Village Chief Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Wuse II

The Village Chief Restaurant is a remarkable but hidden spot in the business & ever busy Wuse 2 District of Abuja. The official name is Matambella Garden Wuse 2. Located just a branch off from Adetokunmbo Ademola Cresent in front of Rockview Hotel. There're about 4 or 5 different restaurant/lounges in the garden. However, Village Chief is the oldest & most popular. The common aspect of the different entities is their diverse & interesting menus. Village Chief Restaurant & Bar is renowned for its diverse authentic Nigerian cuisine. From fresh palmwine, to ukwa, isi ewu, nkwobi, assorted peppersoup, Arabian tea, to Naija native soups etc. The speciality of the eateries however is roasted or grilled fish. The garden has a large parking area in the centre with security staff on duty to provide guidance. During my last outing, we patronised Ibro Fish (one of the restaurants/lounge) in the garden. Was delighted to see that this facility has been renovated, upgraded & tushed up. It can compete with any high end garden, eatery or park in Abuja. There are even bulky security men or bouncers at the entrance to enhance status. Diverse choice of foods & drinks abound herein. The roasted fish with attachments of peppered sauce, fried dodo, cucumber, cabbage) didn't & never disappoints in this garden. So was the chicken wings with hot/peppery sauce. Was a pleasure to relish the meals & drinks in the upscale lounge of Ibro Fish. The inside is massive & well sectionalised into outdoor & covered dinning areas with clean well spaced tables & big screen TV sets. Neat, uniformed staff (mostly young beautiful ladies & gentlemen) attend to patrons. Their measured movements & patient demeanor indicate good training. The convenience here was very clean with running water, liquid soap, tissues... Popular Naija music that was not too loud enchanted the area in the background apart from the TVs. We loved the ambience, energy & atmosphere. The Village Chief Garden is without doubt a favorite place for getting some of the best & authentic Nigerian soups, foods, drinks & vibes. It's absolutely an amazing place. Generally, we had a wonderful outing experience here as always. Thanks to the operators, managers & staff ! Keep...

Food is great and it follows my golden soup to swallow ratio. (Plenty soup and a very good size of whatever protein you order). That alone is worth 4 stars IMO.

Served HOT, which is always perfect and the taste definitely matches the presentation. That boosts it up to 5 stars IMO. (Food)

As for service, the service is actually decent overall; however, there's like a minimum wait time of 20 minutes, something like that. (Perhaps to prepare it fresh and hot)

If you'll be eating here, you should probably order as soon as you get there before getting carried away with the ambience.

Speaking of ambience, it's really nice, calm, creative, natural vibes and all. Really makes you very comfortable with enjoying your dish with your hands unlike eating swallow at poch restaurants.

It would have been perfect but I dislike the fact that the outdoor seats aren't well shaded so they can't be enjoyed properly at noon. Because I'd definitely pick outdoor over indoor if sun wasn't a factor. (Personal preference)

There were flies when I entered inside one of the enclosed huts (indoors) but the attendants were quick to repel them. They were very responsive which is always good service; however, just seeing flies at a restaurant sometimes can be a turn off for me so I'd hope they could always work on this.

Other than that, Village chief has got this swallow business on lock! I won't speak much on drinks cause I don't drink, but the grilled fish is also calm, again it takes timmeeeee to prepare so...

Design: In terms of design, I like the aesthetic from the palm wine jugs, to the wooden menu and leaf house, it’s giving tribal!.

Food & Drinks: We tried the Abacha as well as the fries with fried beef. I advise that you let them know in advance the level of pepper you want unless you’ll need some milk lol. The only thing we didn’t enjoy were the fries, they were just like homemade fries.

Hygiene/Cleanliness: The areas were not as clean as I thought they’ll be. For example, some areas need to be refurbished the floor tiles looked old and dirty and even worse was the smell from the sewage system, which made it uncomfortable to eat and even communicate, so something needs to be done about that. Also, insect repellents machines should be utilized and some people like myself have “ailurophobia”, so find a way to keep the cats away from customers.

Service: The service could be better, the waitress was chatting with her fellow colleagues and not paying attention to us. It was difficult to communicate with her when we needed her service.

Family/Date Friendly: This isn’t a family friendly restaurant, it’s more for grown ups. It’s perfect to chill with friends, listen to music & eat. If you want to go with kids, go earlier in the day time.

Price: It’s a bit pricey but I enjoyed the food, so I’ll be returning.

Location: They opened up a new spot near Gudu market, I’ve attached some images, service & food was good and I recommend.

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