CHUKU’s !!!! I was not… no WE were not READY OOOOO! My dear friend Tinu is in town and we had Sunday Brunch at Chuku’s . I had never heard of Chuku’s till Tinu sent me a video of the restaurant whilst I was still living in Malta. We both decided that if we were ever in London (she lives in Amsterdam) at the same time, we were going to have food there and support our own because #naijaforlife. As a restaurant serving Nigerian tapas style food, I really didn’t have any expectations. Why? well, traditional Nigerian dishes consists of a main dish which is usually soup based (think curry) with an accompaniment (rice, plantain,). It is not common to have ‘tapas’ and/or sharing plates. However we do have what we call ‘small chops’ which is our version of canapes. Nonetheless, I was excited to see what the brother / sister duo at Chuku’s created and boi! They did a TING!!!!
We decided to have Sunday brunch All in – you can mix and match your drinks and have desert in addition to the brunch standard menu. One time for the ambience though, very good use of space, minimal, muted colours and the music was the one! High life music coming through the speakers, it was a vibe. For our first drink we sampled the traditional palm wine which we both have not had in AGES! Palm wine is made from fermenting the sap from palm trees, very similar to Japanese unfiltered Sake! It is generally sweet, very high alcohol content and ever so refreshing!
For food, spoiled for choice, everything looked yummy so we went IN! We tried Quinoa jollof (quinoa steamed in traditional tomato and pepper stew and smoked in house), Adalu (slow cooked stew of naturally sweet Nigerian ‘honey beans & sweet corn) chicken ata din din (shredded chicken in a tangy, fiery scotch bonnet & sweet red pepper sauce) SPICY! I absolutely love how the traditional names of dishes have been aptly described on the menu..
Moi moi (steamed pureed beans, sweet red pepper & onions),
Egusi bowl (grated cassava (eba), with tricolour of stews – egusi (Nigerian melon seeds), spinach, coriander & fennel, red bell pepper & tomato).
The Dodo aka fried plantain, is on another level! It’s tossed in cinnamon sugar & coconut. It was just divine and was a favourite till I got to pudding! Now pudding was mind blowing! You lot know I love me a brownie and cheese cake. Both fof these were on the desert menu but made with Nigerian twist. It was yam brownie and chin chin cheesecake, like you what now? the genius of chef to create this is just epic! Tinu & I had a whole conversation about how these 2 (yam and chin chin were going to be incorporated into these well known and loved western deserts. I mean yam is a root vegetable (think potatoes) and quite starchy and generally boiled, roasted or ground. Chin chin is essentially deep fried dough eaten as a snack which is crunchy , sweet and / or savoury. Now you know why we were both genuinely intrigued by how both deserts were going to turn out. When these deserts were served, I was like
because do you see this here brownie?
where is the yam? where? how the chef incorporated the yam into the gluten free vegan chocolate brownie🧐… I dont know! what I do know is, It was LUSH!!! The texture, flavour, ouu with the dairy free ice cream! The chin chin cheesecake gave us an eureka moment ha ha! Chef incorporated the chin chin to form the base of the cheesecake and it made so much sense.
For an orange & stem ginger cheesecake on crunchy cardamon and chin chin base, it GAVE👌 Yaasss Chuku’s, you did THAT, proving that Nigerian good can be served tapas style without compromising on taste, spiciness, authenticity👏🏽! It was a pleasure to be your guest. For my garmanvsfood fam who would like an into into Nigerian food, book a table here!
cheers
Ndidi