There are a lot of reasons to go to African Cuisine. Maybe it’s because you’ve never eaten Nigerian food before and you’re curious. Maybe you’re homesick and need egusi stew done properly. Or maybe you just want to eat fried chicken legs lacquered in a tangy red stew alongside smoky jollof rice until you physically can’t move. All are valid.
African Cuisine has been lurking near the top of the Best of PGH poll for a while, always second or third — close, but never crowned. This year it finally happened: Best African Restaurant, for the first time since it opened in 2021.
The restaurant is the work of Dr. Saudat Lawal and her husband, Luke. She grew up in Ibadan in a family of restaurateurs, trained as a nurse after moving to the U.S., and eventually decided Pittsburgh needed Nigerian food.
The menu sprawls across more than 60 Nigerian and West African dishes. That means you can eat your way through soups, stews, starches, grilled meats, pastries, and still have new things to try next time. Photos alongside the listings make it easier for first-timers to dive in.
The first thing to know: Nigerian food is built around a partnership between starch and stew. The starch comes in many forms — pounded yam, cassava fufu, eba, amala — each smooth, stretchy, and designed to scoop up soups and stews with your hands. That’s why your server will set down a little bowl of lemon water so you can rinse your fingers before digging in.
Stews are the backbone. Egusi (nutty from ground melon seeds), Ogbono (silky and viscous from bush mango seed), and Edikaikong (a Calabar vegetable-and-meat stew) are best eaten with fufu, torn by hand and dipped into the fragrant bowl. Vegetarians aren’t an afterthought either. The mixed vegetable stew, spicy and bright, and Efo Riro, a spinach-and-tomato base, are robust mains in their own right.
Alongside the starch-and-stew model, jollof rice anchors the kitchen: a pot of long-grain rice stained orange with peppers and tomatoes, smoky from the fire, plated with stewed beef by default. Many regulars add on fried chicken legs, crisp-skinned and lacquered in a tangy red sauce. Suya, thin slices of beef rubbed in peanut-chile spice, comes with raw onions and tomatoes, a northern Nigerian street food dropped right onto Murray Avenue. If you like heat, Goat Pepper Soup will set your sinuses straight.
The snack plates are sneaky good. Think meat pies with spiced beef and potatoes tucked inside a golden shell, puff-puffs that taste like the best donut holes you’ve ever had, and dodo, fried plantains caramelized to candy at the edges.
Want something to wash it all down? There’s Chapman, Nigeria’s red, fruity, alcohol-free punch, alongside malt sodas like Vital Malt. The bar pours Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, Star, Gulder, and even palm wine for those who want a taste that’s harder to find stateside.
The dining room itself is unpretentious, with tables close enough to hear the next group arguing about who gets the last plantain. There are Afrobeats playing over the speakers and a TV in the corner likely tuned to a game.
Everything comes together with warm and personal service. Servers might show you how to pinch off fufu or offer a taste of jollof before you order. Wait times can run a bit long on busy nights, but totally worth the wait once the stew arrives steaming. 2032 Murray Ave., Squirrel Hill. africaneatscuisine.com