Lolas Restaurant and Lounge

This is the first Nigerian restaurant I have ever been to. Glad we tried it. It was quite an experience. The food flavor was amazing. However, if you are not used to food adventure you may wanna stick with the continental menu, which btw we were told by the server, for amateurs. :) Because authentic menu has some unconventional items in it, such as Shaki (tripes) and cow feet. My wife went with continental that included Jolof rice, plantain and beef stew with pieces of cartilage in it. I called it Nigerian version of Applebee’s dish. :) According to the server I went beyond 1^st timers by ordering OGBONO from the authentic menu that included pounded yam, beef stew with cartilage, cow feet and Shaki. For appetizers, we ordered puf puf, meat pie and fried chicken meat on a stick. Nothing out of the ordinary in appetizers. Chicken flavor was good. Puf puf is simply sweet dough ball, perfectly sweetened for me, but not enough for sweet tooth. Meat pie is like meat patties.
Once my main dish arrived with the yam wrapped in a plastic, I was sitting and staring at it for a while, bcs there was no silverware and I wasn’t sure how to start eating. So I asked the server. He told us, in Nigeria they ate with hand. If I wanted to use silverware he could bring me some bcs they had enough! :) But if I wanted to go the authentic route I should use hand. I figured when in Nigerian restaurant eat as Nigerians eat! So I got up, went to the tiny sink by the wall to wash my hand. Make sense why they had that sink in the dining area. I still didn’t know how to start. So our server helped me with that. Unwrap the yam, take a little piece and dunk it in the stew and eat. Pick up the cow feet with hand and bite the cartilage out of it. Eat the piece of beef the same way. Where I failed was the tripe, it’s chewy of course. I just couldn’t take a bite out of the rectangular piece of Shaki. So I decided to use it as a spoon for my left over gravy after finishing the yam. :) The flavor of everything was just fantastic. Beef had a smokey spicy flavor, not over spicy like Indian food. Yam was so smooth and the cow feet, however strange it sounds, was great! Only thing I would have liked in the cross section of the foot is a piece of bone marrow. The continental dish ordered by my wife, as I said just a Nigerian version of Applebee’s dish, :)…but much more flavored. They seem to use okra in the gravy so it’s a bit slimy.
Overall it was a great experience. The ambience is good as well. It has a lounge on one side and lighting is appropriately lounge like.

I’d say 3.5 stars.
I took my 2 friends here for an exploratory birthday dinner, and it was our first experience with Nigerian food. I tend to gauge authenticity by how many people sharing the same culture as the restaurant are dining. I saw many patrons that seemed to be enjoying their food, so I’m guessing it’s pretty authentic. Note: you need to eat with your clean hand (they have a sink for hand washing) as they do not really give you utensils. We got one knife, fork, and spoon for the three of us. I’m sure the two men a couple of tables away were actually laughing at us for not doing it right. It was hard not to use our «bad hand.»
First, I will address the food. I was really sad that they were out of puf-​puf. I was most excited to try that, and came to the restaurant because I saw that they had it. Instead we ordered meat pies. They were simple and delicious. I think I could have ordered a few of those and made a meal of it. We ordered fried rice with beef, okro soup with beef and amala (yam that looks purple/​brown in their pictures), and ogbono (mango melon) soup with beef and garri (cassava that looks white in their pictures). I only saw my meat options to be cow feet, beef chunks (unsure what cut), and beef tripe. No sign of chicken as an option. The fried rice had veggies and some shrimp and had a bit more spice than my friend normally prefers. Her do do (fried plantain) was a sweet contrast to the spicy rice and beef components. The okro soup was my favorite; it was nicely spiced and seasoned. It definitely has the slimy texture okra tends to give to foods, so avoid this if you hate that slimy texture. You’d have to avoid the ogbono soup as well because it also had a slimy texture. I feel there might have been a little too much oil (maybe palm oil?) for me in the ogbono. Other than that, the ogbono soup was probably the spiciest dish we ordered. I think all of us agreed that the meat was very tough, and dry for our preferences. The outside of the beef had the texture of beef jerky, but that might be how it’s supposed to be. We definitely needed floss after we ate.
The service is what knocks this review down. When we first walked in, the server lady definitely saw us and ignored us for about 5 minutes. We weren’t sure if we were to seat ourselves or not. She disappeared into the back for a couple of minutes. When she came out I explained that this was our first time here, and were unsure if we could pick our seats and where we would find menus. She sighed and seemed to be irritated with us already. She went into the back again without telling us anything. Maybe she doesn’t speak English? Another lady came out and helped us find our seats. She was very friendly, and seemed to be the cook as well.
In the end, it was an interesting experience. I believe in giving restaurants second chances, and I will definitely give this place another shot to try the jolloff rice.
***Edit*** My friend wanted me to include that she has been (posterior) releasing spiciness all morning. She said, «Many spice. Butt much hurt.»

Friendly atmosphere and great Nigerian food, for when you need some delicious cows foot and tripe cooked in an okra spinach stew. Skip the silverware and eat with your hands, the traditional way, scooping it up using bits off the yam or cassava starch served on the side.

I LOVE Nigerian food! I was so happy when my Nigerian friend brought me to this place. The food is very authentic and tastes great! For those who don’t know much about Nigerian food, they have some great rice dishes with chicken. Everything is filled with so much spice and savory-​goodness. If you like spicy food, come here! It’s amazing. The people are also really friendly!
One of my other favorite things about this restaurant besides the food is the ambiance of the place. They have great dance music playing in the background that always makes me want to get up and dance while I wait for my food. They have a pool table that is also really fun to play while waiting for your food.
Overall, this is a great place to eat. I could come here every week if I could. Also, I would definitely recommend it to everyone who’s brave enough to try something new and doesn’t mind eating at a restaurant where basically everyone is Nigerian.

The inside of this place is nice and clean. I think they turn this place into a night club on weekends. Loud Wizkid playing, plenty of Malta available, and only 1 host/​server for the entire restaurant… typical.
The food: There was sooo much palm oil in everything. Blood. Of. Jesus. I could literally take a large spoon and scoop it out. Also the ogbonno looked strange, but it didn’t taste bad at all. The egusi was good. Also, The amala and iyan were fresh.
Not quit there, but could potentially be my new spot.