NOSA: Located in the old Westafco building on Saka Tinubu, Z Kitchen is run by a Lebanese couple. The husband is the executive chef and the wife, I presume, handles the business side of things. And one interesting little tidbit (read: gist) I found out over the weekend:
(CORRECTION: Lou, of Craft Gourmet, isn’t her sister. Just a really good friend. Her brother runs D Cafe and Rhapsody’s.)
But it doesn’t end there, the wife’s father was the main man at Westafco.
Look at all the connections!
FOLLY: Come for the food reviews, but stay for the gist. Speaking of gist in Lagos, you know who really has my gist in this city - Lagos waiters.
NOSA: I found out about the Delis/D Cafe split from a waiter lol.
FOLLY: A hobby of mine is finding waiters from existing restaurants in newly opened restaurants, and because I’m annoying I call them by the name of their previous employer (e.g Hi HSE) and then they smile because they also recognize me.
NOSA: Out of one family, we get three of the better restaurants in Lagos. There should be some grad student at UNILAG writing a thesis on this thing because it’ll make for very fascinating reading.
FOLLY: The professor will probably fail them on the topic choice alone so I see why that isn’t happening anytime soon.
NOSA: And yes, Craft Gourmet is one of the better restaurants in Lagos, but beef is forever unfortunately. Speaking of beef, Z Kitchen has very impressive selection of meats on the menu. There’s a 800g tomahawk and a 250g ostrich fillet on the menu. We’ve eaten at over a hundred restaurants in Lagos and I don’t think we’ve come across ostrich anywhere. The rest of the menu is just as excellent. Oh, and the owner said the current menu is still a work in progress. They make tweaks every Thursday.
FOLLY: The calamari was recommended by a friend who was dining at the restaurant at the same time as we were, so that informed our second option.
Calamari A La Plancha - Grilled baby calamari tossed with salsa verde.
NOSA: The calamari fared a little better in our eyeball test. I’ve said something on this blog about the direct relationship between vulnerability in animals and how delicious they are. As soon as I saw “baby calamari”, I knew we were on to something.
FOLLY: Ignoring Nosa but it’s more common to find deep fried calamari than grilled/roasted calamari in Lagos restaurants. In our experience, the grilled calamari always tastes rubbery so we tend to avoid. What I liked about the roasted calamari at Z Kitchen, was the chargrill and smoky flavour.
NOSA: I tasted a bit of suya spice in there. Maybe that was the salsa verde and my razz Nigerian taste buds think it’s suya spice.
FOLLY: After both starters I was very impressed by the quality of the food at Z Kitchen - the ingredients especially were high quality and the cooking was precise. The mains completely won me over and Z Kitchen is one of the best culinary experiences I’ve had in Lagos.
FOLLY: A skirt steak isn’t the most tender cut but it packs a lot of flavour, that combined with the deep intense flavour of the coffee really made this come alive. It’s fair to assume that the coffee would be over powering but that’s not the case, the coffee rub creates a deeper complex flavour for the meat - mostly savoury with the ever so slight sweet tinge.
NOSA: This would work perfectly in a steak sandwich, you know?
FOLLY: Speaking of sandwiches, I took one bite of the chicken sandwich and I determined it wasn’t for me. It had both vinegar and pickles and that’s basically poison to me so it became a hard pass.
NOSA: The slaw + honey mustard combo in the sandwich is a bit overpowering and might not be for everyone, but I liked it. In fact, that was the exact reason I liked it and the reason Folly hated it. It might be a bit of an acquired taste like Guinness.
