The Greater Accra

Restaurant

Guide

By Peter Morris

Ghana-pedia's Australian-based co-administrator

This special Ghana-pedia reference is a chapter devoted to the great selection of restaurants in Accra, the capital of Ghana.

When returning to Australia from a trip to Ghana, I am often asked by curious colleagues about the types & quality of meals on offer in Ghana. Curious people often are surprised when I tell them there are some great places to eat in Accra, and that cuisines such as Italian, Lebanese, Chinese, and Indian are relatively common. There has also been some attempt to duplicate the concept of fast food, although this seems to have met with somewhat limited success.

I have concentrated on the Greater Accra Region in this article, mainly because it has the greatest concentration & variety of restaurants in Ghana. While Kumasi certainly has a fantastic range of restaurants & eateries, several of those mentioned in this article also have outlets in Kumasi, and in some cases, even in other regional capitals.

However, there are suprisingly few 'chains' in Ghana, and this is surprising, considering their apparent popularity. Possibly, the owners are content to operate out of one location, or they believe that Ghana can't support more than one outlet, either in Accra or in another town or city.

There is no shortage of inexpensive chop bars in Ghana, particularly in Accra, where you can buy Ghanaian staples such as Fufu, Kenkey, Banku, & Jollof Rice. These dishes are often made crops commonly farmed in Ghana, including cassava, yam, plantain, and meats such as goat, fish, and chicken.

There are other more unique Ghanaian dishes - one that is considered somewhat of a delicacy is Grasscutter, better known elsewhere as the Greater Cane Rat. Popular dishes available from roadsides include roasted plantain, chicken skewers, and a delicious treat called kalawole (pronounced killi-willi), an interesting mix of deep fried plaintain seasoned with ginger, pepper & salt.

There are literally thousands of local vendors and chop bars that serve Ghanaian dishes, and coming from a country where popular cuisines include Italian, Lebanese, French, Chinese, Mexican, Indian, and any number of other popular cuisines. Despite my interest in Ghana & my regular trips there, I personally struggle with Ghanaian dishes, and usually only limit myself to a token taste on each trip, mainly just to placate my suggestive Ghanaian friends.

Whatever is written in this article, please take into account that I am an extremely fussy eater, and I would rather travel a distance for the promise of excellent food, rather than buy something substandard because it is at a closer proximity !

As places that serve Ghanaian cuisine are so numerous, for the purposes of this study, I am going to stick to primarily reviewing restaurants that serve other cuisines. This is also because I feel that many visitors will be more like me - will try Ghanaian dishes out of curiousity, but will feel more at home with what they know.

 A number of popular dishes have practically exploded onto the scene in Ghana over the last decade. I particularly cite pizza & burgers, which seem to be available from nearly every restaurant or eatery that anything outside of Ghanaian cuisine. However, both range from excellent to very average quality. As an example, I can usually pick who makes pizza with quality products, using a pizza oven (wood fired, gas, or electric), or whether it has been done in a conventional oven. Please also note that my suggestions on seafood dishes are taken from others, as I don't eat seafood of any kind.

There are a lot of people of Lebanese, Chinese, and Indian extraction living in Ghana, so not surprisingly, there are a number of excellent restaurants in the Greater Accra Region. There are also a number of great French & Italian restaurants around, and in rare cases, there are places that do more exotic foods like Mexican & Japanese. Without doubt, the largest concentration of international restaurants are located within close proximity to Cantonments Road ('Oxford Street') in the Osu district, although you will see in our reviews that other districts in Accra also have quality restaurants & eateries.

While we are not going to criticize anyone on this page, we are going to mention the places noteworthy for their excellent food, and similarly, credit places that serve acceptable, if not quite brilliant, renditions of what we are reviewing. Furthermore, the rankings that I give are elastic - they are subject to change if I find a place I consider worthy to enter the rankings - and currently listed restaurants can find themselves dumped out of the top three in any of my categories at a moment's notice. I look at quality versus price, and issues like timeliness, service, and appearance in our assessment.

