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26 Best Restaurants in Lagos Nigeria This Year

October 24, 2024

26 Best Restaurants in Lagos Nigeria This Year

Tuck into the best restaurants in Lagos Nigeria, from local delicacies and suya street food to Pan-Asian, Italian and diasporic dishes

The food scene in Lagos is reflective of the city itself: vibrant, flavourful, spirited, and diverse. Regardless of the time of day, street food stalls and fine dining restaurants offer a taste of life in Nigeria’s buzzing metropolis.

To truly experience the best restaurants in Lagos, one must be willing to immerse yourself in a variety of cuisines. Local staples like catfish pepper soup, ofada rice, and Nkwobi are usually on the ready. You can be taken on a journey across continents and back with iterations of Ethiopian, Pan-Asian, Italian, and other dishes from around the world.

In this article, we will discuss the best restaurants in Lagos Nigeria, the cuisines they are good at, and their location in Lagos.

26 Best Restaurants in Lagos Nigeria

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1. The Ona

Best for: Special dinners
Location: 1701 Violet Yough Close, Victoria Island 106104, Lagos

Opposite Eko Hotel and Suites, The Ona is a new restaurant which opened its doors for the first time in 2022, joining the many galleries and lounges nestled in Victoria Island.

Upon visiting, you are immediately greeted by its earthy-toned interior and locally-sourced furniture, as well as the friendly smile of chef Obehi. The Ona prides itself on reinventing traditional dishes with unique twists.

Its menu is split into three sections: a bar menu of small plates, a seven-course experience, and a la carte. The bao with juicy, melt-in-your-mouth tozo beef fillings is a highly recommended favourite off the bar menu.

For drinks, cocktails with local fruits and seeds like the CBD-infused Monkeytail Agbalumo Sour and Tigernut Margarita are not to be missed.

2. The House

Best for: Brunch with friends and family, or late night drinks
Location: 4 A.J. Marinho Drive, Victoria Island 106104, Lagos

The House is easy to miss as its unassuming exterior can be easily mistaken for one of the residential buildings that line the street. As the name suggests, the restaurant is intentionally laid out to model a family home, complete with a living room, bar, and dining room.

Whether fuelling up ahead of some Saturday night shenanigans or enjoying a leisurely Sunday brunch, The House is a cosy and relaxed setting to do so. The blackened suya burger and meat platter are worth trying, as is the smoky Jollof paired with peppered turkey. Just make sure you’re not in a rush, as service can be on the slow side.

3. NOK by Alara

Best for: Casual dinners in a beautiful setting
Location: 12A Akin Olugbade Street, Victoria Island 106104, Lagos

Many might say a trip to Lagos isn’t complete until you’ve had ewa agoyin and amala from NOK, and they would be right. NOK is the culinary division of luxury concept store Alara (founded by Business of Fashion 500 member Reni Folawiyo, and designed by Sir David Adjaye).

It comprises indoor dining and a relaxing garden for enjoying the breezes of Victoria Island with a drink in hand. The restaurant offers iterations of dishes from across the African diaspora, from Ethiopian red lentil stew to Jamaican curry goat shoulders with beans and jasmine rice.

4. Ìtàn Test Kitchen

Best for: Lagos’ leading fine dining restaurant
Location: CCXP+9FF, Moor Road, Ikoyi 106104, Lagos

Ìtàn Test Kitchen in Ikoyi has built a reputation for deconstructing popular ideals of what fine dining should be. Established by chef Michael Elégbèdé, the restaurant takes its name from the Yoruba word for ‘story’, and storytelling is every bit as crucial here as the mouthwatering dishes.

Amplifying and redefining local cuisine is at the core of Elégbèdé’s work. For example, amala is served as dumplings, and garri is used to create chips in place of their usual moulded form. Its seasonal menu changes every six to eight weeks, meaning repeat visits are a must. Reservations are also required, so get yours booked in now.

5. University of Suya

Best for: Street food
Location: 62 Allen Avenue, Allen 101233, Lagos

Located in Ikeja, the University of Suya is the leading spot in Lagos for suya, a Nigerian street-food favourite comprising thin strips of grilled meat coated in spice. This street stall offers variations of spiced and smoked barbecued meat skewers including chicken and beef.

