Las Vegas Valley’s only Nigerian eatery offers distinctive food and decor

Nigerian food might well be an acquired taste. If so, one probably needs to visit Chiamaka Food Nigerian Cuisine more than once to acquire it.

The restaurant, fairly well-hidden in a nondescript shopping center just southeast of UNLV, has its charms. No two tables or sets of chairs in the dining area were alike, giving the place an antiques-store vibe. A sectional couch faced a flat-screen TV that played overly loud music videos until the restaurant’s operators accommodated a request to turn it down.

A warm greeting from a restaurant employee was followed by a half-hour wait until the food arrived. The lunch special, jollof rice with chicken and plantains, was a good value at $9.99; the fish pepper soup, which was served in a bowl about 6 inches in diameter and cost $12.99, was not.

Jollof rice, a popular dish in western Africa, is flavored with tomatoes and spices and is tasty on its own or as the base of a meal. The plantains were crispy and sweet.

The bitter soup consisted primarily of thin broth and chunks of whitefish, the latter of which included skin and bones. That made it difficult to consume; a couple of the bones were more than an inch long, while others were too small to be picked out easily.

Water was served in bottles, as it is in many Southern Nevada restaurants. Each bottle cost $1, which compares well with what amounts to a sizable bottled-water tariff at some other eateries.

Chiamaka was empty at 11:30 a.m. but nearly full an hour later. The swelling crowd might explain why it took a long time for the bill to be processed.

Chiamaka means “God is beautiful” in Igbo, a language and culture in southeastern Nigeria. It’s the only Las Vegas Valley restaurant that specializes in Nigerian food, and don’t be fooled by its limited online menu. The in-restaurant menu is far more extensive.