Nigerian-born chef Adejoké Bakare opened her West African restaurant Chishuru in Brixton Village’s Market Row in 2020 after winning a competition, with the small site winning critical acclaim and routinely being fully booked. Believing that her restaurant would thrive in a larger, more central London location, Bakare closed the original restaurant late in 2022, reopening it with business partner Matt Paice in Fitzrovia the following year.
Her belief in her restaurant and in people’s desire to try her food was well founded as Chishuru 2.0, as it is affectionately know, has been even more of a smash hit than its predecessor. So much so, the Great Titchfield Street restaurant even caught the eye of Michelin’s inspectors, who awarded it a star a mere few months later.
Chishuru’s success can be attributed to a number of things. First, its food, which has brought new flavours to central London. Bakare’s cooking is inventive and interesting, with dishes on the regularly changing menu that might include mutton cutlet with coffee and yaji dressing; bean cake with lamb broth-cooked tomato, shrimp shitto, and salted egg sauce; and moringa biscuit, soursop ice-cream, and burnt marshmallow.
The intimate feel and warmth of the restaurant itself, that has many of the trappings of a fine dining restaurant - a multi-course set menu of sometimes intricate dishes - is another factor. Chishuru is a homely, unpretentious neighbourhood restaurant that is as inviting as the food itself.
Then there’s Bakare herself. As a champion of her homeland’s cooking she stands alone; as a chef her infectious personality shines through onto her dishes.
