Typical work week in Lagos is plagued with traffic and with the recent fuel scarcity; Lagos has been a mad house.

I love local food and bukka’s which I am sure is not surprising by now. I’m equally delighted when I discover new spots to share with you guys! Whoop! So that is how I found myself at a place called Yakoyo African Restaurant thanks to my colleague and traffic. If you speak or understand the Yoruba language, the term ‘Yakoyo’ it literally means to ‘stop by and be full’. No jokes and indeed I stopped by and left very full.

Yakoyo is a restaurant that serves local food and is located along Ikorodu road at Ilupeju. I was very surprised that this place actually existed as I always thought the term ‘Yakoyo’ was just a slang made up that meant to just eat or something. Lol.  From the exterior of Yakoyo, it did not seem like much was going on as it looks so plain in a bungalow-like structure. If I was going to place Yakoyo, I’d say it’s a mix of like a Yellow Chilli and an Amala Olaiya/Designer Rice at Bankolemo.

I like their bright coloured shirts

It is a very neat place and courteous staff. It is also air-conditioned and has standing fans to support because the heat these days is not funny.

I also noticed quite a number of fridges which were stocked with different beverages – one for Ribena, another for beer and then another for wine.

I also observed that the staff do not sit down and are always on their feet serving customers round the clock.

Normally I would have gone with Amala but thought to try something else in the solids (aka swallow) space. I ordered two portions of Pounded Yam (“PDY’) and Egusi soup with Cat Fish while my colleague had the same thing as mine but with Goat Meat  (Ogufe) and the other had Rice, Plantain and Stew with Ogufe as he was being safe (initiation to Bukka chops… haha).

Customer Service at its Best

So the food comes in very timely fashion and this is where I was like wow. Now Goat meat in most of these restaurants are normally in big sizes and can be tough to cut and our waiter comes with a fork and a sharper knife and starts dicing this goat meat to make it easier to eat. Honestly I never expected that and that is what I call customer service!

The Pounded Yam was well done (shout out to whoever pounded this yam yo!) and was very smooth with no lumps. I felt the Egusi portion could have been more but I guess they wanted me to mix the fish stew and Egusi together. I could have asked for more but it was just adequate and I just wanted more because it was really nice. The Catfish was well seasoned and cooked unlike some that I have had where it would still have a little slime or did not cook deeper in its soup… yuck

After my lunch I was so sleepy – the Itis 🙁 . I knew this would happen but could not resist having PDY at ‘Stop By and Be Full’. LOL. If you ever find yourself on the mainland during a work week or stuck in traffic, do try out Yakoyo. It is a bit pricey than the average local walk-in Bukka’s and all but I’d just say it is more of a luxurious Bukka. Ideally a portion of pounded yam is between NGN50 and NGN100 but at Yaks (for short), its NGN200/portion. Do not worry if you do not have enough cash on you as they also take payments via their POS terminals. Cashless Lagos you know…

This is pretty much what Yakoyo is in case you have been curious about this place.

We spent a total of NGN5,900 on our meal. Breakdown is as follows:

1. PDY (4 @ N200 each) = NGN800
2. Rice = N300
3. Plantain = N100
4. Goat Meat (2 @ N1,200 each) = 2,400
5. Fresh Fish = N1,500
6. Ribena = (2 @ N200 each) = N400
7. Water = N100
8. Services (3 @ N100 each) = N300 (err this is weird but okay…)

Where is Yakoyo African Restaurant?

217, Olabode House, Ikorodu Road. Tel: 08075385987, 08023388544

Have you been  here and what did you think? I’d love to hear from you and please feel free to share tips with me.