Its name is derived from its playful status as the unofficial university where aspiring chefs come to perfect the sizzling art of suya. Expect long queues and crowds of people on a similar suya-seeking mission. However, great value for money and delicious smokey, spicy flavours will be ample reward for your patience.

6. See Lagos

Best for: Work meeting, quick lunch
Location: 36b Wole Ariyo Street, Lekki Phase I 106104, Lagos

The first thing that hits you as you open the doors at See Lagos is the scent of freshly baked pastries. Heading up the stairs, you are transported from a vibrant cafe into a dimly lit library and lounge lined with books.

This new spot certainly holds its own aesthetically and the service is up to par. The menu has great breakfast options, an assortment of salads, and if you’re into pasta, you’re especially in luck. The menu here offers a tomato and chicken linguine, fusilli pesto, and more.

7. 788 on the Sea

Best for: a date night seafood restaurant
Location: Off Remi Olowude Road, Bluewater Scheme, Lekki 101244 Nigeria

If you are looking for a place with plenty of seafood options and an excellent ambience, this is the one for you. 788 on the Sea sits on the second floor of the Twin Towers building in Lekki (where you’ll also find one of the best rooftop bars in Lagos) and provides a stunning view of the Atlantic Ocean.

Here, you are treated to a memorable experience comprising decent service. And a solid lunch and dinner menu comprising of sole meuniere, grilled salmon caviar with beurre blanc and more.

8. Shiro

Best for: its Sunday brunch deal
Location: Block XVI 3 & 4 Victoria Island Oniru Estate, Eti-Osa 101241, Lagos

Since opening its doors in 2017, Shiro has served the best Pan-Asian cuisine in the city, occupying a welcome sweet spot somewhere close to fine dining but not quite. This best-loved restaurant is almost always busy, so it is highly recommended you make reservations ahead.

As far as interior decor in Lagos restaurants goes, Shiro’s is quite ambitious, with a soaring ceiling, towering statues that lean towards the theme park end of the spectrum, and atmospheric lighting. There is also a breezy outdoor area overlooking the ocean and the infamous Landmark beach.

9. La Veranda

Best for: Lunch, quiet dates
Location: 17 Oju Olobun Close, Victoria Island 106104, Lagos

Located within the Blowfish hotel complex, La Veranda is the best restaurant in Lagos for Italian cuisine. At first glance, the restaurant may seem simple and unassuming. But its flavours and service are where the real power lies. The menu offers a large selection of wines, pasta, and its classic mama roma Italian pizza. A trip to La Veranda makes for a relaxing experience thanks to its warm and serene atmosphere.

10. Gypsy’s

Best for: Indian Cuisine
Location: 34a Gbolade Adebanjo St, Ilupeju 100252, Lagos

Gypsy’s is tucked away and a bit difficult to locate. However, it’s the best restaurant for both Chinese and Indian delicacies. Friendly tip: do prepare yourself for its massive portions. The prawn dumplings are delightful and definitely a must-try, and for dessert, the Nutella spring rolls with ice cream is an excellent choice.

11. Seven Eagles Spur

Location: Ikeja City Mall, Obafemi Awolowo Way, Oregun\ 100271, Ikeja, Nigeria

Spur outlets aren’t widely popular in Lagos. The South African family restaurant and its franchises are predominantly steakhouses, but also serve a variety of family-friendly items. Thus the interior is laid out in intimate booths and round tables that can sit groups of four or more, with playpens for kids.

The outlet at the Ikeja City Mall serves the best, sizable cups of rich milkshakes that come in a variety of flavors: classic strawberry, banana and chocolate, or kiwi. Couple your glass of milkshake with Spur’s signature burger, a ground beef burger served with a side of fries or salad, and you have a filling meal worth every naira.

12. Ocean Basket

Location: 58c Isaac John St, Ikeja GRA, Lagos, Nigeria

Ocean Basket might be one of the pricier places to eat on the Lagos mainland, but it’s also home to the best seafood platter in Lagos. Add to that the aesthetically pleasing space — think handwritten food notes on a white-chalk wall, pastel furniture, and chandeliers hanging from a ceiling that mirrors a sea wave — and the rooftop dining-area restaurant, and suddenly the bill doesn’t seem so bad.

