Places in Lagos|Noir

If you live in Lagos you must have heard about NOIR. It’s one of the new most talked about(trending) restaurants in Lagos at the moment. My visit to Noir wasn’t planned at all but I’m glad I finally got to experience it. I went with my brother Luki and my sister-in-law, Dee. Let’s get on with my time at Noir shall we.

Noir Lagos is a french restaurant located in the heart of Victoria Island, Akin Olugbade precisely. It stands beside one of my favorite bbq places BBQRUS and is directly opposite Art Café talk about competition or confidence. The first thing I noticed was the lack of ample parking spots. Luki was worried he would be called to come and move his car but someone was leaving when he was trying to park so we took their spot.

When I walked into Noir however, I loved the space and art. It has a modern and luxurious vibe and if you sit by the window you can see outside. That was cool to me I don’t know about you. As soon as we sat, we didn’t have to wait forever before we were noticed. A smiling waitress came to welcome us with their menu.

It was just some minutes past 12 on a Sunday afternoon and there were already customers here. A table of 6 people which later turned to over 10 and another of 3 people. Mind you, it didn’t look like a breakfast/brunch/buffet place.

We didn’t spend a long time deciding on what to order as we all noticed how there weren’t a lot of options in their menu so it made it easy for us.

There was a dead fly on the table but the waitress noticed quickly, took it away and cleaned the table. Good for her but my camera caught it already lol.

Drinks

• Tea
• Mojito
• Water
• Soda water

I started with tea cos it felt like it was still morning and I usually don’t eat early. Their tea collection is excellent. I say excellent because they had Numi & Pukka teas in their collection. You don’t see that often in Lagos. Luki had a virgin mojito and Dee joined me on the tea train but later ordered water while I had soda water.

We were served complimentary sliced baguettes with our drinks. Let’s just say they didn’t last two minutes on the table. The bread was so good that we bought a fresh roll from the supermarket downstairs on our way home.

Starters

• Prawn Salad
• Prawn Bisque
• Smoked Salmon in Orange Vinaigrette
• Seared Scallops in Pea Purée

Can you guess which starter was mine?

If you guessed Prawn Salad, then you’re right. Can I just say that this salad was bursting with flavours. I think it’s expected when you have mango and pineapple pieces in your salad. It was far from boring and finished really fast. I didn’t even bother trying anyone else’s starter so they wouldn’t ask to have some of mine😂.

Dee ordered the salmon as her starter. She said the salmon was really good and the avocado purée, the bread and orange vinaigrette were equally nice as well.

Luki ordered both the soup and scallops. He didn’t like that the soup came with a single prawn for N4,400 and asked the waitress if that was all or she was bringing more. However, he enjoyed the soup. He didn’t like the scallops much and thought they should have been cooked longer.

We didn’t order our main along with our starters because we wanted to try out their starters first before spending too much. Since we all finished everything on our plates, we decided to continue lunching.

While the waitress was taking our main orders, Luki and I were contemplating if the chef was foreign or not. I was of the opinion that the chef was definitely foreign (I know there are awesome Nigerian chefs like chef stone, chef fregz n co) while he said the chef was definitely Nigerian. So we engaged the waitress a little and asked her. She told us the chef was Lebanese. I was right!!!

The customers on the table to our right were cooking their steak themselves and we watched them cook their lunch. It looked interesting to the extent that another customer took a photo of their lunch and I thought to try cooking my steak as well.

Main

• Ribeye Steak
• Sirloin Steak
• Black Cod

Sides

• Rice
• Fries
• Baked Potatoes

I ordered the sirloin, Dee ordered the ribeye and Luki ordered the cod. He wasn’t as moved about the display as we were. He absolutely loved his main and said “the cod was perfect”.

Cooking our steak was the most interesting part of my lunch. The fact that I could cook my steak to my desire was very welcoming. I like my steak well done and most chefs don’t get well done right. The waitress helped me initially but I ended up doing it myself afterwards. This idea of using steak stones would definitely attract Nigerians for sure.

While we were eating, the floor manager came to check if everything was okay and if we needed anything. We had been wondering when she was going to come to our table because she had been serving and attending to other tables. We aren’t petty😂.

Dessert

No dessert. We were stuffed and it was just 2 in the afternoon.

Final thoughts

Dee: I loved the ambience, the food and the bread. The glasses on the table made me feel like drinking wine even though I’m not a drinker. I wanted to twirl the wine glass and sniff wine.

Luki: Beautiful ambience and tasteful food.

As for me, if you wanna go to Noir, your pocket has to be full. It doesn’t come cheap at all but it’s perfect for date night. The food is awesome hopefully the chef and hospitality remain on check.

Have you been to Noir??? What do you think of the place and would you visit again?

Mariam Shittu
xo