Meet the owners of the most expensive restaurants in Abuja

Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, is increasingly becoming a hub for luxury dining, as a growing population of affluent residents, diplomats, expatriates and corporate executives fuels demand for premium hospitality experiences.

Fine dining in the Federal Capital Territory is no longer solely about the meal. Restaurants are increasingly competing on ambience, exclusivity, international culinary concepts and the overall experience, particularly in high-income districts such as Maitama and Wuse II.

The city’s expanding consumer base is also creating room for more specialised hospitality businesses. Abuja’s population is estimated at 2.06 million in 2026, up from about 1.96 million in 2025, according to World Population Review projections.

However, the growth in luxury consumption comes against a challenging inflationary backdrop. The Federal Capital Territory recorded an annual headline inflation rate of 39.91%, while annual food inflation stood at 40.20%, highlighting the rising cost of operating restaurants and dining out.

Against this backdrop, a number of restaurants have positioned themselves at the premium end of Abuja’s dining market, with menus and experiences targeted at customers willing to pay a significant premium.

Behind these establishments are entrepreneurs, chefs, investors and, in some cases, members of prominent Nigerian families who have brought different business backgrounds and culinary influences into the capital’s hospitality scene.

Here are the owners behind some of the most expensive restaurants in Abuja.

Ameena Indimi Dalhatu – Owner, Marks at the Park

Ameena Indimi Dalhatu, daughter of billionaire businessman and Oriental Energy Resources founder Mohammed Indimi, is the owner of Marks at the Park, a premium Japanese and Pan-Asian restaurant in Abuja.

Located at 163 Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent, Wuse 2, within Twenty One Park, the restaurant serves Japanese and Pan-Asian cuisine in a fine-dining setting. Meals at the restaurant can cost N50,000 or more per person, placing it among Abuja’s premium dining options.

Marks at the Park offers an all-you-can-eat menu, happy-hour selections and private dining rooms for events and special occasions. Its menu combines flavours and cooking techniques from across Asia, with an emphasis on presentation and premium ingredients.

Dalhatu’s hospitality business is an extension of her wider entrepreneurial interests. She previously held senior positions at Oriental Energy Resources, the oil exploration and production company founded by her father, including Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director, Assets. She is also a member of the company’s board.

In a video interview, Dalhatu disclosed that she founded Twenty One Park at a time when she had begun to feel disquieted about her corporate career. The development marked a move into the lifestyle and hospitality sector after years in the oil and gas industry.

Dalhatu studied Pre-Medical Sciences at Lynn University in Florida and later earned an MBA in International Business from the same institution. She began her career in 1999 in the Public Relations Department of the Nigeria-São Tomé and Príncipe Joint Development Zone before joining Oriental Energy.

Ibrahim Samande – Founder, Mai Shayi Coffee Roasters

Ibrahim Samande is the founder and chief executive officer of Mai Shayi Coffee Roasters Ltd., a Nigerian coffee company he established in 2019.

The Lagos-headquartered business describes itself as Nigeria’s first fully vertically integrated specialty coffee company, with operations spanning coffee cultivation, processing, roasting, hospitality, retail and consumer education.

Samande has positioned the company around the development of premium Nigerian Arabica coffee, with activities across Plateau State, Abuja and Lagos. Its model covers the coffee chain from seedling propagation and farming to processing, quality control and roasting.

According to Samande, Mai Shayi’s operations include tissue culture and genetics work, seedling propagation and farming, alongside post-harvest processing and quality assurance. The company also works with NKG Quality Service, the quality consulting arm of Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, and engages with Cenicafé, Colombia’s National Coffee Research Center, on aspects of agronomy and post-harvest systems.

The company says its sustainability initiatives include solar-powered irrigation, drip irrigation, organic soil fertility management, water stewardship and the planting of more than 1,500 indigenous shade trees. It employs about 230 people, with women accounting for 65% of its workforce, according to Samande.

Beyond coffee, Samande has a background in design, branding and hospitality. Before founding Mai Shayi, he was the creative director of Yerima Design Limited, a marketing communications firm, and an associate creative director at Prima Garnet Ogilvy. He also founded The View on 12th, a luxury shared-office business in Lagos.

Samande holds a master’s degree in graphic design and advertising from Miami International University of Art and Design and a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from Messiah University.

