Review: Norma (Ikeja)

Restaurants

Nov 3

Norma

6 Kafi Street, Alausa, Ikeja | Instagram | 0808 025 9059

As soon as I stumbled on Norma’s Instagram, I knew this was a place for me. A variety of suya options in a proper dine-in type setting, without lowkey dreading the conditions the suya was made in? Sign me up, boo.

Before Norma, I had tried suya from higher-end restaurants but it never met up to expectations was absolute trash; a clear warning that street food is meant to come from the street. But Norma’s price range was moderate and suya was their main thing, not just a lone item on the menu, so my hopes were high.

A friend and I popped into their spot at Magodo because it was closest to us, after which we realised all the sitting space they had was a bench across the grill setup, which was literally by the road. Cars honking as they drove by. Exhuast fumes mixing with beef suya was definitely not what we had in mind, so we headed to their Ikeja branch.

The Ikeja branch looked just as beautiful “in person”. It was empty when we got there, so we picked our seats ourselves. The tables had Jenga blocks, which innovatively doubled as decoration and entertainment. There was a bar right behind us, so their old-school music and rather interesting karaoke renditions provided a good ambience for most of our stay.

We got settled, ordered drinks — Zobo and Kunu Aya — fairly quickly (as we had the whole ride from Magodo to Ikeja to study the menu) and within about 30 minutes, the food started rolling in. We ordered bacon, yam fries, sweet potato fries, masa, their Suya Cheese Melt, Jumbo Shrimp Suya (got pretty excited about this) and beef suya. A loaded table for a couple of hungry gals.

I’ll start with the Jumbo Shrimp Suya, because your curiosity may have piqued there.

Two words: Delicious, yet overpriced.

That’s three words, but whatever.

I ordered the 2-piece serving even though the price put me off a bit, but at least, I’m thinking this shrimp must be as big as fish at least abi? That was not the case. The Jumbo did not jumbo at all. I was literally shocked when she served it on the table. Like esscuse ma, more is coming abi?

I managed to put my shock aside and took a bite — which is literally all it takes for one shrimp to go. Like I said, it was delicious. The spices really went *in*; it was so juicy and the texture was just perfect. I would’ve ordered more, but I needed to respect my pocket and myself, because that price? Yeah, I’m not letting it go.

Another interesting thing on the menu was the Suya Cheese Melt - a toasted sandwich with suya and cheese. It tasted really good, but my friend made a comment that it could have used some more cheese. I, on the other hand, was very okay with the amount of cheese because I get tired of cheesy food quickly. So, let’s leave room for a little subjectivity here.

To the masa, I got pretty excited about this because it reminded me of growing up in Abuja. Masa being sold alongside suya was pretty much a fixture, but I had never even seen masa in Lagos. (Note: I’m aware suya guys sell masa in Lagos, I’d just never had any, before you people come for me 😂)

At just N300 per serving, it was cheaper than I thought and even though the server had already taken our order, I almost chased her down to add the masa to our spread. Unfortunately, my excitement was a bit tanked because I thought the masa was over-fried. It was too crunchy on the outside, but, in all fairness, the texture on the inside was perfect and it did taste like it was supposed to. A little less time spent in hot oil would have been the icing on the cake.

Meanwhile, the beef suya tasted as good as it could, considering it had two key ingredients missing: newspaper wrap and moonlight.

Side note: When we left, we bought beef suya from a suya guy who was ironically right in front of Norma and it was perfect and also three times less expensive.

The yam and sweet potato fries were perfectly crispy, and the yaji (suya pepper) added a nice kick to the taste. I also appreciated that they didn’t taste like they were drenched in oil. They were served with a tasty pepper sauce. The bacon, on the flip side, was a sore mistake. Immediately I picked one piece up, I knew they got it wrong because it was so hard that I could stone someone with it. It was heavy on the chewy and not ‘giving’ on taste.

The Kunu Aya (tiger nut milk) was fresh and tasty (wouldn’t have minded a bit more sugar though), bu the Zobo was too sharp and not sweet enough. It could have used a little less ginger to cut down on the sharpness. For the price, as well, I was definitely expecting more flavour than I got.

I ordered chicken wings as an afterthought and boy, was I glad I did because they were good 👏🏾 Norma really snapped with it. All the spices were hitting and it was so succulent. The sauce that came alongside wasn’t overdone and the sprinkle of yaji on top perfectly tied up all the spices. The wings ended up dethroning the Jumbo Shrimp Suya as my favourite item on the menu — well, favourite thing from what we had ordered.

Oyinda is a writer and lover of knowledge. When she's not reading random stuff on the internet, or putting finger to keyboard, you'll find her chopping the life of her head.