Lunchtime at Bistro 7

So honestly, I can't tell you I know what has been going on with me and blogging these last few months. It seems that after like 4 years of doing it, I just ran out of steam one day and quit. Not only blogging even, I know I don't post my short stories on here a lot but I haven't even felt compelled enough to put pen to paper recently and produce any form of creative writing, I just don't get it. Well actually, I know part of the reason I guess... I was getting quite disheartened by it because I stopped looking at blogging like a fun and relaxing way to let out steam but rather as a popularity contest almost. I look on other blogs that I don't feel have the most original or the best content with thousands more page views than my little old space and I sit and wonder what or who I'm really doing all this for anyway...

Well, the truth is, being envious never got anyone anywhere and so I'm going back to my 'roots' of blogging about whatever I want, whenever I want. No fancy schedules, no nothing. Just me, so help me God. I'm looking to rekindle the flame of the original love and passion and so what better way to start than with food?? If you know me, you know eating is one of my favourite pastimes. I'm going to throw us all the way back to last year, sometime in late November when I played hookey from work to go with my mum to a conference and then ended up having lunch with her afterwards. We went to Bistro 7 on Kofo Abayomi, it's number 273 and is on the left hand side of the road, shortly after Intercontinental.

Izanagi: Where Dreams Come True.

I'm meant to be trying to get abs, yet in the lead up to the deadly holiday season I find myself eating out more and more for a whole host of reasons. This particular day though, was totally worth it. My fellow Pan-Asian, Thai, Japanese food lover, Efe and I, decided to finally give Izanagi a shot. This place has been on my mind for a looong while because they do sushi, but I wasn't too sure about being served sushi in Nigeria. Then I thought about it logically, if I would eat sushi almost anywhere else in the world why would I not try it here? Anyway, on the recommendation of a good friend of ours, Efe and I trooped along to Izanagi about a week ago (week agooo).

It's on Idejo Street in V.I and as soon as we passed the dodgy looking construction workers and other people hanging about and climbed the stairs, I fell in love. Let me just say now that my expectations for this restaurant were sky high and I was very sure I was going to be at least a little disappointed. Efe and I sat down and perused the menu, giggly with excitement. We looked at the menu and were surprised by some of the prices, 3 maki rolls for N1,200? Yes please! Our waiter was pleasant and quite knowledgable and also very patient as we were consumed by general indecision. In the end, we opted for Prawn Tempura and Chicken Dumplings for starters.

The tempura came with tempura sauce and was coated with the lightest, fluffiest, most delightful batter. The type that doesn't leave you feeling like you've swallowed a wad of oil and clogged up your arteries, the best kind! And the dumplings were extremely flavourful, they came with chilli powder, soy sauce and sesame seeds, but really I enjoyed them just on their own.

Oh before I forget, I had an Izanagi's Kiss to drink, a non alcoholic cocktail with apple juice, coconut juice and some other stuff I've since forgotten. It has the yummiest, most fragrant smell. Efe had an apple juice. No need for expensive drinks when there's food to be had!

For our mains we ordered one plate of Beef Udon Noodles to share along with three maki rolls, from left to right the rolls are "Mango Roll" which was a roll wrapped in a deliciously sweet slither or mango. "Plantain Roll" which had tiny and fairly spicy plantain pieces over a tuna roll and my absolute favourite the "Salmon Skin Roll". The sushi came with a side of wasabi and ginger. The noodles were extremely tasty as well and even though we struggled to finish it, we still picked up all the pieces of tender, well flavoured beef and left the delicious noodles alone.

At this point I have to talk about the service, we got to the restaurant at about 6.30, just half an hour after they open for dinner, (can someone say keen beans?) and were immediately given our choice of seats. By the time we were leaving a couple hours later, all the tables were completely occupied, it was mainly full of expatriates and the crowd ranged from families, to couples, to just friends hanging out. This was a random Tuesday evening, I would hate to see what it's like at the weekend and so my dear friends, if you're planning on going; reserve, reserve, reserve! My main point though is that even through this busy period, our food still came out consistently and seemed to be perfectly timed by our more than able waiter. It was not until towards the end of the meal that I started to feel Mr. Perfect was cheating on us with the other tables around. Lol.

To end the whole fiesta, I ordered the Warm Lava Cake, Efe decided to pass on dessert though. I really considered being a good fitfam girl but what's the point of not trying dessert? Especially when by this time, I was convinced Izanagi could do no wrong! I kissed my "almost" abs goodbye and dove, head first into the warmth of this decadent chocolate cake. If like me, you love chocolate, your taste buds will explode at the richness of this dessert. The sensations of the warm cake and the cold ice cream were enough to make me shed a real life tear and I don't regret getting the cake for one second.

