Review: 12” Baguette (Ikeja)
With only a few Tinubu Naira left in the food budget for the month, I decided to visit 12” Baguette, a gourmet sandwich spot in Ikeja GRA. They’d been on my radar for quite a while, because I’m a big fan of the whole sustainable food truck thing. Plus, they’ve been part of the vendors at the Festival, so a physical visit to one of their joints was a long time coming.
I headed to 12” Baguette with a couple friends on a Tuesday afternoon, which I considered a prime time because we were the only guests there—lowkey though, it’s giving unemployed. The journey there was quite confusing because there was no sign along the street. After missing road for a hot few minutes, we had to circle back and keep our eyes peeled for ‘40B’ on the street, and then when we finally saw the number, we realised that there was an alley that led to the place. I feel like they could have done a much better job at guiding customers via their social media or you know, with a sign?
Anyhoo, I thought the space was cool, with its well-done murals and outdoor park theme. It was really serene, though I wished they’d played some background music to set the ambience. It took a while to place our orders because for some reason, they run a pay-before-you-eat system — I mean, when it’s not a Buka?? The POS apparently had network issues, so we had to pay via bank transfer and battle Nigerian banks’ penchant for embarrassment. One of my friends—let’s call her ‘Vegan IJGB’ for future reference — even had to resort to ordering via Chowdeck and choosing the pickup option, so she could pay with her card.
Ps, we later realised that she could have also done that via the restaurant’s actual website, so we wondered why the waiter didn’t think to point that out while we were scrambling for a solution.
After that was sorted, our orders got to us in good time, under 20 minutes. Just from the looks of my Beef Steak Baguette, I knew I was in for a treat. The filling looked super juicy, the bread was fresh and firm enough to hold the sandwich in place, and the kitchen was clearly very generous with the steak bits. Just one bite in, I was very pleased to find that it tasted even better than it looked. It was slightly sweet and spicy courtesy of the barbecue sauce and sweet chilli mix, the fresh lettuce added a nice crunch, and I liked that the steak chunks weren’t too chewy. My boba tea was sublime! It was milky and proper sweet, plus the boba pearls were soft and chewy, meaning it was well-cooked. At some point though, drinking it was hectic because the pearls were getting stuck in the straw, a problem that could have easily been fixed with a slightly wider straw. In the absence of that, I had to employ some tactical engineering skills and thankfully, I triumphed and had my fill of the yummy drink.
Beef Steak Baguette
Boba Milk Tea
My friend’s Chicken Cheese Toasties also looked very tempting, with its juicy, moist filling and crispy bread. The sauce was slightly spicy, savoury—but also had a hint of sweetness courtesy of the caramelized onions—and the chicken bits melted in my mouth. My only grouch with the sandwich was that they were quite stingy with the cheese. There was only a hint of cheese flavour and when we cut up the sandwich, it didn’t have that classic cheese pull. Her chapman was also pretty good; it was sweet and tasted like there was some fresh juice in the mix, or that might have just been courtesy of the cucumber and lemon slices.
Chicken Cheese Toastie
Chapman
Now to Vegan IJGB, her order situation had quite the drama. As you may have guessed, the Lagos dining scene isn’t exactly vegan friendly, so when we found out 12” Baguette had a Vegan Baguette on their menu, we were stoked. BUT tell me why, when we asked the waiter what the bread was made of, she admitted that eggs were part of the ingredients?! So for the plot twist, their Vegan Baguette wasn’t actually…vegan.
Tofu Tacos
Vegan IJGB then decided to order their Tofu Tacos and all was well until she very unhappily tasted some mayonnaise in the filling. Apparently, their suya-spiced sauce included mayo and they had failed to mention it on the menu. Our waiter was very apologetic about it, but I’m not sure that counts for much. At the end of the day, the only thing Vegan IJGB could comfortably get was the chapman. There was a Vegan Salad on the menu actually, but she was too scarred to try it.
BTW, the tacos were actually delicious. The tofu was slightly firm, the sweetness of the corn and apples went well with the savouriness of the sauce. Plus, I liked that the tortillas were a good balance between hard-shell and soft-shell; they didn't have a cracker texture but they were still a bit crunchy. It just would have been nice to not be ambushed by the mayo.
POSTSCRIPT
The vegan thing was quite scandalous, but I’ll definitely be back.
PARKING
None at all, and street parking isn’t the best.
VERDICT
DAMAGE
Beef Steak Baguette- N6,500
Boba Milk Tea - N3,500
Chicken Cheese Toasties - N4,500
Tofu Tacos- N4,000
Chapman- N2,000