Tidal change: Ikoyi removes most meat from its menu to focus on seafood

The decision comes as a surprise, given the positive reviews the restaurant’s previous menu received throughout 2017.

The new menu includes first courses of octopus, ndolé (a soup of bitter leaves and seeds) and calçot; and scallop, ehuru (African nutmeg), burned cream and caviar.

Mains include cuttlefish with calf’s tongue and sinasir (a type of rice pancake); monkfish with banga and citrus yam porridge; and turbot roasted on the bone to share with spicy black stew and okra.

Ikoyi’s popular dish of jollof rice with bone marrow is being replaced with a smoked crab jollof rice dish with crab custard.

One meat dish remains on the menu (Iberico pork suya served with hibiscus and condiments), as well as a new vegetarian dish of January cabbage egusi (melon seed soup)

The restaurant’s buttermilk plantain with smoked Scotch bonnet is the only dish still available from the previous menu.

“Our kitchen wants to explore continuously,” says head chef and co-founder Jeremy Chan.

“Ikoyi wants to challenge its concept further by applying new techniques to West African ingredients and why not? I’m finding cooking with seafood most inspiring at the moment.

The new menu was introduced yesterday, and can be ordered as a set lunch menu, available Monday to Friday, priced at £19-22.

Following the hostile economic climate of 2017, many restaurateurs have started the New Year by discussing how they may need to change their formats to survive the next 12 months.

Last week, in a bid to boost trade, Harrogate restaurant Norse changed its menu, distancing itself from the Scandinavian small plates that brought it such acclaim in favour of a more traditional menu style.

The new menu comprise simply starters, mains and desserts with a selection of sides, described as ‘modern food using Yorkshire produce’.