I should preface by saying that when I travel on a budget, I really mean I travel on a budget! When I stayed at this hotel in April of 2009, I was looking to spend under $50 per night, and the Hotel Embassy was only charging $43.
This is a good hotel for a budget traveler. It is extremely inexpensive, and the rooms are clean, albeit rather worn looking. The first night we arrived we discovered the toilet would not flush properly, but on reporting it to the front desk it was repaired immediately.
The restaurant in the hotel, like the hotel itself, looks as though it has seen better days (and the restrooms were frightening!) but the food was excellent, and the manager - always impeccably dressed in a suit and tie - would walk to and fro among the tables making sure his diners were satisfied. The only quibble is that it seems to have just one chef; consequently it was invariably about an hour after ordering before one's meal actually arrived. The restaurant serves mostly local food of Indian or African origin, and the Biriyani in particular was both tasty and prepared with meticulous attention to plate appeal. They also list some Chinese dishes on their menu, and I did try a one, which was not such a great success.
Because of its downtown location, the Hotel Embassy is in easy walking distance of all of Nairobi’s restaurants, banks, foreign exchange offices, and tourist markets. Even the National Museum – with its excellent exhibits on human origins and natural history – is not too far to walk, though the road there does go through Uhuru Park (which has an unsavory reputation for street crime) so taking a taxi is probably a good idea.
As a romantic getaway, it would not be my first choice, and if you are traveling for business you will probably want to look further up market, but if you are just looking to spend a few nights in Nairobi and do not want to spend a lot of money, the Hotel Embassy is a good bet.
Official Hotel Information
Overall 
