Seven spots across the city, from Surulere canteens to a ₦24,000 abula on the Island.
If you want amala in Lagos, here is the short list: Olaiya in Surulere, Amala Shitta a few streets away, White House in Yaba, Iya Eba on Onikan, Amala Yahoo in Ojota, Belgium at Mile 2, and Nok by Alara on the Island if somebody else is paying. Where each sits and what it is known for is below, plus the part these lists skip: what a plate costs now.
One thing first. Amala is not really the point. Abula is: the amala, the ewedu, the gbegiri and the stew turning up together, and a spot lives or dies on its soup rather than its swallow. Nobody in Lagos has ever recommended a buka for its yam flour. They recommend the stew, then argue about it for twenty minutes.
The Seven Spots, and Where to Find Them
- Olaiya Food Canteen, Surulere. 109 Akerele Street, buffet style, and the stew is why people make the trip. Eat.Drink.Lagos went back years later and found the portions and the price unmoved, which in this city is close to a miracle.
- Amala Shitta, Surulere. Minutes from Olaiya and named after the road, the way the good ones are. Known for amala that comes out soft rather than heavy, with the gbegiri and ewedu poured on properly.
- White House, Yaba. The most famous amala address in Lagos, by Yaba's commercial crush, and generous with the goat meat. Reviewers have been politely mixed on the amala itself for years, and I will not pretend otherwise.
- Iya Eba, Onikan. One of the older joints, known for its gbegiri, a lighter ewedu than most, and proper obe eran. One catch: weekends are cash only.
- Amala Yahoo, Ojota. Low ceiling, plastic chairs, permanently full, goat meat soft enough to forgive all of it. The classic spot experience, parking problem included.
- Belgium, Mile 2. Worth the drive for the ewedu, and its gbegiri got a flat 10 out of 10 from Eat.Drink.Lagos, which they hand out about as often as Lagos hands out parking.
- Nok by Alara, Victoria Island. 12 Akin Olugbade Street, the fine dining answer to all of the above. The abula is genuinely good, and priced like a domestic flight.
What a Plate Actually Costs in 2026
Here I have to be straight with you, because the honest answer beats a confident one. The only recent amala prices I could actually source sit at the expensive end: Eat.Drink.Lagos priced the abula with beef at Nok by Alara at ₦24,000 in Feb 2026, and an abula night at Oremi Dinners in Ikoyi at ₦37,900 a head in Jul 2026.*
The buka end is harder, and anybody quoting an exact figure is guessing. A canteen publishes no menu, a wrap of amala is priced by whatever the market did that morning, and Nairametrics's monthly Lagos market surveys have had prices moving in both directions all year. So, no invented number here: the gap between a plate at Olaiya and a plate at Nok is not a rounding error, and both rooms are still full on a Saturday.
If You Are Flying In to Eat This
Let me save you an awkward moment at the counter. Every spot on this list is priced in Naira and paid in Naira, Iya Eba included, and that part is easy enough. The arithmetic is the bit that wears you down: working out what your money is worth before you order, again at the next place, and again when the goat meat turns out to be priced separately.
You do not have to do any of it. The USD to Naira and USDT to Naira pages carry the live rate, and on Mular, you can spend directly from your USD and crypto balances in about ten seconds. Naira lands in their bank, and nobody at the table needs to know what a stablecoin is.**
The Best Amala in Lagos Is Probably Not on This List
It is almost certainly the one near your office that a colleague swears by, or the one your aunt has used since 1998 and will not hear a word against. That is the thing about a dish this loved: the ranking is a starting point, and the argument is the fun. Take the seven above as a map, then go and disagree with it 🤲🏽
Eat Well in Lagos Without Losing Money on the Way In
Amala is cheap, in a city where turning your own money into spendable Naira usually is not. Mular is the part before the meal: dollars or stablecoins in, Naira in their bank in a max of ten seconds, and a history that remembers the rate for you. The only thing left to decide is gbegiri or no gbegiri. Download Mular and sort the money before you sit down.
As always, stay Jiggy.
Love, Mr Mular.
* Both prices from Eat.Drink.Lagos, read 2 Oct 2026: the Nok by Alara review of 1 Feb 2026 and the Oremi Dinners abula night of 1 Jul 2026. https://www.eatdrinklagos.com/review/2026/1/30/review-nok-by-alara-victoria-island
** Mular details as at 2 Oct 2026: sending Naira to a Nigerian bank account from a crypto or USD balance carries a ₦50 withdrawal fee. Fees change, so read the screen before you confirm.
Written 2 Oct 2026 from other people's reviews rather than my own stomach, which is the only dishonest thing about this post. The street prices are missing because I could not source them, not because I did not look.
Related reading: the IJGB guide to converting dollars in Lagos and the Lagos spots that do take crypto are next.