Review: Cilantro (Victoria Island, Lagos)
Cilantro
FOLLY: Unfortunately, or fortunately for Cilantro in Lagos, their reputation precedes them. They are famed as one of the best, if not the best, Indian restaurants in Abuja and Kano.
In my opinion, the Lagos restaurant hasn’t lived up to these expectations.
NOSA: The menu is just so many things and not any thing at the same time. Please, can they focus?
FOLLY: The menu threw me off because there was pizza. I get the random Continental items that make their way on to menus at speciality cuisine. Like grilled salmon, pasta, chicken and rice but pizza! I was genuinely surprised but let’s go on.
NOSA: It’s probably the same in the other cities because I can totally see them being a one-stop restaurant in Kano or Abuja. Especially Abuja because Abuja restaurants aren’t really popping like that.
FOLLY: There’s a standard order Nosa and I usually get at Sherlaton. It’s mutton biryani, butter chicken, cheese naan, butter naan and veg samosa.
We repeated that exact same order at Cilantro just to, you know, compare and contrast.
NOSA: Just leave the samosa alone. Abort mission.
FOLLY: I much prefer the veg samosas at Indian restaurants. The way the meat is cooked (it’s scorched and crumbles) has never appealed to me. I love the moistness of the filling and the curried potatoes and chickpeas. Cilantro’s was decent, but I didn’t like the extra separation between the dough and the filling; it caused a bit of a challenge in eating and enjoying it.
Moving to our mains which were the butter chicken, biryani and pizza.
The butter chicken was solid, thick and creamy and pretty much velvety smooth. It was evident that it had been slow-cooked long enough for the flavours to really meld and really develop this very slightly sweet caramelization. It was delicious, especially with the naan.
NOSA: Yeah, that “sweet” thing stood out for me. It’s not a negative or anything, but it’s just something you should note.
FOLLY: We had both the butter naan and the cheese naan. The naan at CIlantro didn’t disappoint - it was pillowy and soft. As much as I love Sherlaton, the cheese naan at CIlantro is cheaper, and they give you a lot more than Sherlaton does.
NOSA: Their cheese naan is probably the cheapest one I’ve had in Lagos so shout out to them for that. They also pack in a lot of cheese in it so if you’re greedy, this will trap you. But I wasn’t really a fan of all that cheese for some weird reason. It just felt so…inconvenient, which is weird because every time I get cheese naan elsewhere, I wish it had more cheese. Maybe too much cheese is not a good thing.
The cheese naan didn’t let me down as much as the biryani, however. It was like eating plain boiled meat and white rice.
FOLLY: Unfortunately, the biryani was not good enough. I didn’t taste many of the distinct spices you’d typically get in a biryani like clove and cinnamon. The rice even looked a little bit too orange, like Jollof rice. It really wasn’t it.
NOSA: The pizza is not any good. No need to beat about the bush here. It’s not the worst I’ve ever had in Lagos, but this is a DoubleFour-tier pizza. I expected so much more.
FOLLY: The pizza toppings might have been too much for the base. The tomato sauce was also too much; I guess that’s how it ended up soggy. I didn’t enjoy this at all.
POSTSCRIPT
FOLLY: It’s very mid but it’s always full.
NOSA: Don’t waste your money. There’s better Indian elsewhere and there’s absolutely better “continental” elsewhere.
VERDICT
DAMAGE
Butter Naan - N600
Cheese Naan - N1000
Butter Chicken - N4000
Lamb Biryani - N4500
Chicken Suya Pizza - N5500
Vegetable Samosa - N2000
Chicken Spring Roll - N2000
PRICE RANGE
N5,000 - N10,000
PARKING
It’s always full.