Nigerian, Italian tastes meet at Intercontinental Hotel

For many patrons of the Lagos Intercontinental hotel, one of the restaurants that attract guests is the Milano restaurant that offers Italian cuisine. So, it will not be strange to see items like Petto Di Pollo Ripieni , fried calamari, risotto, grouper fillet, and fettuccine alla carbonara among others in the menu list.

But on a recent visit, I was surprised to see on the menu list Italian pizza with Nigerian flavour. So, it was a delight having gizzard pizza, asun pizza and suya pizza.

In a chat with the hotel’s Director of Food & Beverages, Mr. Ahmed Raza, later on the new culinary adventure, he said they needed to introduce Nigeria flavour when they discovered that many Nigerians have started patronizing the restaurant unlike when they started.

“To be very honest with you, for the first couple of years, because we were getting a lot of corporate clientele, lot of expatriates were coming to the restaurants, but now the trends have changed.

“Now a lot of locals and lots of Nigerians are coming to dine in our restaurant. We are really proud of that because we think the restaurants cater to the people of Lagos. So , we have added a lot of Nigerian dishes to it. That is what we want, we want the expatriates and we want the people of Lagos.

Mr. Ahmed Raza added that they are looking beyond in-house guests to patronize the restaurant, but also outsiders, “We want to capture average diners who are dining outside, to come to Intercontinental Hotels, we have the Nigerian flavour fused with the Italian flavour.”

“The Nigerian food is normally specie that is why we are having the Italian pizza with the Nigerian flavour. We have the gizzard pizza, asun pizza and suya pizza. Basically it is picking the basic elements of Nigerian food and merging it with the Italian food to give it an exciting flavour that people here will enjoy.”