It is fair to say that more West African restaurants in London are being opened. One only has to do a quick Google search and you will see a plethora of options. Fine dining West African restaurants however have been few and far between — until now.
We take a deeper look at some of the restaurants that are challenging the way West African cuisine has been traditionally presented. For some, we do the work for you, concluding whether these establishments are a yay or a nay.
Ikoyi
Founded in 2017 by Chef Jeremy Chan, who has featured on Great British Chefs, and Iré Hassan-Odukale, Ikoyi prides itself on serving West African food with a twist. The duo serves Nigerian food in an upmarket style and the dishes are presented in ways that are not so traditional. This can leave some customers, particularly African customers, surprised. Indeed, in an interview with restaurant magazine as shown in bighospitality, Chan and Hassan-Odukale acknowledged the challenges in how their restaurant was perceived both by African and non-African customers where they expected traditional West African dishes and not West African inspired dishes.
To their credit, Chan and Hassan-Odukale have always been clear from the beginning that Ikoyi is a West African inspired restaurant that uses ingredients from that region to explore and create innovative dishes. Simply put, they have never posited themselves to be a West African restaurant. This does shed more light into the importance of language as there is a marked difference between being a restaurant with a menu from a particular region and being a restaurant that has a menu which is inspired by a particular region. With time, it has become clear what exactly Ikoyi restaurant serves and so customers do know what to expect. In any case Ikoyi has certainly caught the eye of industry professionals and their efforts in redefining what West African cuisine can be has been awarded with one Michelin star. This is an impressive feat and places them as the only African restaurant in the UK to be a Michelin star restaurant.
Talking Drum opened in 2019 and provided traditional West African cuisine. If you are wondering about the use of the past tense you are not wrong. In October 2020, Talking Drum restaurant ushered in a new menu created by Victor Okunowo, who appeared on MasterChef UK: The Professionals and was a 2020 semi-finalist. He is now the head chef at Talking Drum. This new menu is a modern take on West African cuisine and takes delight in being innovative. Customers noticed the change and whilst it was well received by some, it was also not received by others. This is to be expected with any menu change as sometimes customers can be resistant to change.
What makes this change different, however, is the switch from traditional West African food to creating their own spin on the cuisine. From the décor, to the ambience, menu and the price point, it is clear that Talking Drum is positioning themselves as an upmarket West African restaurant. The location makes it all the more unusual as it is on Old Kent Road, which is home to many restaurants, especially West African restaurants but certainly no upmarket restaurants. This makes Talking Drum a welcome addition as it provides consumers with choice; if you prefer traditional West African cuisine there are many other restaurants that offer that on Old Kent Road but for something different and unique Talking Drum is where it is at.
Akoko
Akoko opened its doors in October 2020 and is a fine dining West African restaurant based in Fitzrovia. William JM Chilila, a MasterChef: The Professionals finalist, is the head chef. From the jump it has been clear its classic-meets-modern approach provides a unique fusion. It appears to want to strike a balance between the two whilst also creating their own take on well-known dishes. If anything, Akoko shows that fine dining West African cuisine is growing and is here to stay. The location confirms this and is well thought out alongside the décor which has been carefully considered and arranged. It is a welcome addition as it does provide an alternative and also suggests that there can and possibly will be more fine dining West African restaurants popping up.
This should be embraced, but is it too much too soon? An article written by Nnamdi O. Madichie in 2007, titled ‘Nigerian restaurants in London: bridging the experiential perception/expectation gap,’ discusses the lack of innovation with Nigerian restaurants and the need to appropriately exploit the marketing mix so that Nigerian cuisine becomes more mainstream. Madichie opines that implementing this will help propel the cuisine to the mainstream as a viable eat out option for consumers who are African and non-African.
Admittedly, this piece focuses only on Nigerian cuisine, however, the sentiments can be applied to West African cuisine. Whilst it was written in 2007, some of the views can still be applied in this present day. Although one can argue that the cuisine is gradually becoming more mainstream. Mintel, a leading global market intelligence agency, put out a blog piece in 2018 written by Ayisha Koyenikan titled ‘Is West African cuisine the next big food trend?’. Koyenikan shares that there is opportunity for innovation as there is still so much to explore in West African food, especially when interest is rising in the cuisine. This echoes Madichie’s point on innovation being a crucial factor in bringing the cuisine to the forefront. Whilst it can be argued that mainstream does not need to be the goal, one should consider that surely having a choice in how West African cuisine is presented can only be a good thing? Other cuisines benefit from providing a range of offerings such as fast food, casual dining and fine dining options, so why should West African cuisine differ? Why do we feel that the cuisine can only be served in the way we have been accustomed to? Who says that shitto should only be served on the side of a dish or that moin moin should only always be served with ogi or rice? Why can we not experiment with our food, play around with it and take delight in the different discoveries that can be made from the ingredients? A common trend in the chefs associated with the aforementioned restaurants is that they are highly sought after for fine dining cuisine and are consummate professionals who want to bring this knowledge to West African cuisine.
The key takeaway point here is choice — West African cuisine should be allowed to be diverse in how it is presented and not limited only to the traditional way it has always been presented. Food for thought and also for the taking. If for anything at all, give them a go and do check out Ikoyi, Talking Drum and Akoko for West African cuisine with a difference.