Warning, objects in the pictures are larger than they appear. The serving of cake was probably better suited to two people than one, but who's complaining? My only issue with the dessert was the inclusion of strawberry ice-cream. Yuck. Who does that? At the end of it all, our bill came in the cutest treasure box and I bet you're wondering what the low down is.

A grand total of N19,800. Yup, you read that right. Fortunately for us, it was just within our budget and worth every gaddem kobo! Unfortunately, it means I can't go there once a week until I've exhausted their entire menu like I originally planned to. :( 

So here's my final low down of what has been by far, my best dining experience in the whole of Lagos and certainly my top three in all my experiences.

Food- 9.5/10

Service- 9/10

Ambience- 10/10

Overall- 9.5/10

If you've been meaning to visit Izanagi's then go! If you've never heard of them, still go! If you don't like sushi or other Asian food, hell just go anyways! And if you see me munching away in a corner then come say hey and join me :)

Coral Blue: Just Swimming By.

Happy Monday guys!

Does such a thing exist? Well it should actually because why programme our minds to think Mondays are bad or annoying. In that vein, we're going to be talking about one of my favourite things today! FOOD!

Chai, there's nothing that puts a smile on my face faster than food! So this past weekend I tried somewhere new in Lagos, something I haven't actually done for a while even though I have a long list of places to go. But as I've said before, this corpers salary stays holding me back. So on Saturday I went to "Coral Blue" to have a late lunch and was really looking forward to it because it's a seafood restaurant and I love seafood! I'm also tired of going to Ocean Basket (which I would review soon) and so I went with high hopes and expectations.

Coral Blue is located in V.I. at No. 1 Adeyemo Alakija and actually shares its building with another restaurant called Kilimanjaro. The decor is all white and blue to keep in line with the sea theme and it's quite tastefully done.

I especially liked this fishy gentleman that signified the gent's room. The lady fish was just not very cool to be honest but we'd let that slide.

Am I the only one that think he looks Mexican?? Just swimming on by... Haha.

Attention to detail even on the staircase. 

Deola my foodie friend, (remember her from Yellow Chilli?) and I waited for Nkem to arrive but in the mean time busied ourselves taking selfies and being silly, as you do.

 

Once Nkem arrived, we perused the menu and placed our orders, and the waiter brought us some complimentary and very yummy warm bread rolls to keep us happy while we waited.

We waited and caught up with each other, had a good chin wag about the movie "Interstellar" which Deola and I had just seen earlier that day and generally gisted. I was slightly disappointed when my drink came though as the waiter had mixed it up. Deola and I had both ordered Mojitos while Nkem had an Ocean Breeze.

 

When our drinks came the waiter announced that he had one Mojito, one Mokito and the Ocean Breeze. The Mokito is the non alcoholic version of your standard Mojito and he was sure that it was what I had ordered. I immediately recognized my error, you see, when I was ordering I asked for a Mojito, pronounced Mo-hi-toe the way it should be. HOWEVER, most waiters in Lagos pronounce things as they are spelt and so I should have asked for a Mo-GEE-to! The funny thing is my friends and I are always going on about this but it just never occured to me that I should try to blend to their ways. Luckily he was nice enough to take my drink back and make it alcoholic without too much complaining and I trust he didn't spit in it after... I hope.

Not too long after the drinks came and just when we were really starting to get hungry, the mains arrived. Nkem and I had the Sea Shore Paella which is a rice dish with mussels, prawns, crab and calamari. My mouth was watering when I read the description and as difficult as it was for me to make up my mind, I chose it because it had the most variety. Deola had the Ribs and Calamari with a side of fries.

When my food came, I was impressed at the presentation but extremely disappointed at the first bite. Paella is traditionally a very rich, tasty dish but this was more of a very bland fried rice. The rice barely tasted of anything and was visibly coated in a sheen of oil. Ugh. Nkem ended up putting a huge dollop of pepper sauce in her food just to give it some kick and I went for ranch sauce that came with Deola's food. The helping was very big though and I couldn't finish the rice so I just picked out all the yummy calamari instead :D

Overall though, I was underwhelmed and I hate being underwhelmed. 

You can really see the oil on this.

Deola described her ribs and calamari as nice and not much more but from the empty plate at the end of the meal, I think she enjoyed it more than I did mine! My bill for my meal was N5250 which is slightly pricey for just one course but with the amount of sea food I had, isn't that bad. All in all I would go back to Coral Blue again to try something else on the menu, just because I really want to like it and so I'd give them another chance.

In summary though...

Food- 4

Service- 6

Ambience- 8

Overall- 6

Deuces guys, have a great day and an even better week!

Restaurant Review: Independence Day at Yellow Chilli

Hey y'all! Happy Monday, so this post is kinda late because it was meant to be my Independence Day or shortly after post but one thing always leads to another and you know... Anyhow, on October 1st I went to lunch with two of my friends from primary school Deola and Mosope. Yup, THROWBACK! Haha. It was meant to be a slightly bigger reunion but a lot of people dropped out at the last minute so it was a nice girly day for three instead.

