Suya Near Me: How to Find a Good Suya Spot

What is a suya spot?

In Nigerian English, a suya spot is simply the place where suya is grilled and sold: most often a roadside grill with a bulb, a bench and a seller slicing meat, sometimes a counter inside a restaurant or bar. People name it by the seller or the street, as in "the spot by the junction".

The person at the grill is the mai suya, a Hausa name for the seller that is heard all over Nigeria. Our page on the mai suya explains the word and the seller's night. Many grills are built from an old steel drum or a welded frame, heaped with charcoal, with the skewers laid in rows over the coals.

Because so many restaurants abroad use the same words in their names, a search for the phrase also brings up businesses called something like "Suya Spot". That is a name, not a different kind of place: the dish and the grill are the same.

What is a suya joint, then?

The same thing in different words. "Joint" is informal English for a place to eat or drink, and Nigerians use it all the time, so a suya joint, a suya stand and a suya stall all mean a grill that sells suya. Some are one grill on a corner; others are small shops with tables.

You will also hear "suya man" for the seller in casual talk, and "tsire" in the north, which Wikipedia gives as another name for suya itself. The words change from city to city; the smell of yaji on hot charcoal does not.

Why are so many places called Suya House, Suya Hut or Suya Palace?

Because the dish is the draw, so the word goes on the sign. Suya House, Suya Hut, Suya Palace, Suya City and Suya Hotel are names many unrelated grills and restaurants use, in Nigeria and abroad. A search for one of them brings up several businesses, so add your city to find the one you mean.

Suya City, Suya Hotel and other names

None of these is a chain we know of: each is a separate business that chose a plain, hungry-sounding name. Read the reviews of the one near you rather than trusting the name, and check its own page for what it serves. Mai Suya, this site's game, is not any of them.

How do you find good suya near you?

Start with a map search for "suya" and your town, then read the newest reviews rather than the star rating. If nothing comes up, search "Nigerian restaurant" or "West African grill" instead, because many serve suya. In Nigeria itself, the easiest test is your nose: follow charcoal smoke and the queue after dark.

1. Search the dish, then the cuisine

   A map search for "suya" finds the places that name it. Many Nigerian, Ghanaian and Cameroonian restaurants grill it without putting it in their name, so a second search for "Nigerian restaurant" catches those.

2. Read what people ordered

   Recent reviews that mention the meat, the pepper and the onions tell you more than a score. Photos of the actual skewers show whether it is grilled the classic way, thin and crusted with spice.

3. Ask Nigerians nearby

   African grocery shops, community groups and student societies usually know the one grill everyone drives to. Word of mouth is how most suya stalls have always been found.

4. Check before you travel

   Stalls move and close more often than restaurants, so confirm on the day, on the business's own page or by phone, that it is open before you make a trip.

Can you find suya outside Nigeria?

Yes. Suya travelled with Nigerians abroad: The Guardian Nigeria found it on the streets of Peckham in London, and Saveur notes it across the border in Cameroon, where it is called soya or tatum, and in the Republic of Niger. Cities with large Nigerian communities usually have at least one grill or restaurant serving it.

Away from a street grill, suya is often sold from a restaurant kitchen, and it may be cooked on a gas grill or under an oven grill rather than over charcoal. It can still be good. Ask whether it is made with a peanut-based yaji: that spice, more than the fire, is what makes it suya rather than ordinary grilled beef.

If there is nowhere near you at all, suya is easy to make at home with a batch of yaji and a hot grill. Our suya recipe walks through it step by step, and the suya spice page shows how to mix the yaji.

How can you tell a good suya grill from a bad one?

Look for a busy grill, skewers going back over hot coals before they are sliced, meat cut thin and evenly coated in spice, and a clean knife and board. A queue is a good sign: it means turnover, so the meat on the grill has not been sitting there for hours, and regulars trust it.

• Turnover: a steady crowd keeps the skewers fresh. A grill with no customers at a busy hour is a warning.
• The second grilling: Serious Eats describes the customary method, cooking the skewers once and reheating them over the coals just before serving. Watch for that last trip to the fire.
• The cut: suya should be sliced thin and bunched on the stick, with the spice crusted on, not thick chunks with a dusting.
• The yaji: good grills make their own, and the smell of toasted peanut and ginger reaches you before the stall does.
• Cleanliness: raw and cooked meat kept apart, a clean knife, and fresh onion and tomato.

How do you order at a suya joint?

Tell the seller which meat you want and how much of it, usually as an amount of money's worth rather than a number of sticks. Say how much pepper you like, and whether you want onion, tomato or cabbage. Then wait while it goes back on the grill, is sliced off the stick and wrapped.

1. Choose the meat

   Beef is the usual choice. Many grills also have chicken, ram, and offal such as kidney, liver and gizzard; ask what is on the grill that night. Our types of suya page explains each one.

2. Say how much

   In Nigeria people usually order by the amount they want to spend, and the seller cuts that much meat. Abroad, restaurants tend to sell by the skewer or the portion.

3. Set the heat

   Yaji can be very hot. Ask for less on the meat and extra on the side, so you can add it yourself.

4. Pick the sides

   Sliced onion and tomato are the classic sides, sometimes cabbage. Wikipedia notes you can ask for them raw or grilled.

5. Eat it hot

   Suya is best straight off the coals. If you are taking it home, ask for it to be wrapped well.

When is the best time to go for suya?

In Nigeria, the evening. Many street grills are lit around dusk and are busiest after the working day, which is why Saveur wrote that Friday nights in Lagos are for suya. The Guardian Nigeria found reasons from the climate to the economics. Restaurants abroad keep their own hours, so check before you go.

Going early in the evening means fresher coals and a shorter queue; going late means the liveliest crowd. Either way, expect to wait a little, since skewers are often reheated or grilled to order.

No suya grill nearby tonight? Can you run one in a game?

Yes. Mai Suya is a free browser game in which you are the seller: you run a roadside suya grill in Lagos at night, keep the charcoal hot, flip every skewer before it burns and serve the queue the way each customer asks. It plays on a phone or a computer, with no download and no sign-up.

There are nine meats to grill, from beef and chicken to liver, gizzard and kidney, and five places to move your stall to, from Agege to Victoria Island. It will not feed you, but it is the closest thing to standing behind the grill. It is a game, and its stalls and customers are simplified for play.