If you want to understand Lagos, eat on the street. Not in a dining room with air conditioning — at a plastic table beside a grill, with newspaper-wrapped suya, a cold drink and strangers sharing the bench. Street food is where the city drops its guard. The queue is a conversation, the vendor is a character, and nobody is performing.
That makes it the most underrated way to meet people here. Restaurants are for people you already know; buka lunches and suya runs are how you get pulled into a group. This guide covers the formats that matter — the mama put lunch, the evening suya spot, the roadside fish grill, the after-club plate — and the areas where each one is at its best. Prices are low, portions are generous, and the etiquette is simple: order what the person in front of you ordered.