The Dining Room by Artist & Scientist

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FOLLY: First things first, the brunch at the Dining Room was a lot of food .

NOSA: Yeah, just gauge the menu.

The Dining Room is a super not-really-secret underground dining experience. The location isn’t put out publicly and to get it, you must be making a reservation. It’s such an interesting concept that’s a bit rare in these parts.

Oh, and it’s only open on the Thursdays, Fridays and weekends.

Anyway, they kicked off their brunch menu and we took our group of friends to go feast.

FOLLY: Nosa completely skipped the “starter course” because he’s not about that life.

NOSA: Yeah, all that fruit stuff is really not for me. The only fruit I can stand is in a juice or smoothie.

FOLLY: To start, we were served thick greek yoghurt and a variety of toppings. I personally don’t like citrus fruits on yoghurt so I ate the pineapples on their own.

FOLLY: The coconut on the granola was by far my favourite topping.

NOSA: Yeah, the granola was great, but I skipped out on this one so I can’t comment lol. Our friends liked it and got the extra to go if that counts. Greek Yogurt is kuku expensive in Lagos so get it how you live.

What I really liked, though, was the second course - breakfast.

NOSA: I expected individual plates and what came out was a proper feast. This is exactly how Sunday brunch should be. All that was missing was bottomless mimosas.

FOLLY: Overall, the breakfast course i.e. first course was great. The egg cups and the mushrooms stood our for me in the spread.

NOSA: Everything was great. The mushrooms weren’t from a can (Thank God!) and they were sautéed with some cilantro in there. The sausages weren’t struggle either. Someone needs to bring the guys from SAFI here and show them how it’s done.

FOLLY: I particularly enjoyed the mushrooms because 1) I love mushrooms 2) I love cilantro and the mushrooms we sautéed in cilantro. I cannot believe I never thought of combining my two faves in such a simple way. Mushrooms are also naturally so flavourful that you don’t need to do much to them for it to taste delicious, a little butter and olive oil in a pan and most of the mushrooms natural flavours would be released.

FOLLY: The eggs cups surprised me on two fronts simply, because it wasn’t on the initial menu and the second surprise was when I cut into it and all the peppers and vegetables that were stuffed in popped out. It tasted delicious too, the most prominent flavour though were the spring onions.

NOSA: If this was the entire brunch, I’d have no complaints. 12k for all of this is fair value for money. You’d take that anywhere else in Lagos. But was that all?

Nope. A third spread came out.

FOLLY: My standouts in the final course was the sweet and sour fish and rice. I didn’t eat a lot of the rice but I picked out a lot of the fish from the top. Loved that the tanginess that the sauce had and that the thin sliced vegetables still retained their crunchiness after cooking. The avocado salad was also very well received because I’m a basic millennial who loves avocados.

NOSA: I think I was super stuffed from the first round so I limped my way to the finish line. The calamari was built with the Nigerian palate in mind - spicy and bountiful. That said, the fish was definitely a standout with the egg plant dish coming a close second.

FOLLY: Grilled vegetables.

NOSA: The ribs, however, were utterly disappointing.

FOLLY: I was really bummed by the beef ribs because, although they tasted good, they missed the mark on texture because of how tough it was. The struggle.

NOSA: Everything was going well until the ribs. I really don’t get why she had do spoil everything with the ribs. It was like slicing through the toughest goat meat you can imagine. We definitely should’ve eaten the chicken before the ribs

FOLLY: The BBQ chicken was okay - the chef stuffed garlic under the skin which really helped ensure flavour all round. I think I was getting full at this point so I couldn’t eat that much chicken even though I liked it.

NOSA: Should’ve taken it away and made sandwiches with it. What a missed opportunity.

POSTSCRIPT

FOLLY: For the amount of food that it is, the brunch at Dining Room is sooo worth it. I’m still struggling to reconcile the amount we paid and the quantity and quality of the food

NOSA: This is exactly how you should do brunch. Everything else is second rate.

VERDICT

DAMAGE

Brunch - N12,000

PARKING

Decent. 6-7 cars.