Review: Woks (Victoria Island, Lagos)
NOSA: I thinking about it the other day and I actually can’t remember what life was like before the Blowfish restaurants. It almost feels like they’ve been here since forever. Sometimes they lose member like Picolo Mondo (sp?) that year, but another fills up that slot in no time.
FOLLY: I don’t know whether it’s interesting of fascinating the way they always have a minimum of two restaurants in a single property. They know rent is expensive so why not do more with less.
NOSA: They’ve figured out this Lagos hospitality thing.
NOSA: Over the summer, if you can call it that, Blowfish did some rejigging again. Out went Purple, their Asian fusion property, and in came Woks…their new Asian fusion property.
Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on either.
FOLLY: I think we can call it “over corona”. I didn’t find that they changed much to be quite honest, except maybe the number of seats in the restaurant and the positioning of the door.
“Our vision is simple, bringing you “the world in one place”. Woks is a journey through Asia. A fusion concept, which brings together the wonders of Thai spices with Indian tandoor and Chinese wok cooking techniques. ”
NOSA: Sooooo… it’s still Purple?
FOLLY: Yes, but they printed new menus.
NOSA: Like Purple, Woks is Asian fusion with basically just Indian. If we’re keeping it buck, it was just a renovation and change of name. The menu has a sprinkling of Chinese and Thai, but it’s largely dominated by Indian. Not like I mind or anything because Indian food is great. I just don’t get why Woks is going the same route Purple went when they couldn’t just honed in on the Indian stuff.
FOLLY: They should have rebranded as an Indian restaurant and stopped making everything else because they aren’t very good at it.
NOSA: Running through the menu, I spotted spring rolls for N10,500 and, of course, I had to order it. Stupidly expensive things on Lagos menus are my kryptonite. I just have to find out why it’s so expensive. I can’t stop myself.
FOLLY: I usually try to convince Nosa against it so we don’t waste money but he doesn’t listen.
The N10,500 spring rolls
NOSA: Was it worth it?
Nope.
FOLLY: Not even a little bit.
First of all, vegetable spring rolls are the best type of spring rolls. I don’t even think it’s worth it to pay an extra N100 for chicken or beef spring roll. And now, these are N2,625 per spring roll, just absolutely terrible.
I particularly didn’t like them because they were dry. It was a steamed spring roll encased in a very crispy spring roll wrapper. The roof of my mouth was yelling.
NOSA: Woks didn’t even pretend and give us the shrimp + mayo combo you get at weddings. This one was dry as hell and to make things worse, our waitress forgot the dipping sauce it came with just like she forgot (we forgot too tbh) our takeout at the end of the meal.
FOLLY: Funny, not really funny but I said to Nosa that they didn’t even give us a dipping sauce the waitress emerged with a dipping sauce that was to accompany the spring rolls. She said she had forgotten it in the kitchen. We were actually already on the main course when she remembered so it was quite a long time and we had eaten all the spring rolls.
NOSA: I know corona has hit everyone hard, but this is not the choking I signed up for.
FOLLY: I even doubt every much the dipping sauce would have rescued these though because, at the very least, the spring rolls needed mayo.
NOSA: The chicken satay wasn’t much better. Sure, it was cheaper but it might have been a bigger waste of money than the prawn roll. The chef made the daring decision not brine the chicken at all.
FOLLY: Or season it or even microwave it properly. One of the skewers was still cold. Lagos restaurants like Woks need to do a whole lot better in terms of value for money.
NOSA: If you hate us, just say it, chef.
The Indian is where Woks excelled, as expected. The portion is smaller than what you’d get at a Sherlaton, but the Butter Chicken was divine.
FOLLY: I mean I won’t go as far as calling it divine. It was good but it had a slightly bitter taste so I believe they might have burnt the dry herbs. The naan was good, and it would have been pretty tough to screw that up.
NOSA: The less said about the Pad Thai, the better. Chef Fregz was way too nice in his review. The Pad Thai was bad BAD.
FOLLY: It was an okay onion and noodle stir-fry but a Pad Thai it was not.
NOSA: Why all the onions, mate?
FOLLY: I think that Woks is good for Indian food with ambience. If you don’t care about ambience, or you’re planning to takeaway. I strongly advise you to quietly drive out of Idejo street and back on to Adeola Odeku so you can make the 2 minute trip to Sherlaton instead.
POSTSCRIPT
FOLLY: I was very disappointed as we were leaving. I felt like I wasted money.
We did order champagne though so that was nice. No thanks to Woks for that though, that was all Moët.
VERDICT
DAMAGE
Crispy Honey Shrimp - N8000
Prawn Roll - N10,500
Chicken Satay - N5,800
Butter Chicken - N5,800
Cheese Naan - N2,300
Garlic Naan - N1,600
Pad Thai - N5,800
Price Range
N10,000 - N15,000
Parking
Very limited