1 /5 Rashid O: After hearing glowing recommendations about Nikki’s Restaurant, I decided to stop by for lunch after visiting a relative in the nearby hospital. I went in with high expectations and a simple mission: to enjoy my favourite comfort meal — amala with a rich mix of seafood in okro, especially since I’ve cut red meat out of my diet.
The service started off reasonably well. My food arrived in about fifteen minutes, which felt promising. Unfortunately, that promise evaporated the moment I tasted the dish.
The seafood tasted as if it had been cooked directly in seawater. The saltiness wasn’t just excessive — it was overwhelming to the point of being inedible. The flavour of the okro was completely drowned out, and the entire dish became a struggle rather than a pleasure. I tried to salvage the experience by taking small morsels of the amala and barely touching the sauce, just so I could enjoy the swallow itself, which was actually well made. But even that workaround didn’t last long. I eventually gave up.
When I raised the issue with the owner, I was met with an excuse about the seasoning being responsible for the extreme saltiness. I suggested reducing the seasoning or adjusting the salt afterwards, but the response didn’t inspire confidence that anything would change.
I paid, left, and made a quiet decision: I won’t be returning to Nikki’s anytime soon. A restaurant can survive many things, but food that is fundamentally unbalanced — especially to this degree — is hard to overlook. With so many places offering well-prepared Nigerian cuisine, diners shouldn’t have to endure a dish that tastes like it was seasoned by Poseidon himself.