What to order on your first visit to Smokey Jollof

This is the part where most first-timers stop reading the menu and just order the smokey jollof rice. It’s a fine first move, given that we’re named for the dish, but the menu is bigger than the headline and there are a few other things worth knowing about before you commit. What follows is how we’d talk you through it if we were standing next to you at the counter, ordering for someone we actually wanted to make a good impression on.

Smokey jollof rice

If you haven’t had real party-style jollof before, start here. We’ve written a longer piece explaining why party jollof tastes different from regular jollof and why most restaurants don’t bother making it. The short version is that this is the firewood-cooked version with the smoky burnt-bottom flavour, and once you’ve had the proper version a few times, the gas-stove one starts to taste like a flat copy.

Order it on a slow weekend afternoon when you have time to taste it properly, ideally with chicken or asun on the side. The flavour is more obvious when the rice is still hot, so eat it within an hour of delivery if you can. The Smokey Jollof Rice Bowl is the single-portion version; if you’re sharing or planning leftovers, the Smokey Jollof Rice Pack gives you the larger size that feeds two or three.

Basmati fried rice

This is the dish people order once and then quietly start calling us back about. We use long-grain basmati rice fried wok-style with vegetables, eggs, and our seasoning blend, and the result is lighter than jollof, more aromatic, with a cleaner finish on the palate. It pairs especially well with grilled chicken or asun on the side, and it’s the dish most likely to surprise someone who only knows Nigerian rice through jollof.

If you’re feeding more than one person and they don’t all want the same thing, ordering the Basmati Fried Rice Bowl alongside a smokey jollof rice gives you something for both camps at the table. Add an asun on the side and you’ve got a small spread without going overboard.

Asun jollof rice

This is our take on the combo plate, and one of the dishes we’re most quietly proud of. We mix smokey jollof rice with peppered goat meat (asun) so you get both flavours in one bowl, and the smoke from the rice plays against the heat from the pepper sauce in a way that neither dish quite gets on its own. People who can’t decide between rice and meat tend to land on this on the second order, and a fair number of them stay there for a while.

The Asun Jollof Rice Bowl is the standard portion. It’s filling, it’s spicy, and it’s the dish to order if you’re someone who likes to commit to one plate rather than ordering three things and rotating between them mid-meal.

Ofada rice with assorted meat

The local-rice plate, and one that splits opinion. Ofada is a Nigerian short-grain rice with a stronger, earthier flavour than basmati or long-grain, and we serve it with ayamase sauce (the green pepper stew made with locust beans and palm oil) plus assorted meat (ponmo, shaki, beef cuts).

This is the dish for people who grew up eating local food and want to taste home, or for anyone curious about what Nigerian food tastes like before it gets adapted for export. Heavier than jollof, with a stronger pepper kick, and it doesn’t reheat as well as the rice dishes, so it’s best eaten the same day if you can. The Ofada Rice and Sauce Bowl is the version most customers order; some regulars ask for the sauce on the side instead of mixed in, which we’re happy to do.

Asun on its own

Our peppered goat meat. Not a main, but it’s the dish that tells us whether someone is going to be a regular. The meat is grilled until the edges crisp slightly while the inside stays tender, then tossed in a pepper sauce that’s spicy without being aggressive about it. We serve it as a side, but a good number of customers order it on its own with a cold drink and call that lunch.

If you can handle pepper, the asun is the dish to try alongside whatever else you order. The Asun Bowl gives you a generous portion that splits between two people if you’re treating it as a side, or feeds one if you’re making it the main event.

How we’d order, depending on group size

• Solo first-time order: Smokey jollof rice with one protein. Save the variety for the second order so you have a baseline for what you actually like. If you try three different things on the first visit, you’ll have opinions about each but no real sense of which one you’d come back for.
• Two people: Smokey jollof rice with chicken plus an asun on the side. It splits easily, gives you a clean sense of two different parts of the kitchen, and asun-on-its-own makes the table feel generous without much effort.
• Three or four people: Add the basmati fried rice. Now you’ve got variety, you’ve got enough food, and you’ve got the dish most likely to be the second-favourite plate at the table by the end of the meal.
• Six or more: Throw in the ofada with assorted meat. That’s the heavy plate for whoever wants something different from the rice spread, and it tends to be the dish that starts a conversation across the table about where someone’s grandmother used to make it best.

Where to order

Order at smokeyjollof.com, call us on +234 909 000 0578, or send us a message on WhatsApp. We’re at 11A Oguntona Crescent, Pedro, off Gbagada Expressway, open Monday to Friday from 7am to 3pm and Saturday and Sunday from 8am to 3pm. If you’re not sure where to start after reading this, the safe answer is a Smokey Jollof Rice Bowl with chicken, and an Asun Bowl on the side. That’s the order we’d send a friend.