Weekend Bits - Jollof Festival + An Evening At Samantha's Bistro.

I have a hate love relationship with Lagos. Every day I keep finding new things to bitch about but it’s an incredible city with lots of good vibes, hustle spirit that keeps you on the go, chill spots and of course a bomb weekend life.

This past weekend I got to hang out with a few friends at a cozy space – Samantha’s Bistro in Ikoyi. My Lagos weekends usually consist majorly of event-hopping and well, more event hopping. I hardly go out with friends for the sake of “just hanging out” so it was a welcome change, a very welcome one.

It was an unplanned outing that put a couple of things into perspective for me. I’m a very emotional person, although I hardly show it so being around these people just chatting, eating and generally enjoying each other’s company made my heart swell and made me re-realize just how important having people in your corner is.

I feel ridiculous typing this but the tiniest things generally get to me and make me so mushy. I’ve talked a bit about my views on friendship here and here so everyone probably already knows how much luck I’ve had in that department and over time I’ve learnt to be okay with solitude.

I guess all I’m trying to say is that having more moments like this wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Heading to Samantha’s Bistro wasn’t in my itinerary for the day. All I wanted to do was head over to Hans and Rene for my sugar fix but my friend Ismail (Dude behind most of my blog pictures this year, like this post, this and this) suggested Samantha’s so I went with the flow.

Just a quick review on Samantha’s Bistro because I didn’t initially plan to blog about it but looking through these pictures, I figured hey why not?!

Samantha’s Bistro is a nice cool bar and grill located Off Kingsway Road in Ikoyi. I love cozy spaces that are simple yet look like a lot of thought was put into it so my first thought was “Okay, I like this place”. I was also won over by the outdoor hanging chair. We chose to sit outside and was immediately attended to by a waiter.

I didn’t pay too much attention to the menu because I’m a bush girl who doesn’t have a head for fancy food names and can’t be bothered much with them. To avoid the stress of trying to figure out what I’ll like, I decided to just go with the club sandwich, side of fries and a Chapman which all cost N5500.

Related: Brunch At Art Cafe Lagos.

The food took a long while to be served – I went on a picture taking spree and even after that, the food was still yet to be served. It was an okay meal, nothing mind blowing or overly exciting and not disappointing either. The ketchup which quite nice though, I’m not a fan of ketchup but this I really enjoyed. I also loved their food presentation and like my friend (who seems to be obsessed with the word “vibes” by the way) would say – I’ll probably go back “just for the vibes”

Ever been to Samantha’s Bistro? What was your experience like?

Like I said, Samantha’s Bistro was totally unplanned. My main reason for leaving my house was to attend the first part of Kitchen Butterfly x Eat.Drink.Lagos Jollof festival in celebration of world Jollof day. I can hardly say No to food, and definitely not free jollof rice prepared by kitchen butterfly herself!

It was at this super artsy space in Victoria Island and as promised, there was Jollof and good vibes. I met some new people and did a bit of “mingling”. I have to give it up to the Eat.Drink.Lagos team and Ozoz, they definitely put everything into consideration with the jollof festival. I’m a sucker for good branding and the little details and it was obvious that they went all out for this.

Unfortunately, I had to work on Sunday as I was on-call and couldn’t make the other part of the Jollof festival and also the blogger point brunch but I hear I won an award at it (Shout out to my Instagram fam that kept me in the know!) although I haven’t been officially reached out to. All in all, it was a pretty good weekend for me and I’m looking forward to more “Lagos Weekends” and reviving the weekend bits segment as soon as I’m done with my housemanship.

I know it’s almost half of the week already (Thank God for this!), but how did your weekend go and I hope you’re having a wonderful week?!