The full-deck platter with prince prawns, mussels, calamari, calamari steak strips, and fish is ideal for a party of five or more, but there are smaller versions too, if you’re splurging solo.

13. Madam Tique’s

Location: 45 Ajose St, Mende, Lagos, Nigeria

If you are keen on photography in Nigeria, updates on its very dramatic political scene, or just everyday Lagos banter, then you should spend some time at Madam Tique’s, a family-owned restaurant on the Lagos mainland that doubles as a hub for young photographers under the tutelage of ace photographer Uche James Iroha.

Be sure to ask for a bowl of fish pepper soup (fresh fish cooked with peppers, onion, local spices, and scent leaves, with utazi leaves served with the broth) to wake up your palate, followed by a mixed platter of jollof (a one-pot rice dish cooked in richly spiced tomato sauce), fried rice, coleslaw, and well-barbecued chicken.

14. Kaldi House

Location: 1, Adeyemi Bero Crescent, Ilupeju Industrial Estate, Anthony-Oshodi, Ikeja, Nigeria

Kaldi House brings the best of East African cuisine to the West, along with stellar Ethiopian coffee, roasted and brewed on-site. First launched as a coffee roastery, it’s expanded into a casual restaurant serving Ethiopian meals like injera, a spongy flatbread that doubles as a utensil for the dollops of vegetable sauces and stews covering its surface. The East African couple running the place are more than willing to give a tour of the coffee roastery.

15. Bukka Hut

Location: Gbagada – Oworonshoki Expy, Gbagada, Lagos, Nigeria

Street-food vendors in Lagos, with their makeshift kitchenettes under large umbrellas, are referred to as bukas. Bukka Hut, although not a street-food vendor, serves Nigerian meals that its proprietors swear are prepared the same as street-food bukas, and so have the signature flavors that make them so irresistible.

Try the ofada rice at Bukka Hut, a locally grown rice which, because it is not overly processed, is slightly brown when cooked. The rice is served with an accompanying sauce called ofada sauce, which is prepared using fermented locust beans, assorted meat, smoked fish, palm oil, bell peppers, and Scotch bonnet peppers.

16. White House

Location: 9 Chapel St, Yaba 100001, Lagos, Nigeria

No relation to that other White House, this busy semi-street-food restaurant on the Lagos mainland makes one of the best jollofs in the state. While most street-food stalls in Lagos are makeshift kitchenettes under large umbrellas.

White House is a modest, white-walled restaurant with an open kitchen where customers are served food straight from the fire. What makes a good jollof is constantly up for debate. But a distinct smoky taste from an open fire is one of them. White House jollof tastes like firewood jollof, as we like to put it.

17. Best Shawarma

Location: 18 Randle Ave, Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria

Imported by the Lebanese, Nigerian shawarma has quickly become the most popular street food in Lagos. Nigerian shawarma doesn’t differ much from the original: It comprises vegetables, sausages, and marinated chicken grilled on a vertical spit, along with some sour cream, all wrapped in flatbread. At Best Shawarma, you can choose between a chicken or beef shawarma and have the option of adding thin sausages to the roll.

18. Olaiya

Location: 109 Akerele St, Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria

Making your way through a bowl of Olaiya’s amala and ewedu/gbegiri soup is a rite of passage for western Nigerians. Amala is a fluffy meal made from dried yam, cassava, or plantain flour that gets made into a super-soft light brown or black meal served with a generous helping of gbegiri, a bean soup that is often mixed with its slimier twin, ewedu. Ewedu is made from its namesake vegetable, which is cooked, ground, and seasoned. You can also get amala with any of the other soups offered here, or a spinach and tomato sauce called éfọ́.

19. Nylah’s

Location: 61 Queen Street Alagomeji Yaba, Yaba 100001, Lagos, Nigeria

Don’t let the empty dining room deceive you: Nylah’s is one of the busiest kitchens in town; home deliveries make up the majority of the orders. It looks a bit like your mom’s kitchen, putting out excellent Nigerian classics, like rice and stew and eba (cassava meal) served with a variety of soups, including afang, a vegetable soup from south Nigeria and oe egusi, melon soup from southeast Nigeria. Be sure to try one of Nylah’s signature lemonades, which are just like the ones sold on street corners throughout Lagos.

