Review: Turaka (Victoria Island)
Turaka
1637, Adetokunbo Ademola, Victoria Island | Instagram | 0906 800 0025
A certain Restaurant Week event was on almost throughout the month of November and I love me a good discount, so I had to hop on that! I didn’t even have the particular kind of bank card I needed to participate and I wasn’t ready to go through the stress of getting one, so I went knocking on the doors of all my friends’ DMs until I found my plug. I literally went on the last day of the event — the struggle was real 😂
There were a bunch of restaurant options, but Turaka was the prime choice because it was famed to have one of the best views in Lagos, so for that alone, I had to check it out. I also thought its name was a sort of challenge — “Turaka” means “unwind” or “loosen up” in Yoruba, so I wanted to see if the experience really embodied its name.
Turaka is one of the many things EbonyLife Place has to offer; there’s also a hotel, a cinema and another restaurant in the same building. We were greeted with warm smiles right from the lobby and directed to the top floor where Turaka is located. We’d made a reservation beforehand, so things were pretty smooth from the entrance thereon out and the restaurant was basically empty.
P.S. — reservations aren’t mandatory. They accept walk-ins or reservations for groups of 2-5 people, and recommend reservations for groups of 6 or more. I made my reservation via Instagram because I thought there were going to be 5 of us, but 3 of them cancelled last minute (still side-eyeing them), so it was all good.
We were led to their indoor sitting area because we went in the afternoon and the sun was out to destroy. Next time I go there, though, I’ll definitely target evening time so I can sit outdoors. Back to the inside though, the music situation was popping and the view was indeed actually something to behold. The rooftop overlooks a bit of the ocean, (what will be) Eko Atlantic, Eko Hotels and a stretch of Victoria Island’s high-rise buildings — definitely an ideal spot to unwind (oh, and propose!). Because of the glass walls, we were still able to enjoy the view, which was lovely, just as the décor is — simple and contemporary.
To the food: I was there specifically for a set lunch menu that had been advertised (for N12000), so I had 2-3 options each to pick from for the starter, main and dessert. I ordered Spicy Chicken Wings (to share), Beer Battered Fish for my main and the Warm Chocolate Brownie to polish it off. As the menu didn’t cover drinks, so I ordered their signature “Toll Gate” cocktail separately. My guest ordered Pepper Chicken for her main, Vanilla Cheesecake for dessert and a Pina Colada.
Spicy Chicken Wings
Beer Battered Fish
The wings and drinks got to us in about 15 minutes, which was a very reasonable wait time, if you ask me; it’s just a shame the wings were not at all spicy like the name suggested, at least not by Nigerian standards. I also definitely expected more flavour-wise, so they were pretty meh.
The main course came in good time too — less than 20 minutes after our starters were served. The Beer Battered Fish was definitely my highlight of the meal; it was YUM. It came with yam fries, pepper sauce and “spicy” tartar sauce (seriously, they should probably just remove the spicy tag everywhere on their menu). The yam fries were crispy enough, delicious and went very well with the pepper sauce, though. The fish was perfectly crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside and didn’t taste like it was drenched in oil, and the (not) spicy tartar sauce was a perfect accompaniment for the fish.
Toll Gate
Pina Colada
As for the cocktails… y’all, I regretted my drink choice so much. I admit I got carried away by the name of the drink and the first few lines of the description on the menu, so I didn’t actually read the ingredient list. I missed the part where they said “a dash of bitter kola” 😭. I *really* don’t think it had any business being in a cocktail, but whatever floats their boat. It was basically very bitter Zobo with a good amount of vodka. My guest’s Pina Colada, on the other hand, was delicious. It was the right amount of everything: Milkiness, flavour and just a hint of alcohol.
Ps, if you’re worried about the “Beer” in the name, you can’t actually taste the alcohol since it’s cooked off in the oil and they probably used a very light beer, because it was completely undetectable.
My guest’s Pepper Chicken came with Smokey Jollof Rice and Dodo Strips. The chicken melted in my mouth and was really tasty — had me wondering what went wrong with their wings. The Jollof rice tasted much like standard Party Jollof, but I didn’t like that it was made with Basmati rice; that’s what our Ghanaian brothers and sisters use please, not us. The Basmati rice adds a slightly different flavour from our regular rice. Also, they definitely added rooftop tax and then some to that meal, because N8,500 for standard Jollof, 3 mid-sized chicken pieces and dodo? Anyway, Turaka charges 5k for ordinary Chapman, so where’s the surprise?
Pepper Chicken with Smokey Jollof Rice and Dodo Strips
The desserts came about 7 minutes (the precision, I know 🤣) after we confirmed we were ready. The chocolate brownie tasted divine, but it would have slapped harder with the ice cream if it was actually warm, AS THE NAME SUGGESTED. Plus points for the white chocolate chips in the brownie and the delicious cookie crumbs. I’m getting pretty tired of having brownies for dessert at Lagos restaurants at this point, but this was really good.
Also, the only other dessert option on the specific menu was cheesecake and I’m not a fan. Feedback from my guest (who actually loves cheesecake) was that the one at Turaka was mid and too small for its price.
Warm Chocolate Brownie
Vanilla Cheesecake
Something I really enjoyed at Turaka was their customer service. Our server was very warm and well-paced and at some point, he even came around to ask us if we needed any changes to be made to the food or any other thing. They could have paid more attention to clean up between customers though, because there was a little leftover food littered around the table they led us to.
POSTSCRIPT
I’ll go again for the view and Beer Battered Fish.
verdict
DAMAGE
Spicy Chicken Wings – N6500
Beer Battered Fish – N8000
Pepper Chicken – N8500
Toll Gate (Cocktail) – N6500
Pina Colada – N5500
Warm Chocolate Brownie – N5800
Vanilla Cheesecake – N6500
PARKING
A lot! Could probably take up to 20 cars.
