Craft Gourmet Food Review

Breakfast at Tiffany’s shows a Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn), dreaming of the good life as she eats her doughnuts staring wistfully into the jewellery shop on her way to work.

There’s no Tiffany’s in Nigeria of course but if you want the good life, Craft Gourmet is a great place to start.

This newish resident of Mega Plaza has injected some class and glamour to the rather faded mall which long ceased to be a reason to visit Victoria Island.  The decline is evident in the designer shops selling clothes for older women who have more money than fashion sense and the neglected upper floors whose shops shape-shift between concepts like a surrealist movies.

But then Craft Gourmet appeared with its leather studded chairs and elegant, clean finish making you feel more like you are in Paris or London rather than Lagos.

The restaurant is the baby of Chef Loubna and her husband, Tarek. They specialise in fresh, brunchy foods and also offer a variety of mains from rice dishes to  shawarma.

Craft Gourmet is the centre of the world for ladies who lunch or brunch, leaving in good time for the school run.

Quality teas and coffee are specialities here with top-notch machines churning out everything from a vegan organic mocha latte to lapsing slouching No210.

Today we order  a selection of sandwiches and pancakes as well as two carafes of the speciality pressed apple, pineapple, ginger and mint which tasted quite celebratory.  Our food arrives and it is delicious, the salad baguettes are crispy fresh, the eggs, perfectly puffy, the pancakes light and the bacon is just the right firm but not too crispy texture.

Most of the complaints for Craft Gourmet since opening have been around the service. They are building a new kitchen to help accommodate the big lunch parties that are popular here but really slow things down.

Even without that excuse, service feels a bit absent-minded.  Today it is the same with the waiter taking a long time to collect our drink orders.

Time flies when you’re having fun and with the light pouring in and pleasant conversation you really could sit there nattering all day. But ah! with children to collect and errands to run we all too soon found ourselves heading out onto the busy Lagos streets once again.

We ate

Pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon 4000

Chicken avocoado baguette with side salad sandwich 4500

We drank

Craft’s signature juice, apple, pineapple, ginger and mint