20. Puff puffs at Lagos Marina

Location: lagos state, 64 Broad St, marina 143657, Lagos, Nigeria

“Small chops” is a Nigerian term for street snacks, a tradition of small bites somewhere in the realm of appetizers and hors d’oeuvres that can include everything from Indian samosas to Chinese spring rolls, barbecued meat, peppered gizzard, and beignet-like puff puffs — the most popular item in the ensemble. While there are a hundred or more places to buy puff puffs in Lagos, check out the vendors around the Lagos Marina, where the famous Cathedral Church of Christ sits. Puff puffs are light and fluffy, made with a generous amount of oil — and you get so much for so little money. [$]

21. Danfo Bistro & Dives

Location: 2 Alexander Ave, Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria

At Danfo Bistro, one of the city’s popular street foods — ewa agoyin— has been repackaged and is served in a space that’s pure Lagos. Ewa agoyin is made of beans cooked to mush and served with freshly baked bread. At Danfo Bistro, fried plantain cubes top the classic street-food combo.

Finger foods like chicken wings are served in strips of newspaper-like packing material, mirroring how street-food vendors pack them. The space is also worthy of note: The decor reimagines Lagos’s popular yellow buses as eating booths, showcasing the signature black-and-yellow stamp of these buses as well as other iconic motifs of Lagos.

22. Circa Lagos

Location: 2 Kola Adeyina Cl, Lekki Phase I, Lagos, Nigeria

Circa is the place to go on a date if you want them to swoon over your incredible taste. Here, the restaurant offers a local and Continental menu. Including fresh Greek vegetable salads prepared using vegetables grown in the restaurant’s hydroponics farm. At the bar overlooking the lagoon, however, be sure to ask for the signature cocktail, a sweet, peach concoction served with a wedge of lemon called Okoloko. The recipe is a secret, but the potent wallop of the rum is hard to miss.

23. Cactus

Location: 20, 24 Ozumba Mbadiwe Rd, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria

Sure, you can come for the wide-ranging menu of burgers, pasta, salads, and seafood, and stay for the views of the Lagos Lagoon and kid-friendly collapsible play houses. But you’re really here for the doughnuts: large, golden-brown, filled with sweet custard, and topped with a sprinkling of sugar. You would do well to consider the red velvet cake and hummus plate, too, but really it’s all about the donuts.

24. My Coffee Wings

Location: 17 A Ozumba Mbadiwe Ave, WINGS, Lagos, Nigeria

If you are a coffee lover looking to get your fix in Lagos, visit My Coffee Wings, which sits on the first floor of a new office complex along Ozumba Mbadiwe Avenue on the Lagos Island. The spacious outdoor coffee shop overlooks the Lagos Lagoon and skyline, making it perfect for a personal or business meeting.

Note the little angels on the walls that usher you into the space, placed there by artist Peju Alatise. The thin pancakes with strawberry sauce go well with a latte. Or consider ordering a proper English breakfast with some sweet crepes on the side.

25. Eric Kayser

Locations: 864 Bishop Aboyade Cole St, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria

Chef Eric Kayser’s restaurant may be known for its Italian offerings, like the delicious pastas, but you should visit for the freshly made pastries. His eponymous franchise is a French bakery and patisserie. But its Lagos debut is a full-fledged restaurant with starter and main-course dishes. Make sure to try the quiche and award-winning croissants.

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26. Marco Polo

Location: 9A Karimu Kotun St, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria

Marco Polo is one of a number of restaurants in Lagos that specialize in regional Chinese specialties. As Sino-African relations continue to blossom, the city, as an important economic hub in western Africa. It’s receiving an ample share of Chinese nationals, mostly concentrated at Ilupeju, an industrial area on the Lagos mainland. The wonton soup is flush with plump shrimp dumplings in a rich vegetable and chicken broth. Also, the vegetable fried rice is beautifully prepared, with perfectly formed egg clumps and colorful veggies.

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