“Food with character.” That is how Emmanuel Akinmoyero, founder of Yakoyo, a Nigerian restaurant in Nairobi, describes their cuisine.

“I have been around the world and tasted food from many different places, so I say this with confidence. Nigerian food isn’t just quickly thrown together; its flavour profile is carefully built. A vegetable dish, for example, won’t just have onions, salt and greens. It will also have tomatoes, capsicum, and fish or chicken, with each ingredient contributing to the depth of the final dish.”

That conviction is what led Emmanuel to open Yakoyo Restaurant in Nairobi.

“We started in 2016 because there was demand for West African cuisine. I saw an opportunity to serve authentic Nigerian food, not only to homesick Nigerians, but also to curious Kenyan diners.”

Another motivation came from watching other cultures successfully commercialise their cuisines.

“I’ve seen how different countries have turned their food into commercial assets, and I felt West African cuisine deserved the same recognition,” he says.

While Yakoyo has since expanded to three branches in Nairobi's Kindaruma, Lavington, and Kiambu Road, Emmanuel says the journey has been marked by growing pains.

When he started, he realised West Africans and Nigerians come here and go.

“They may be here for school, work or a conference, but eventually they return home or move elsewhere.”

That reality meant the restaurant could not rely solely on the diaspora. Instead, its long-term growth has depended on winning over Kenyan diners, whom Emmanuel describes as curious and adventurous.

“This is where Nollywood and social media have really helped us,” he says. “People may never have eaten a Nigerian meal, but because of the movies, they know about fufu or okra, and that sparks their curiosity. The same goes for the online jollof wars.”

Today, they serve a diverse customer base of Kenyans, West Africans, and visitors from around the world. But growth has not come cheaply.

A serving of okro soup with goat meat in stew from Yakoyo Restaurant in Nairobi.

Photo credit: Pool

According to Emmanuel, one of the biggest hurdles has been the high cost of establishing and maintaining a business in Kenya. Beyond the initial capital required to invest, recurring expenses such as work permits place significant pressure on the business.

“It is expensive to start a business in Kenya,” he says. “To invest here, you need a minimum of about $100,000 (about Sh12 million).

Additionally, you must renew permits annually, which is also significant cost. Sometimes, when you compare what you are paying for the permits with the revenue the business is generating, you begin to wonder whether it is worth it.”

Maintaining authenticity has also proved costly. While some ingredients can be sourced locally, others have to be imported from Nigeria, pushing up the operating costs.

“We bring in things like poundo, amala, egusi, and spices from Nigeria. Spices used to make jollof rice, for example, cannot be found here. Even when we find similar ones, they taste different.”

The restaurant has also grappled with high staff turnover, particularly in front-of-house roles.

“Kenyans move around too much, especially within the hospitality sector,” he says.

“You find someone with the right attitude, invest time in training them and helping them understand how you want the business to run, then a few months later they’re gone and you have to start the process all over again. That constant retraining takes time and resources.”

Despite these challenges, demand for Nigerian cuisine continues to grow. Emmanuel says the restaurant now enjoys a steady stream of customers, with occupancy typically reaching between 70 and 80 percent on Fridays and Saturdays, its busiest days.

Their customers' favourites?

“Jollof rice, poundo, and pepper soup are some of our best-sellers,” he says.

A serving of semolina and bitter leaf from Yakoyo Restaurant in Nairobi.

Photo credit: Pool

“I must say the pepper soup is particularly popular with people recovering from a night out. It works very well with hangovers. Kenya has a strong drinking culture, and having two of our branches in areas with a vibrant nightlife has definitely boosted sales.”

Pot of Jollof Kitchen

Yakoyo is not an outlier. In recent years, Nairobi has seen a growing number of Nigerian restaurants open their doors, each betting on the city’s increasingly adventurous diners.

Among them is Pot of Jollof Kitchen, which launched in 2020 as a cloud kitchen serving only online orders.

“Our goal was to raise awareness and educate the masses on what goes into preparing these dishes,” Ukeme Udofia, one of the co-founders says.

“We also wanted to introduce a quick-service concept, where customers could enjoy authentic Nigerian meals in under 30 minutes.”

The cloud kitchen has since grown into a physical outlet, with its customer base expanding beyond Nigerians and other West Africans, including a growing number of Kenyan diners.

“Watching Kenyans return again and again for meals that were once unfamiliar to them is one of the most satisfying parts of our job,” he says.

Ukeme Udofia, co-founder of Pot of Jollof Kitchen, says Nigerian food is bold, vibrant, and unapologetic like its people.

Photo credit: Pool

The restaurant’s best-sellers include jollof rice with fried chicken, sweet fried plantain, egusi soup, goat meat pepper soup and a variety of swallows, including pounded yam.

Debunking one of the most common misconceptions about the cuisine, he says people often assume Nigerian meals are spicy and filled with chilli.

“Customers can decide their preferred level of heat when it comes to chilli in their meals,” Mr Udofia says. “That’s the only adjustment we make to our recipes.”

The restaurant has also discovered an unexpected crossover with Kenyan cuisine. According to them, ugali pairs remarkably well with almost all Nigerian soups.

Which of his dishes does he feel best represent Nigerian cuisine?

“If Nigerian food had a passport, jollof rice would be the photo on the front cover,” he says.

The growing popularity of Nigerian cuisine, Mr Udofia believes, is closely tied to the wider influence of Nollywood, Afrobeats and social media.

“There has been a rise in expatriate migration to Kenya. Many of our movies have been watched by Kenyans, Afrobeats has become a shared African cultural language in which you hear phrases such as, ‘I love you like my Jollof rice’. Then there is social media which continuously fuels the interest and curiosity in Nigerian food long before people taste it for the first time.”

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