Isibani in City of London, Westminster

made the mistake of following the guardian's review of this african restaurant. i always follow their culinary reviews of london's restaurants. nowhere else, to me london is the whole country (been here 20 years). i am sad to announce that the meal was a disaster! to hope that in the middle of knighsbridge a restaurant this poor could survive longer than months is a pious dream. and it has, i believe they opened in 2022. i firstly booked via opentable. only availability was at 2pm. i later called and moved it to 1pm. go figure. when we got there, us two, place was deserted. nobody, no tables taken. a nigerian waitress welcomed us in tentative english and took our coats. a harbinger of the quality of the restaurant was that she hunged the two coats behind the till's chair! i mean, if this is their cloak room then we could have simply kept them behind our own chairs. we were shown to a table and noticed straight away there were no africans in sight, all staff but one were asians. another bad sign. a nigerian restaurant served by asians?? again, we noticed that most table were prepared with the cutlery wrongly set, very often seen in african settings where staff simply has no clue on how to set it. they have no idea forks go on the left and knivs on the right! none. we then ordered: fried yam ayamase ofada stew butterfly grill seabass acqua panna btl nigerian fanta a plate with two "puff puff" came as appetisers. admittedly very good. ayamase, we asked with white rice. yes of course, they said. it came with brown rice. seabass was ok, but please remember seabass does not exist in nigerian cuisine! drinks were hard to get it wrong, nigerian fanta is not proper fanta. a totally different drink and taste but it's ok, wife tells me west africans love different sodas. all in all a disaster. we spent £70. let me finish by saying that in this postcode, where patrons are used to an extremely high level of service and quality a place like this hopefully will NOT survive and it makes you wonder how could they, no patrons on a tuesday's lunch?? no, something is very wrong here.

If I could give zero stars I would. The professionalism of the lady in charge is non existent and the overall experience was terrible. We were given a deal from Wowcher as a present so we called in advance, made the booking, gave them the code and they said it was ok. When we went there, they told us they couldn’t accept it because they had problems with Wowcher and they wouldn’t get paid so they refused to grant the deal. The restaurant is still showing as bookable in Wowcher but they are turning people away because it is not worth the money for them. It took us almost 2 hours to get there and we left out of principle. If you want a nice place go to Buddha which is just around the corner.

We ordered a set menu and were pleased with what we received. Good portions of flavour full well prepared food with just a hint of delicious spices. The restaurant is attractive and comfortable and we really enjoyed the background music. The service was adequate but could have been friendlier and more proactive but overall we did enjoy our visit to Isibani.

Sono stata in questo ristorante con mia cugina, ci siamo trovate entrambe molto bene: la carne era di prima qualità, cucinata perfettamente; ambiente semplice e carino, con musica soft; personale gentilissimo, molto amichevole. Davvero molto buone le yam, che non avevamo mai provato. Siamo state bene, ritorneremo

We were dining at isibani on a 5-course tasting menu for £28 for 2 people/ It soon became apparent why there was an offer on, they were trying out new staff/had not long opened. The staff were totally incompetent. We received 4 dishes instead of 5 and when we flagged to the waitress she didn’t apologise or bring out the 5th dish (2 other tables experienced the same issue). The food was fine but incredibly basic & very small portions, nothing remotely exciting. Each of the 6 tables had an issue with their food, 1 of which waited for over an hour and justifiably left. Staff didn’t apologise, blamed each other for the downfall & even tried to charge for service charge. If this promotion was an effort to attract people to the restaurant they probably achieved it, but I’d be surprised if any one of the patrons returned or would give a positive recommendation. What a disappointment.

Reading the good reviews we decided to give it a try. Actually, I was not disappointed. We were greeted by the friendly staff, then given the promo menu. It was a bit crowded when we arrived at 7pm.  As to the food, we decided to try other items on the menu alongside the promo. I like the egusi soup with the fufu. My friend had Ayamase recommended by the waiter (rice and some sauce served on banana leaf). The taste of that sauce was heavenly and paired with the recommended wine mama Africa was heavenly. The decor was nice, but minimalist but the music was great and the whole atmosphere was cheerful and vibrant. We were surprised at the overall price of our order. Indeed, great value for money. Recommended.

Had dinner on Sunday day- day 7 of opening. Saw an offer of their soft launch.Booking was via a web page confirmation. They had their address incorrect although a small matter-Knightsbridge garden rather than green but the former doesn’t exist on Google maps. The chef is Victor Okunowo who was in the 2020 masterchef and the culinary of west African ie Nigerian food. On arrival- asked to wait and check the reservation book. Should I really have it all on an IT systems as they do with most restaurants. The restaurant looked like it needed more interior work done. Tables was basic. We were put next to the bar with bar chairs still in place so limited space for those seat next to it to manoeuvre. Menu was pieces of paper printed- food menu and drinks squashed together. Would recommend having the tasting menu on the front and the drinks on the back. Also drink prices was label incorrectly- need to rectified asap. The guy work served drinks- was his first day so unsure about the wines on offer: would suggest some familiarity with it before serving. Had the 8 course: bread was disappointing with whipped butter. Salmon, tomatoes and cray fish was nice as was the Guinea fowl terrine. Moimoi with chakalaka- the moimoi was dry but taste ok and helped by the chakalaka. Both the mains of cod and yaki chicken was good. The yam in the yaki chicken was tasteless and chicken portion could be larger as it tasted good. Pineapple pallet cleanser was too intense. Desert was very good: chocolate malva and textured strawberries. The food was interesting and could certainly become more interesting as more established but the dining experience was a let down from start to finish by service as it was clear the people in the service side seemed somewhat lost. Hope you come back again when it has found its feet!