The company was named a finalist in the 2026 Specialty Coffee Association Sustainability Awards, according to Samande’s LinkedIn profile.

Atef Fawaz and Fatme Fadlallah — Co-Founders, Gusto Restaurant

Atef Fawaz and Fatme Fadlallah are the co-founders of Gusto Restaurant, an upscale dining and rooftop destination in Abuja.

The restaurant, located at 42 Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent in Wuse 2, is part of the Gusto Group and has established itself within Abuja’s growing premium hospitality market.

Fawaz brings an unconventional background to the restaurant business. He is an operations and management executive whose career has largely been built around technology, healthcare and large-scale programme management.

He is currently Executive Director of eHealth Africa, having previously served as interim executive director and director of programme operations. His work at the organisation has included overseeing complex programmes and budgets worth millions of dollars, as well as operations connected to Nigeria’s polio response and emergency responses to Ebola and Covid-19.

Before joining eHealth Africa, Fawaz worked in technology and telecommunications, including as an operations manager and network manager at Electronic Connections Ltd. in Kano.

Fadlallah, meanwhile, is also identified as a co-founder of Gusto Group, making the restaurant a joint venture between the two entrepreneurs.

Together, Fawaz and Fadlallah have built Gusto around more than food. Its positioning combines dining, hospitality and social experiences, reflecting a broader shift in Nigeria’s premium restaurant market, where venues increasingly compete on ambience, location and lifestyle as much as their menus.

The Abuja restaurant gives the pair a foothold in a sector that has attracted growing demand from professionals, business executives and affluent consumers seeking high-end dining experiences.

Salim Chidiac — Founder, CARNEVAL Brazilian Churrasco

Salim Chidiac is the founder and business owner behind CARNEVAL Brazilian Churrasco, an upscale Brazilian dining concept in Abuja built around the traditional churrasco experience.

Chidiac has also established SSC Hospitality, where he serves as managing director. The group operates hospitality concepts spanning premium dining, sports and lifestyle, including CARNEVAL Brazilian Churrasco and KICKOFF Sports Bar.

Before moving deeper into hospitality, Chidiac spent several years in Nigeria’s gaming and sports-betting industry. He was managing director of Ogabet Games Global Ltd from 2021 to 2025, having previously served as the company’s head of operations.

His hospitality portfolio began expanding in 2023, when he launched Picanha Limited, the business associated with CARNEVAL’s Brazilian steakhouse concept. The restaurant positions itself around premium cuts of meat, Brazilian churrasco and an upscale dining experience in Abuja.

Chidiac holds a master’s degree in International Business from Hult International Business School, which he completed in 2019, after studying at the University of Balamand in Lebanon.

Tahirah Ikharo — Founder and CEO, TAR TAR

Tahirah Ikharo is the founder and chief executive officer of TAR TAR, an upscale restaurant in Abuja that combines seafood and locally inspired Nigerian dishes with a contemporary dining experience.

Ikharo has led TAR TAR since 2022, expanding her career from strategy, development and public-sector consulting into hospitality. The restaurant, located in Wuse 2, serves dishes including seafood, crab cakes, calamari, scallops, shrimp dumplings and Nigerian favourites such as Ewa Agoyin.

Before founding TAR TAR, Ikharo spent more than a decade working across development, communications and strategy in Nigeria and the United States. She has consulted for organisations including UNICEF, USAID, the UK Department for International Development, the European Union and Canadian Aid.

She also held senior government roles, including Head of Strategic Communications at the National Social Investment Programme (N-SIP) Office of the Vice President, where she worked from 2016 to 2019. She later served as Chief of Staff to the Honourable Federal Commissioner at the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons from 2019 to 2021.

Her earlier career included financial analysis at Citigroup in Oakland, California, as well as independent consulting focused on communications, research, proposal development and programme evaluation.

Ikharo holds a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication and Business Administration from California State University-East Bay.

Hasan Yiğit — Founder, Istanbul Café & Restaurant and Vento Furniture

Hasan Yiğit, a Turkish entrepreneur who has built much of his business career in Nigeria, is the founder of Istanbul Café & Restaurant, a Turkish dining concept with locations at Jabi Lake Mall and an express outlet at Nizamiye Hospital in Idu, Abuja.

