Yes #MasterCardRestaurantWeek happened ages ago but I promise there is a reason to this lateness.
Give me a few more years to think up a good reason, ok?
Any who! Lost In Lagos partnered with Mastercard for #MasterCardRestaurantWeek and I found the time to squeeze 3 restaurants to sample over the span of 2 weeks so here is the breakdown of the first one I visited (also my first visit).
355 Restaurant
| 9A Oko-Awo Street, Off Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Victoria Island. Lagos, Nigeria | Phone: 0809 465 6494 or 0811 304 1019
Reception –
It was a bit awkward when I got here because I thought I was at the wrong location. The almost empty outdoor area had waiters loitering around, but none paid attention to the customer that had just walked in. When I finally managed to flag one down to confirm I was at right restaurant, I was taken to the indoor area of the restaurant and that leads me to the next bit
Ambiance –
No offense to the owners of this place, but why is it so dark inside? And why on earth does the dj have to blast the music so loud at 6 in the evening? A few questions to the waiter let me know that the place turns into a club at night, thus the dark space and the loud blaring music. But again, at 6pm, really?
Customer Service –
I forget the name of the lady that helped with my order, but she was very pleasant. She had no understanding of the menu and gave the general Nigerian restaurant staff response of “everything we have here is good” when asked to recommend a dish. Not helpful at all. I finally ended up doing ini mini maini mo and hoped for the best. Once my food was served, the waiter went mia on me and it took a minute before I was able to catch the eye of one the many inattentive wait staff loitering around. I almost resorted to shouting “hesss, hesss, abeg bring check, I wan commot biko!”
Food – it took 45 minutes for the first plate to show up
*hungry mode activated* 😆
Starter – Chicken Caesar Salad
I had a plate of salad that was supposed to be a caesar salad, and I really expected the worst. The plate that came out was definitely not caesar’s salad, but it was absolutely delicious! The light dressing on the greens was just the right amount that I ended up ignoring the side of extra dressing that came with the food. The greens tasted really fresh and seriously, the ambiance of the place got me mentally prepared for a terrible dish. Good start to my 3 course meal.
The pictures below are pretty shitty…damaged camera on my old phone and the dim lights did not help, but I tried to clean it up from the worse state it was in.
If the salad I got is the way they usually prepare theirs, then they need to rename because it is really good. Minus 1 for an inauthentic caesar salad, overall a 2/5.
Main course – Stuffed Chicken Breast with baked potatoes
The chef/cook that plated this dish needs some serious work, but I was way too hungry to care at that point. The chicken was supposed to be stuffed with spinach and artichoke dip topped with garlic cream sauce and mozzarella cheese, but the stuffing was lumped on the chicken…I guess the chicken had given birth before it came to my table. There was also no artichoke there, but that was not so noticeable.
Nevertheless, it was actually a DELICIOUS hot plate of food with a side of potatoes. The serving size was just right and I devoured it very quickly…the hunger was real. The dish is a pretty easy meal to prepare so they get a fair score of 2/5 for the effort. The chicken itself was slightly overdone and with the thick layer of spinach dip over it, the flaws were not noticeable.
Dessert – Chocolate cake aka cement
My first option was for a cheesecake and that was sold out, and a chocolate cake was the only option available…or was it a red velvet? I don’t know, it was too dark to tell. A forceful push of the dessert fork into the cake told me all I needed to know, no thanks. I took a small bite to at least know if the flavor was good, but nah. That was a big miss. Bummer. 0/5 disaster. I was too annoyed by the cake to bother taking a picture of it.
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