Akara

We had a fantastic dinner at Akara on a Saturday evening. The restaurant was completely full by 7 p.m., so I would strongly recommend booking in advance. Between the two of us, we ordered a wide selection of dishes, including the beef fataya, prawn akara, beef akara, beef kuli kuli yaji with onion, chicken alata, roasted aubergine, Efik rice, steamed rice and cassava chips, along with an ilara and a caipirinha. Everything was full of flavour, but the Efik rice and the beef kuli kuli yaji were the absolute highlights for me. The plantain cake was also amazing and is definitely worth ordering. I would strongly recommend all three. The dishes are served as relatively small plates, so it is worth ordering several to share, especially if you have a good appetite. Although our table was not particularly large, the staff cleared empty plates promptly, so it never felt crowded. They also regularly refilled our water, which was a thoughtful touch. The atmosphere was lovely, with Afrobeats playing in the background at just the right volume. It added to the experience without making it difficult to have a conversation. At one point, a fly briefly landed on my rice and then flew away, which put me off eating the small area where it had landed, but this did not detract significantly from an otherwise excellent meal. Overall, the food was amazing, the service was attentive and the atmosphere was warm and enjoyable. I would definitely return.

Came here for dinner with some friends as a party of 4. The food was excellent – fantastic presentation, and lots of spices, at times hot, and certainly flavourful. The menu was interesting, spanning foods from across different regions in Africa (Kenyan, Senegalese, Ghanian) as well as a touch of Brazilian fusion. If I was to nitpick (there’s always room to improve!), I’d point to two things: 1) dessert – don’t bother. Serving size for the £9 plantain ice cream was puny, not worth it. The coconut gelato tasted generic at best. 2) staff need to be more attentive. When 4 people order 2 desserts, it’s almost implicit that we’re sharing. So some plates given to us upfront would’ve spared the frustratingly long wait we had to endure. Same goes for adding a communal spoon to stews etc. – just keeps things easy and hygienic when sharing. For £50 a head, I’d expect the service element to also be up there.

Delicious food, full of interesting and well balanced flavours. Everything was cooked excellently and portion sizes were certainly reasonable (when you consider the location of the restaurant and the quality of the food). The sauces were all wonderful and really elevated the dishes. I would particularly recommend the cod fillet moqueca, efik rice and lamb dibi. Service was good- very professional and gave excellent recommendations. Not particularly smiley but I didn't feel that detracted from the experience.

This was our first time trying African cuisine, and it was a wonderful experience. At first, it was a bit difficult to understand what was in each dish, but the waitress was very kind and happy to explain everything to us. One of the waiters even knew a few phrases in Latvian, which was a lovely and unexpected touch. Since we’re not used to spicy food, almost every dish felt quite spicy—but that’s exactly what we expected from this cuisine. We ordered a variety of appetizers to try as many different flavors as possible, followed by a main course each. Everything was delicious, although a couple of the sauces were incredibly hot and definitely set our lips on fire! Thank you for such a unique and memorable dining experience. Highly recommended!