Obudu Grill House is part of the fortress known as The Sheraton Abuja, but it’s worth mentioning because it’s one of the only bona fide steakhouses in the country. Located to the right of the main entrance of the hotel, the restaurant is its own entity on the Sheraton property and can only be accessed from outside of the facility.
Once inside, Obudu has all of the trappings of a hotel restaurant: the layout is exceptionally clean and wide open, with hardwood floors, bovine horns on the walls and wooden screens separating portions of the dining room. There’s a grand piano in the center of the room that mournfully plays out tunes in the evening (my set started with the Godfather theme) and an upper bar with space for a dozen.
Courtesy of Obudu Grill House
Obudu’s attempt to emulate a western steakhouse is fairly successful. There are a few select cuts of beef on the menu ranging from prime fillet to a t-bone steaks, with nothing costing more than N 6,500. For those with more adventurous taste, there’s also lamb, veal, pork and even a cut of ostrich on the menu.
Most importantly, the steak is cooked correctly. While many restaurants in Nigeria will fully cook your paper-thin steak to the point of charring, a medium steak here is pink in the middle and reflective of the cut you ordered. My 250gr fillet was excellent, and came with a choice of peppercorn or mushroom sauces as well as steamed vegetables. On that note, Obudu’s sides aren’t as endearing as the entrées are, but they’re still quite palatable.
In addition to the meal selections, Obudu is one of the few restaurants in the area with a modest wine selection, where it’s actually possible to select among a dozen varieties of wine rather than a simple “red” or “white.” The Bordeaux that I ordered was N 1,800 per glass and around N 9,000 for the bottle.
