Musa Jibril
The last decade had seen a change in the status of Victoria Island from a residential area to a commercial district. The upmarket island metamorphosed into a bubbly commercial enclave, succumbing to an urban renewal that brought it a glut of glitz and glamour. Now everywhere is crammed with high-end hotels, brightly coloured boutiques, baronial bars, and retro-fit restaurants. Daytime in VI is fast and feisty with the street crawling with cars and crowd. Night time is flashy with neon lights.
The long and short of it: VI is the ideal place to shop for goods and foods. In the case of the latter, if you are in the know, you would know a thing or two about Noir, the restaurant with French-inspired culinary and an ambience that is warm and welcoming as an ideal place for fine dining.
If you want an evening of good food and fine wine, I will suggest you try Noir, the upscale restaurant tucked away at No. 4A Akin Olugbade Street. What stands it out from other restaurants is its focus on giving diners a taste of haute cuisine, not just in terms of palate satisfaction, but as a total experience.
Noir is multifaceted. It consists of the main restaurant, VIP Lounge, a café, and an outdoor terrace. Its walls tastefully garnished with beautiful African artworks imbue an ambience that is at once novel and sophisticated.
France is known for its wine. The wine cellar in Noir reflects that, filled with a vast collection of international fine wines and also liquor in volume and variety that makes the bar a “horn of plenty.”
A trained mixologist is on standby any time of the day to give you refreshing cocktails.
As for meals, the menu is essentially French cuisine, which may not appeal to those who crave native foods of the dumpling varieties––amala, semo, garri or poundo yam. Overall, Noir has a tall reputation as a plate where the expression bon appetite is quite appropriate. The place is an invitation to taste the famed French gastronomy.
Every great restaurant has its selling point. Noir’s is the Black Rock. The black rock service is a hot stone cooking process by which customers can cook their steak. For Your Information: Black is the colour of the stone (and by the way Noir means Black.)
Here’s the testimony of a friend: “I ordered from the Steak Menu. Then I tried my hand on the Blackrock Stone cookery, cooking my steak live on my table, exactly as I like it. My steak was served with an accompaniment of my choice, alongside a sauce. I opted for the French Fries, Black Pepper Sauce, and the Mustard Sauce.”
The black stone is the highlight of the dining experience of many patrons. Cooking your steak just the way you like it, it only happens in Noir.