Review: Quays Lagos (Lekki Phase 1)
Quays Lagos | 3 Tokunbo Omisore St, Lekki Phase 1 | 09166756582 | Instagram | Reisty Link
Toni: Another day, another review. As I’ve been doing these days, I simply go to Reisty when I’m trying to decide on a restaurant to go to. There were a good number of options on the site so I decided to narrow it down to Lekki since we’ve been doing mostly VI restaurants lately. Quays (pronounced KEYS) seemed like a good spot. I had been there once before - when they first opened - but it was a quick meeting and I didn’t have any time to form any opinions about the place so I decided to go back.
When we got there, it was empty; a lot of restaurants have been lately. I feel bad about that and even worse when I have to do a bad review
Imoteda: Man, it’s shocking to me how often restaurants are empty these days. I feel terrible because I know how demoralizing it is for even the staff working there to not be busy, much less how much money restaurants lose daily. If I curse Tinubu the way I want to, they will shut this website down so let me just say I hope he stubs the same toe five times a day for the rest of his life.
Editor's Note: We’re not there o
Toni: I like the space, it’s very simple but pretty. I loved the warped ceiling and the lights. I also thought it looked just as good as when I was first there two years ago. So good on them for their maintenance culture.
They had a QR code on the table but we were also presented with a physical food menu. We had to scan the QR for drinks. I noticed that you could actually place orders directly from the QR code link. That’s pretty cool. Looks like it was set up by some company called Points Bud. We didn’t get to use it cause our waiter was extra attentive but I imagine on a busy night, it’ll come in super handy.
Toni: I found their cocktail menu a little basic in terms of the flavor profiles so I opted for the Tiki Namachi because falernum was the most interesting ingredient on the menu. The rest of the cocktails were mostly just a combination of liquor and fruit flavors. I love a good spiced cocktail.
Tiki Namachi
I thought it was a decent cocktail but I wanted it to do more for me. The menu said ginger so I was hoping for fresh ginger juice and not ginger beer. This seems to be a recurring theme. Just write the full ginger beer on the menu if it’s ginger beer.
The falernum added nice warmth but the ginger beer did overpower all the flavors in the cocktail though. I firmly believe that cocktails should be topped with sodas; the sodas shouldn’t be the majority of the cocktail - that’s the easy way out. Unless they’re your basic 2-3 ingredient mixed drinks like G&T’s, Cuba Libre’s, Paloma’s, Shirley Temple’s, etc.
Strawberry Daiquiri
Imoteda - I stuck to water because my blood is probably 45% gin at this point. The offspring got a strawberry daiquiri that was really good and also had fresh strawberries blended into it. That was great. They only serve Nestle water and I don’t like the way it tastes (all water drinkers know different water brands have unique tastes) so I stuck to soda water like the almost 40-plus person I am.
Goat Meat Tacos
Toni: For starters, we got the Goat meat tacos and the Sailors lunch. The tacos were super delicious. They were extremely flavorful. The goat was well seasoned and you could taste the gameyness of the goat. It was quite juicy as well. The freshness of the salsa added some brightness. It was also pleasantly spicy. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Imoteda: I loved both starters. The goat tacos won for me and I might go back to get it soon. Super juicy, the goat was tender, very well seasoned. The flavor was super nigerian in the best of ways. I want a bucket of that goat filling in my fridge. It would taste amazing on HOT white rice.
The sailors' lunch was perfectly fried. I wish the fish cuts were bigger cause it got lost in the batter a bit but the person frying clearly knows their way around a fryer. Perfectly golden brown and crispy and not at all oily. I really liked the pepper sauce it came with as well. That’s the Nigerian fried pepper people are always asking for in restaurants.
Sailor’s Lunch
Toni: I completely agree. The Sailors lunch was quite good and well fried. Definitely needed more fish as I had to struggle to taste the fish; it was mostly batter. The tartar sauce was a tad too sweet for me. It needed more acidity. I preferred the fish without it.
The sweet potato fries were perfectly fried: crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. The pepper sauce was also good. Seasoned very nicely, even had some crayfish in it. It also wasn’t an offensive level of spicy.
Confit Lamb Shank
Imoteda: For my main, I got the Confit Lamb Shank with mashed potatoes and a surprisingly lovely red sauce. It almost tasted like a roasted pepper sauce but not quite. I was going to ask but forgot. The mash was well seasoned and had great texture although it was a bit lumpy. It also had a decent amount of richness from the added dairy so that was lovely.