Without further ado, let's begin the rankings - I am also going to start with my favourite food:

 Other noteworthy: In Accra, I would mention La Tour Fast Food & Restaurant on Spintex Road in eastern Accra, and Hallo Pizza & Restaurant at Danquah Circle in North Labone Estate (and their new location at Harbin in the Teshie district) as having quite good pizza. Out of Accra, but still in the Greater Accra Region, I found that Manet Paradise Hotel in Ada Foah made an enjoyable pizza. A popular place is Pizza Inn, which is a chain with outlets in the Osu, Legon, '37'/Airport, and Sakumono districts, is popular, and I find their pizza acceptable, if not good.

 Other noteworthy: Hotel Shangri-La, along Independence Avenue near Kotoka International Airport, make quite a good beef burger, as do Just Burgers & Fries on Spintex Road in eastern Accra. Another place worth trying is Champs Sports Bar in the Paloma Hotel's food court. Chicken Inn, who have outlets alongside Pizza Inn (locations mentioned in the pizza rankings), and is popular amongst locals, make entirely serviceable chicken & beef burgers. Steers Fast Food would have made this list, however, I was disappointed to see they had shut in 2008, and their former outlet is now a Tigo outlet.

 Other noteworthy: I haven't actually dined at the fabled Dynasty Chinese Restaurant on Cantonments Road ('Oxford Street') in the Osu district, however, this is because I usually feel I am dressed a little too casually to go. There are plenty of Chinese restaurants in Accra, and even more places in Accra that have Chinese dishes on their menu, but I have only tried a few. Cozy Gardens Chinese Restaurant, near the Sakumono junction is also an entirely satisfactory option.

 Other noteworthy: In this category, I have tried just the three locations above. As mentioned in the reference to Kohinoor Indian Restaurant, the outlet in the Osu district has split from their Tema counterparts, but I don't know if this has led to any menu changes.

 Other noteworthy: I really like a good kebab, and I found that the Abou Deeb Restaurant on Cantonments Road ('Oxford Street') in the Osu district made excellent chicken and beef kebabs, and I often found myself grabbing one before going to a Ghana Glo Premier League football game at the nearby Ohene Djan Sports Stadium.

Frankies make a very good hommus with Lebanese bread, but after I rated my first kebab there as 'passable', I have mainly stuck to other things on the menu.

I have heard that Niagara Hotel near Kwame Nkrumah Circle in the Adabraka district makes one of the best kebabs in town, but my one visit there was to review the hotel, and I had already eaten. Nontheless, their Al Basha restaurant looked like the kind of place that could serve up an awesome Lebanese dish, and on my next visit, I will be sure to try it.

 Other noteworthy: On my last trip, I search the Tesano district for a place called La Trattoria Romana, that I had heard allegedly served the best Italian food in Accra, but I couldn't find it. If someone can provide me with better directions that "Adeka junction", and a phone number that works, I would like to find it on my next trip to see if it lives up to the hype.

Before I go any further, I will give a disclaimer to pasta lovers when visiting Ghana - be careful of what is passed off as "Bolognese Sauce" anywhere that you tour. The local interpretation of this seems to vary to what has been passed down from the old country, and if you are a true lover of Bolognese Sauce (like me), you might find the local interpretation as an abomination, with bizarre things like carrot rounds and even chunks of goat meat (still attached to the bone) in it !

Back to the reviews, one other place that deserves a mention once again is Frankies. While not the best thing on their menu, the small pasta selection is passable if not quite spectacular.

If anyone has a map of Accra that shows Sole Mio Ristorante on Embassy Road in the Osu district, to save you the time, I will advise you that it has unfortunately gone out of business.

There is one other place you can get great pasta in Ghana - from me ! ...........I often make my own sauces when I am there, and another traveled Ghanaian who tried my Spaghetti Bolognese that it was the best he had eaten since he was last in Europe.