We all met at "Yellow Chilli" in Ikeja with empty stomachs and eager anticipation and in the end, we were glad the boys didn't turn up! Read on to find out why...

For those who don't know Yellow Chilli is more or less a fancy buka. Or that's what Mosope thought anyways, lol. They serve all sorts of Nigerian food and do a lot of soups and semi-solids (swallows). They need a 30 minute lead time to prepare your chosen soup though because they do it all from scratch for every order. I really like that about them because it means that unlike most other typical bukas, you're unlikely to hear "Food has finished". Lol.

On arrival I got a Chapman, because really what other drink would you get on Independence Day if not a Chapman? Chapman is a Nigerian cocktail and different people have different recipes but the basis is always the same: an orange flavoured drink (Fanta), a lemony flavoured drink (Sprite or Bitter Lemon), Angsturra Bitters and Grenadine. The one I had was actually a little darker than chapman normally is and was also a lot sweeter so my Chapman aficionado senses tell me that they used some sort of blackcurrant cordial instead of grenadine.

After we ordered our food we got catching up and gisting on all the most recent happenings of our lives and I must say it was a lot of fun. But nothing can really compare to the moment that our food arrived... I must say I was positively salivating. We all decided on pounded yam (the real deal NOT poundo) as our swallow of choice and had three different soups for variety. For starters my eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach and I order a portion of Nkwobi for us to share.

I had Edika-Ikong which I really believe is the South-South's version of Efo-Riro.

Deola had Banga Soup which has palm oil as a basis.

And Mosope had White Soup aka Nsala which is quite a healthy option because it's apparently not cooked with any oil at all... Is this true my Nsala lovers?

Side note: I really love how the photos came out, it was my first time using my iPhone 6 which I got as a belated birthday present and I think the camera quality is off the chain!

By the time we were done eating we could barely move. I'm not even sure we finished everything on the table but we definitely made a huge dent. The service at Yellow Chilli is decent and the waiters are quite friendly and the food is GOOD!! Like proper GOOD, GOOD! The price is a lot higher than your average buka but to be fair, this is a restaurant not a buka and my main cost only N2300! I also like the fact that you can add whatever extras of meat and chicken you want into your dish, at an additional cost of course.

It was a lovely day and a lovely catch up with the girlies and I all but rolled myself to watch the movie "October 1" but more on that later.

Here's my final say

Food- 8.5 (because it was slightly cold)

Service- 8

Ambience- 9

Overall- 8.5

To see more restaurant reviews in Lagos and abroad then use the "Restaurants" tab above... Or click here

Las Casuelas Quinta: Chimichangas and Margeritas

This whole two posts a day thing is really quite interesting for me, I'm not quite sure what went off in my brain but I've literally gone from zero posts in 2 months to many many posts this month. Must be that September fever! Lol.

Anyways now that I'm back from holiday I was looking through my pictures and boy do I have quite a lot to share with you. But tbh I really really wanted to do a food post and so I've decided to hop, skip and jump away from my time in Los Angeles to my time in Palm Desert, California. Let me start by saying it is HOT! When we got to the villas, the concierge told us that the week had been pretty nice because it's been under 100 degrees F lately. I almost passed out, coming from a place where "nice" usually means it's not cold and rainy I knew I wasn't ready for Palm Springs!

Another thing I noticed not only in Palm Springs but in L.A. too was the number of Mexican and Spanish speaking people around, Mexico borders the south of California and even though we weren't that near the south, it still felt like we would be doing ourselves a disservice if we didn't dine the Mexican way at least once!

And so we found ourselves in Las Casuelas Quinta! (You absolutely have to read this in a Mexican accent and with the exclamation at the end, it would be rude not to...)

We had Mexican food with all the trimmings, Quesadillas, tortillas, nachos, chimichangas, beans and of course, Margaritas (does a little salsa)

Complimentary tortilla chips as we waited for the mains.

Chicken Palos

Rice, refried beans AND a chimichanga burrito concealed under sour cream and guacomole!

Plain Quesadillas

Mar-ger-ri-taaaaaa!

These nachos were SO good even though the plate looks like a heart attack waiting to happen!

Through out the night I couldn't stop speaking and thinking in this crazy Mexican accent and the waiter would not stop indulging me. I'm sure I drove my family a little crazy. The inside and outside of the place has a very quaint feel to it, it all seems so authentic and downright cool.

All in all the restaurant was lovely though, the food ended up being too much but you know how Americans love their portions, supersized! Just looking at this food is making me crave some good quesadillas and a margarita again... 

Just look at this perfectly salt rimmed glass. YUM!

Anyone know anywhere in Lagos that just might satisfy a girls needs? Do drop me a comment and let me know... :)