Tucked away in a dusty, unpromising road just west of Oxford Street, Buka is a hugely popular, and mostly successful, exercise in taking Ghanaian and Nigerian food upmarket. As such it attracts some reverse snobbery – it is too expensive, or not ‘real’ enough, critics complain. But Buka is hardly the first restaurant in the world to try an aspirational angle on traditional or street dishes. At the time of writing, fashionable Londoners and New Yorkers will willingly drop the price of a concert ticket on a glammed-up hamburger.

More to the point, Buka is rather good. The atmosphere is lively and informal, with a good mix of expats, visitors and wealthier locals. There’s some trendy exposed brickwork, but open bamboo walls, raffia matting and solid iron-and-wood tables keep things grounded – it may be upmarket, but it doesn’t tip over into shopping mall sterility. In back is a private dining room whose swing door will occasionally reveal a large business party filming each others’ speeches on iPads.

The menu is far shorter than at competitor Tante Marie, which makes Buka an accessible choice for newbies. Red-red and palaver are both here, listed as beans stew and kontonmire. Light soup comes with goat, and the excellent groundnut soup with guinea fowl, a meat that Ghana really ought to make more of – it’s sweet, flavoursome and indigenous to the region. Buka also offers it grilled, though not with the delicacy it needs. On our visit it came up dry and overdone.

Expect service to be slow when Buka is busy – watch out for major European football matches, which they show in the main dining area – but staff are polite and helpful. It won’t be the Ghanaian meal you tell the folks at home about, but Buka is a good place to start.