Unfortunately, the star of the dish, the lamb shank, was a let down. It was super super hard on the outside and really really dry. Once you got past the almost rockhard exterior, the interior was softer but also just too dry. It looked like danbunama. This happens when you over-braise a piece of meat. This lamb had been cooked too long and then probably reheated uncovered in an oven which would explain the extra hard exterior. It also didn’t pack a lot of flavor as well so that was a disappointment. (Pretty sure it was goat, not lamb but economy hard so I will pretend to overlook).
Smoked Guinea Fowl Pasta
Toni: I got the Smoked Guinea Fowl Pasta. It was quite a large portion. I thought it tasted good even though, for some reason, I couldn’t identify individual flavors in the dish. I also couldn’t really taste the Guinea fowl. I suspect that all the spices in the sauce overpowered the other flavors. I didn’t mind though because it tasted good and was flavorful.
It was quite spicy though and it was a spice that built so towards the end I could barely taste anything but the spice. Now, there was a loooot of sauce, it was like they read my Good Life review about the dry pasta and decided to do the extreme opposite. The pasta is normally made with tagliatelle but I asked for it with linguine instead so maybe that’s why it had so much sauce - who knows? I had to scrape some of the sauce off the pasta. I was quite full and the pepper was doing a number on my tongue so I got the rest of the pasta to go. I know I’ll enjoy it more after I’ve given my taste buds a rest. I might even boil some more pasta and add to it since there’s enough sauce for two portions.
Mixed Seafood Pasta
Toni: Imoteda’s spawn got a Mixed Seafood Pasta. I liked it. It tasted like a rich fish stew. I thought the pasta was a little overcooked but I still liked it. It was a little spicy too.
Imoteda: I don’t like fresh fish stew and this reminded me of that so it wasn’t for me.
Caramelized Cheesecake
Toni: we decided to get the cheesecake for dessert. The crust was a little too thick and wet but taste wise, I liked it. It was missing the brandy that was written on the menu but I didn’t mind that. The cheesecake itself also tasted good. It was a little grainy though. The yogurt on the top of it was a bit too much and it definitely overpowered the taste of the cheesecake as a whole. I thought it was really random. I like yogurt but this is a cheesecake so I should be able to taste the cheesecake more than anything else. The caramelized apples were neither here nor there and were also just stewed apples.
Imoteda: I liked the actual cheesecake bit. I also liked the yogurt. I just didn’t want both together. I ate past the crust cause it was too thick and wet for me to really enjoy but I’d get this again and just tell them to hold the yogurt and stewed apples. The cheesecake was really well baked, nice, creamy and quite tasty. They didn’t skimp on any ingredients and I loved it for them.
Imoteda: A couple of non-food comments: They have an open kitchen and we sat in front of it. The kitchen was clean and well organized so that was great to see. Unfortunately, the kitchen staff seemed to forget at some point that they had guests and there was so much noise and shouting. I like open kitchens a lot but Nigerian kitchen staff don’t yet have the etiquette for that please.
Also the space is broken up in two and both halves were playing different music which drove me very quickly into sensory overdrive. We asked them to turn the music on our side off since we could hear the music on the other side which they did but then it came on like 15 minutes later. We didn’t bother to complain again but it was very very uncomfortable for me.
POST SCRIPT
Toni: I liked this experience. They have a few things to fix (that cocktail menu for one) but I was pleased. I’m going to add Quays to my list of solid and reliable restaurants. Also, any restaurant using good quality ingredients in these times has my respect.
Imoteda: I’d definitely come back if only for the goat tacos and cheesecake. They do seem to use quality ingredients and someone in the kitchen clearly cares deeply. I hope the economy turns around for them because honestly, they kinda deserve customers.
VERDICT
PARKING
About 12 - 16 cars
Damage
Goat Meat Tacos - 10,000
Sailors Lunch - 10,000
Confit Lamb Shank - 25,000
Smoked Guinea Fowl Pasta - 22,000
Mixed Seafood pasta - 22,000
Caramelized Cheese Cake - 8,000
Tiki Namachi - 9,000
Daiquiri - 9,000
Soda Water - 1,500
