Review: Kuramo Sports Cafe (Eko Hotel)
Kuramo Sports Cafe
Plot 1415, Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Victoria Island | Instagram | +234 277 2700-25
Over the years, we’ve reviewed a handful of restaurants at Eko Hotel, sharing our thoughts on what the establishment has to offer — from steakhouses, to rooftop bars. But if you want to enjoy a good buffet on Saturday afternoon with family, is Eko Hotel the spot?
Kuramo Sports Cafe buffet
The Kuramo Sports Cafe, one of the hotel’s many restaurants, is known for putting out a buffet with continental and local Nigerian food, from 7pm daily. We recently checked it out on a Friday night. The ambience is spacious and inviting enough, and ideal for a large group of friends/family. It’s also right next to the poolside, so you can enjoy a great view while having dinner.
I started off with a pretty inviting mojito (it’s worthy of note here that they had a nice selection of cocktails), which I would usually enjoy, but unfortunately, this one had a bit too much ice and quickly watered down the drink. This is where my other glass of good ol’ cold water came to the rescue.
When it comes to appetisers, I have to say Kuramo Sports Cafe’s selection is a bit dreary. Pretty much all that was on offer was a few vegetable/carb salads, fruit salad and bread and butter. I had a combo of an egg & potato and seafood salad, which wasn’t terrible but didn’t really stand out either, however the potatoes were tasty and the calamari in the seafood salad was particularly nice.
Mojito
Egg & potato (L) and seafood salad (R)
I was a bit more excited about the mains. The buffet served up a variety of rice dishes, curry pasta, couscous, Edikang Ikong and eba, buttered chicken and different kinds of braised meat (just to name a few). I settled on the white rice, alongside the most tender-looking braised pork and huge chunks of plantain that had been calling my name from the jump.
I can report that the pork was *actually* tender and the sauce that it has been sitting in was really yummy — altogether beautiful. The white rice was perfect and fluffy (doesn’t get better than that with white rice, I guess) and the plantain was sweet and sturdy, the way ALL fried plantain should be (happy to take this argument to Twitter 😈). The mostly-decorative red bell pepper on it was also a nice touch. I stan bell peppers hard.
This was my favourite part of the meal. It was simple but tasty, which is always a win.
White rice, braised pork and fried plantain
Moving on to dessert, I had a selection of sweets — a chocolate cake with ganache, red velvet cake and a really, really beautiful strawberry eclair with actual sliced strawberries in it. I’m not a fan of strawberries because there’s nothing to them lol, but it made this dessert look extra pretty, and the lovely cream inside had a great texture. This is where I confess that although you’ll only see one eclair in the photo below, I had 3 — they were that nice.
Both cakes, on the other hand, were quite stale and didn’t deliver on flavour. It was a little obvious they either hadn’t been baked that day or they were made by someone who’s not very good at baking.
Chocolate cake with ganache, red velvet cake and a strawberry eclair
Overall, I have to say Kuramo Sports Cafe’s buffet is very (very) average and they need to do quite a bit to step it up, so diners can get good value for their money. The country is too tough right now for this — or any — kind of meh-ness.
postscript
4/10 for me
verdict
Damage
N13,500 per person (excl. drinks and water)
Parking
It’s Eko Hotel, there’s lots of parking
