There's An Eastern European Restaurant In Lagos
BL Restaurant
147 Younis Bashorun St., Victoria Island, Lagos.
FOLLY: Seriously guys, the Ukrainians are coming.
NOSA: *Bulgarian. The manger/owner said so.
The receipt also said "Bul-Leb Entertainment", which I'm guessing is short for "Bulgarian-Lebanese Entertainment". Also, the menu is all Bulgarian and Lebanese , with a splash of Italian, so it all makes sense.
FOLLY: Fine it's the Bulgarians this time, but My Coffee is run by Ukrainians. Nosa and I fully expected this place to be rubbish.
NOSA: I mean, just look at the name.
FOLLY: The name was so unimaginative, that I thought it'll be some rich man's wife's passion project or hobby.
The menu can be likened to a walking tour of Europe with some Lebanese friends.
NOSA: If your tour only stops in Bulgaria and Italy, maybe.
FOLLY: We started with the meat hummus. This is the most delicious hummus I've ever had.
Ever.
It was thick and creamy with lots of olive oil and generously mixed in sesame seeds.
NOSA: No exaggeration here, but I think this might actually be better than the one at Syrian Club.
FOLLY: We unanimously decided next that we had to try their pizza, so I chose the Pepperoni through a process of elimination.
FOLLY: It's no secret that we love thin crust pizza (Pizza-Riah, La Taverna, Mario's, La Verandah), and BL Restaurant was no exception.
NOSA: The pizza is up there with my favorite Lagos ones. Top 5, at least. Definitely better than the fast food place that serves frozen pizza and won't stop subbing us with their Twitter ads.
FOLLY: I have a feeling Nigerians would love this because the pizza was spicy with all that extra pepper they tossed on. Like La Taverna, they have infused oils which make great pizza dips.
NOSA: Oh, and the actual pepperoni is delicious. Minor, but important note.
FOLLY: For my main, I decided to stay in Italy while Nosa crossed over to Bulgaria. To be honest, I wish I had followed him.
I had the Spaghetti Bolognese which wasn't bad but was very boring choice considering all the other options on their menu. It's pretty easy to screw this up by just simply serving corned beef or minced meat in a simple stew but thankfully they did no such thing.
NOSA: If you get pasta at BL, make sure you specifically ask them to make it al dente. Apparently, lots of Nigerians came in here asking for softer pasta so the default they serve is fancy Indomie.
FOLLY: I was also wondering why my pasta was so white and the server said it was because it was homemade.
NOSA: I got the Svinsko & Gubi, which is probably Bulgarian for pork and mushroom. A quick Google image search suggests I wasn't lied to by BL. The plate is not a looker by any means, but I thought this was delicious. The mash had some lumps in it, however.
FOLLY: Strongbow is new in Lagos so when the waitress listed it as one of the drinks they had, I thought I'd try it. Ps. They don't have a drinks menu so she was just running a commentary of all their stock.
I don't like apple juice so I don't know why I thought I'd like Strongbow. I think it's cause I've liked some apple ciders in the past but nah, not this one.
POSTSCRIPT
FOLLY: There's this platter Nosa showed me on their Instagram yesterday. I'm coming back here for that, hummus and pizza.
NOSA: Definitely coming back for the hummus and to try the other Bulgarian stuff. And the pork ribs too.
FOLLY: I also think that BL is very well priced.
NOSA: BL is very different from a lot of Lagos restaurants. It's very rare to find cuisine outside the usual in Lagos so it's definitely a welcome addition to our city.
VERDICT
DAMAGE
Hummus - N2500
Svinsco & Gubi - N5400
Pepperoni Pizza - N4000
Spaghetti Bolognese - N3500
PARKING
They have parking spaces in front of the restaurant and there's also street parking.