Another New Restaurant
Ascon Filling Station, Admiralty Way, Lekki Phase I, Lagos
NOSA: I fully expected this to be shit.
FOLLY: Dawg, calm down now.
NOSA: I'll explain.
A lady suggested we check it out on our Facebook wall (yes, we have one). We always get recommendations, a lot of the time from readers and on rare occasions from PR/Marketing agencies. With time, I feel like I've learnt how to discern between what's a reader recommendation and what's from a PR/Marketing agency.
Reader recommendations tend to be a lot more personal and genuine. More of "hey, i like this place and i want you guys to try it". PR/Marketing agencies come off as contrived and devoid of any real emotion. You can almost tell someone got paid to send the email. I mean, look at this one for example:
I just had this super meal at Roadchef in Lekki Phase 1. I'm a sucker for good food and this was just too awesome! Almost too indulgent ... lol. But I think Nosa and co need to check this place out and review it too on Eat Drink Lagos blog.
Indulgent? What exactly did you have?
I totally understand the need to generate a buzz around a new product and there's nothing particularly wrong, but this approach will always be weird to me. More often than not, when we follow through on recommendations like these, the places are usually terrible.
I digress.
Road Chef has breakfast burritos and an actual breakfast menu like McDonald's. I HAVE to try it. Absolutely HAVE to.
FOLLY: Well since it's near my house and Chicken Republic doesn't like making my meat pie at the crack of dawn I might have to try this too. However until that happens, I got the Crispy Chicken Roadster Meal aka a crispy chicken burger and a side of sweet potato fries.
NOSA: I got the RoadChef Classic Burger Meal and I went with sweet potato fries as my side.
NOSA: Yes, those are "American" sweet potatoes. Your eyes tell you no lies. Importing it has to be expensive as hell, but I really want to find the owner and give him/her a hug.
FOLLY: Someone once said they sold them at Deli's in VI but in the volumes that Road Chef's probably need them in, I'd also imagine they import it themselves.
NOSA: The sweet potato fries were obvs excellent. You can't put in all this hard work just to fuck it up at the end. They had to be excellent.
FOLLY: Nosa's were excellent, mine were burnt which made me sad. If I wasn't so lazy and I'd have taken them to the counter and asked for a replacement.
NOSA: The burger is not a bad fast food burger. Dare I say better than Johnny Rockets. It's a plain 'ol burger, not fancy like BBQ & Cravings or gourmet like RSVP. I mean, it's fast food. Think of it as a McDonalds or Burger King burger. That'll put it in perspective.
FOLLY: Hmmm, my burger was spot on meh. It's also hard to eat a huge piece of chicken sandwiched between two bread pieces. I obviously didn't think about the logistics before ordering, cause if I had I'll probably have gone with the tenders.
POSTSCRIPT
NOSA: I really hope it evolves it into something like a Sonic. My fear is that they will not be able to sustain the price point. For a fast food joint, it's pretty expensive but it's for good reason. Getting in those sweet potatoes must be hell.
VERDICT
DAMAGE
Crispy Chicken Roadster Meal - N1800
RoadChef Classic Meal - N2700