The restaurant is part of a wider portfolio that includes Vento Furniture, the furniture business Yiğit established in Abuja in 2016. He started the company from a small showroom in Jabi, combining two shops and displaying a limited number of furniture pieces. He has attributed the company’s growth to an emphasis on quality, durability and understanding the Nigerian market.

Before moving to Nigeria, Yiğit worked in Turkey as an export manager, travelling to more than 50 countries in search of new business opportunities. That experience, he has said, gave him an understanding of international trade and helped him build commercial relationships that later proved useful in Nigeria.

His entry into Nigeria was facilitated by the late Ambassador Ahmed Magaji, who introduced him to contacts in the country. Yiğit subsequently built a network that helped him establish Vento and deepen his ties to Nigeria.

Vento has since expanded beyond its initial furniture showroom, with Yiğit saying the business has grown into a nationwide brand. The company has also invested in manufacturing and corporate social responsibility initiatives, including a hostel donated to the University of Abuja in honour of his father.

Badriyya Ahmed Mu’azu —Founder Boto Restaurant

Badriyya Ahmed Mu’azu, founder and executive chef of Abuja-based Boto Restaurant, is the daughter-in-law of former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Mu’azu founded Boto in 2022, positioning the restaurant around French-inspired gastronomy and contemporary dining. Her culinary training includes a diploma from École Ducasse in France, while she also completed internships at Paris institutions including Hôtel Le Meurice and Maisons Taillevent Paris.

Her career began in a different field. She studied landscape architecture at Kingston University in the UK before pursuing professional culinary training. She also studied design and applied arts at Central Saint Martins in London.

That combination of design and culinary training is reflected in Boto’s positioning, which places emphasis on both food and the overall dining experience. Mu’azu describes the concept as an effort to combine the traditions of French gastronomy with the character of Abuja.

The restaurant attracted attention before its opening when former Nigerian vice president Atiku Abubakar publicly mentioned being hosted by his daughter-in-law, Mu’azu, at the new restaurant.

The restaurant is part of Abuja’s expanding premium dining market, where new operators are increasingly combining international culinary influences with locally rooted hospitality concepts.

Abiola Akanji – Founder The Burgundy by Chef Stone

The Burgundy by Chef Stone in Abuja was founded by Nigerian chef and entrepreneur Abiola Akanji, popularly known as Chef Stone. He is the CEO of The Burgundy and has built a broader portfolio of food businesses, including Reddish Chronicles Culinary School and Truck Central, a food truck park in Abuja.

Akanji’s background combines business management with formal culinary training. He studied Business Management at London Metropolitan University, where he earned a BSc between 2002 and 2006.

He later pursued professional culinary training in the United States, earning a Grand Diploma in Cuisine from the International Culinary Center, which he attended from 2011 to 2012. He also studied Techniques of Cooking and Essential Cuisine Series: Italian at the Institute of Culinary Education between 2011 and 2013.

His culinary education helped shape a career that has extended beyond restaurant operations into culinary education, food entrepreneurship and publishing.

The Burgundy was built around what Akanji describes as a seven-year dream to create a restaurant where Africa’s culinary heritage could be celebrated at the highest level. The concept draws inspiration from cuisines across 17 African countries, with Chef Stone saying he has developed more than 347 original recipes for the restaurant.

The Abuja restaurant operates as a Pan-African fine-dining establishment, combining African culinary traditions with contemporary presentation and techniques.

Beyond The Burgundy, Akanji is involved in Reddish Chronicles Culinary School, where he has positioned himself as a culinary educator. His profile states that the school has trained more than 9,000 graduates. He is also behind Truck Central, a food truck park in Abuja designed to provide a platform for food entrepreneurs.

Akanji has also authored four cookbooks and culinary guides, extending his influence beyond restaurant kitchens. His profile describes his work as spanning culinary education, food entrepreneurship, philanthropy and hospitality.

His public profile has also grown through his role as a MasterChef Nigeria judge, placing him among the chefs shaping the country’s contemporary culinary scene.

The Burgundy is therefore part of a wider food business built by Akanji, with his combination of business training, international culinary education and entrepreneurship underpinning his approach to Nigeria’s hospitality industry.