Chris Ihidero Unedited: In Praise of the amazing Yellow Chilli

By Chris Ihidero

‘There is no sincerer love than the love for food‘ – George Bernard Shaw

I love food. I love good food. I really love good food.

I hardly ever consider what good food costs when I am eating out. I am willing to pay whatever it costs if the food and the experience is worthy.  I am not a great fan of fancy dinning, where the presentation is more important than the food and flavours on the plate.

Which is why I absolutely love Yellow Chilli.

I started eating at Yellow Chilli while working as a lifestyle magazine editor in Victoria Island in 2007. My first meal was the legendary Jollof Rice Fiesta. I remember the pleasant surprise of stumbling upon chunk after chunk of chicken in the jollof rice, which made sense to retain the Owambe party flavour at the same time as rising above it and sitting comfortably at a restaurant table. It is a careful balance, I tell you, one that the restaurants in places like Eko Hotel will do well to discover.

A friend once summed up the reason Nigeria has not achieved its potentials this way: Anything that requires a process and consistency is lost to the Nigerian psyche. If that be the case, Yellow Chilli isn’t Nigerian at all. I have eaten their legendary Jollof Rice Fiesta so many times over the past seven years and consistent does not even begin to describe the portion, flavours, succulence and overall greatness of that meal. Same for the Pounded Yam and Seafood Okro Soup. Heaven! The chef that created that meal deserves a GCON; he has been more useful to Nigerians than Aliko Dangote, our ‘Assistant President’.

You are better off eating at YC than almost anywhere else in Victoria Island, at least at the places that sell the same food YC sells. For one, YC is unpretentious about the food, the ambience or anything else really. So they have no need to have astronomical prices that border on the ridiculous, as is the case with many restaurants on the Island. As famed as the Jollof Rice Fiesta and Pounded Yam and Seafood Okro soup are, they are still under N4, 000. Unless your date was the offspring of an elephant or a whale in an earlier life, you can get away with meal for two and drinks at YC. No God-fearing babe will ask for dessert after wolfing down a portion of Yellow Chilli’s Pounded Yam and Seafood Okro. None.

I was a bit apprehensive when Yellow Chilli opened the Ikeja branch last year. I wondered if the quality could be sustained at another branch. I have been pleasantly surprised at how the consistency has remained firmly in place, not only in taste and flavours, but also in portions. See people, consistent portions are important! I want to be assured that I will get the same portion of my favourite meal every time I order it. And YC understands that some of us have huge appetites. Calorie counting isn’t a habit that will lead anyone to heaven, at least not to food heaven, which happens to be the only heaven I am willing to consider going.

I can’t say much about the quality of service at Yellow Chilli because I often don’t notice it. Right from when I arrive, I exist in a dream state where I remain, fantasizing on the meal I am about to have such that, as long as the food arrives before me at the agreed time, I don’t care about what else is happening.  The waiters are fairly courteous without being annoying and the general ambience of the restaurants, especially the Ikeja branch, is great.  The restrooms are clean too, although I won’t advise you to take my word for it as I could still have been in food heaven while peeing.

Oh by the way, they have a spin-off of the great Jollof Rice Fiesta now; the Fried Rice Fiesta. I had it about two years ago and it was smashing. You should try it. I still think the classic Jollof Rice version is still a better dish though. This might have something to do with that Owambe party flavour. And my friend Lola introduced me to the Dodo and Vegetable Soup sometime ago and that was cool too. Those are actually all the meals I have had at YC. Interesting that I have had only about four meals over seven years and I love this restaurant so…

So this is saying thank you to the guys at Yellow Chilli for a job well done. I actually think what you have been able to achieve is a pretty big deal, for nothing retains its quality over a long period around here.

Not even Governor Fashola.