Danfo Bistro Serves an Interesting Take on Nigerian Food
FOLLY: Danfo Bistro was THE opening of Nov/Dec 2018. I would have thought it’ll be Maison Kayser but the quirkiness of Danfo Bistro and the glowing reviews probably drove people there in hordes.
NOSA: Doesn’t help that Maison serves “hot dog” in their English breakfast, but we’ll get to that in due time.
FOLLY: The Instagram friendliness of Danfo Bistro probably helped too.
NOSA: Oh yes, definitely. The space is very beautiful. Although I’m not a big fan of restaurants having two entrances, but I think I can let it slide this one time. Danfo Bistro had been under construction for quite a while now. Someone incorrectly told me it was Casper & Gambini, or some other Lebanese-owned restaurant, moving into the space. I forget which.
I definitely wasn’t expecting something new.
FOLLY: It’s always a good sign when we get to a restaurant and have to restrain ourselves from ordering everything on the menu.
NOSA: The menu is actually pretty interesting. From the name, you probably think Danfo Bistro is a “Nigerian” restaurant, but it isn’t. There are one or two local staples on there, but it’s largely Nigerian-inspired. Inspired in the sense that they make use of Nigerian elements in plates that are, by and large, not Nigerian per se.
FOLLY: We managed to restrain ourselves to three starters which were
Suya Onion Rings
Yam Con Carne
Danfo Wings
and with those we embarked on our Danfo (Bistro) ride
NOSA: Before we go further into this, I want to point out how lame it is that Ikoyi finally gets a good restaurant when I move out. Every single part of me wanted this place to be utter nonsense, but nope, no luck for me.
FOLLY: We were only going to get the first two appetizers, but after we placed our order, our waiter upsold by simply saying “no wings?”. It felt like he was disappointed in our order, that we came to their establishment and didn’t even order wings so I quickly told him “Yes please, which would you recommend?” and he suggested the Danfo Wings.
NOSA: Quality “salesman”. Lucky for him, the wings were actually good. There was a certain plantain-y thing to the dipping sauce. It’s hard to explain. If you order it, it’ll make sense.
Danfo WIngs
Suya Onion Rings
FOLLY: The Suya Onion Rings were excellent. As you can probably tell from the picture the onions rings were extra crispy and we loved them. The heat of the oil was also perfect as there was absolutely no sogginess whatsoever.
NOSA: The onion rings were so well done. Remember the thing I said about taking Nigerian elements and putting them in non-Nigerian plates? Yeah, theres are the perfect example of that. They’re a bit spicy, but not overwhelmingly so. Spicy in the same way suya is. It’s a kick but it’s not a lingering kick.
FOLLY: The spiciness of the suya dust on the exterior was perfectly balanced by the sweet yellow onion.
NOSA: If I had to pick one item I’d recommend to anyone, I’d go with this. These were A1 top quality onion rings.
FOLLY: I’m not an onion ring aficionado like Nosa is, but honestly but these were the best onion rings I’ve ever had.
Suya Onion Rings
Yam Con Carne
FOLLY: Next, the Yam Con Carne was really special too. But first, who else first discovered “Chilli Con Carne” as a meal from The Sims. I first heard of it as a thing via the game and even then didn’t know what it was actually comprised of until many years later. The Yam Con Carne is Danfo Bistro take on Chilli with meat poured over yam crisps.
As they say on Twitter, it’s basically Yam and Corned Beef that went to Harvard.
NOSA: Chef Cristian will probably fight me for this, but I think the chilli on this is better than the one at La Taverna. Danfo Bistro makes a spicier version and like a true Nigerian, I prefer it.
Yam Con Carne
Sloppy Friday Burger
FOLLY: If I was the Yam Con Carne’s professor at Harvard, it definitely graduated summa cum laude.
NOSA: I haven’t mentioned anything on the yam, but just know it’s great because yam is great and yam > plantain. The portion should be larger and it should be a main. That’s my very unbiased take on it.
Speaking of plantain, the Danfo Bistro has a borderline unhealthy relationship with plantain. There’s a pasta dish with bloody plantain in it and a couple of the burgers had it too. Like the one Folly ordered.
FOLLY: For my main, I went with the Sloppy Friday Burger. It was supposed to be suya minced meat in burger with plantain.
NOSA: Basically a Sloppy Joe burger.
Sloppy Friday Burger
FOLLY: I was slightly disappointed because the minced meat tasted very regular and the addition of the soft plantain (even though it was stated in the menu) was a tad confusing to my taste buds.
NOSA: Yeah, this one felt like one experiment too far.
FOLLY: This was the only thing I didn’t particularly like about my Danfo experience but it doesn’t take away from everything else which was fantastic.
Cross section
Ewa Agoyin Sandwich
NOSA: For my main, I went with the Ewa Agoyin Sandwich because beans is my fave. When I was in JSS1, bullies ate all my food and left me with beans and that’s how we find ourselves here. Thank you, Table 9 seniors!
The Ewa Agayin is the only proper Nigerian thing on the menu. Oh, and the Akara too.
NOSA: The Agege bread base felt a bit “stale”. Like, it wasn’t fresh off the head of a street hawker (this sentence reads very terribly in hindsight). But maybe I shouldn’t have expected it to. Either way, the beans was great. Take it from beans connoisseur like myself.
POSTSCRIPT
NOSA: Kitchen Butterfly sprung to mind when I saw the menu. We should invite her to dinner here because she’d absolutely love it. Yeah, I’d definitely revisit.
FOLLY: I didn’t see a desert menu which was odd. I would loved to have seen some interesting takes on Nigerian dessert by Danfo Bistro
NOSA: Yeah, lots of things to be done with puff puff.
VERDICT
DAMAGE
Yam Con Carne - N3750
Danfo Wings - N3000
Suya Onion Rings - N2500
Sloppy Friday Burger - N4500
Ewa Agoyin Sandwich - N2500
PARKING
Yes, lots of parking is available off street in their lot.