawk steak, filet mignon, rump sirloin, t-bone and a mixed grill of sirloin, ribs and boerewors. Zimbabweans, being meat-eaters in the main, will love this selection.
There’s also spare ribs, a burger, bream tagliatelle with broccoli and mushrooms, as well as a list of starters and a dessert of the day.
It was a good meal and the company was equally enjoyable, with Mark as our amiable host chatting about the local and regional hospitality industry past, present and future, he has had a lot of experience in hotels here and outside our borders and has been pleased to help get Imba Matombo back on the map after a period in which it seems to disappear or lose some of its luster.
I’ve got the good fortune to be going there again next week, when the Grapevine wine group there for a wine tasting and supper, giving us a chance to enjoy the venue in the evening, which will yield another, different experience, no doubt.
Key to the success of this venue will be maintenance of high standards of cuisine and spreading knowledge of its existence, as so many people in Harare look no further than their known and nearby for dining out and need to be nurtured into supporting the lesser known and the further away.
I liked the suburban feel of the place, and all the trees and vegetation around us to hide the fact that we were, in fact, entirely within the city area and not at some remote location far from town.
It’s not a big restaurant, so I don’t think anyone will ever be overwhelmed by a large number of customers and I think the rustic charm, heightened by a more solitudinous ambience, will be best enjoyed when dining numbers are not huge.
I think it best to reserve places just in case there’s a function on, so call 0783 186458 for enquiries and bookings.
Samson restaurant is at Imba Matombo, 3 Albert Glen Close in Glen Lorne, just off ED Mnangagwa Road (formerly Enterprise Road).
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