Time Out Accra - Rate Your City: The Results

Set around an agreeably rustic courtyard some five minutes’ walk from Oxford Street, Mamma Mia, now well into its second decade, combines quality thin-crust, wood-fired pizzas with an attractive setting, easily making it easily one of Accra’s best options for Italian food. 

From the leather bar seating to the tilework in the private dining room, the attention to detail in Coco Lounge is quite amazing. The pizza oven is dressed up as an old Italian truck and a sight to behold.

The best pizza in town? It’s certainly up there with Mamma Mia and Coco Lounge. The wood-burning oven at Nicolino’s – not to mention a super tasty crust – help the matter.

This pleasant complex in Osu encompasses Pinocchio, a colourful café and ice cream parlour, and La Piazza, an outdoor seating area for pizzas, pastas, salads and chicken dishes.

Hidden in the back roads of Osu, near Koala, is the always happening Shisha Lounge. Munch on brick-oven pizza and watch Osu at night from the second floor in the tree house, while smoking a shisha. 

Burger & Relish is Ghana’s first gourmet burger restaurant and cocktail bar – and what a place. The interior is vintage industrial design, quirky urban art and curiosities together to create an eclectic East London/Soho New York style vibe.

From the leather bar seating to the tilework in the private dining room, the attention to detail in Coco Lounge is quite amazing. Local artist Nana Anoff has installed pieces alongside thoroughly modern and brave design touches, as you’d expect coming from the same stable as design store La Maison next door, which also curated the restaurant’s interior. 

Champs is back! After a brief flirt with being called The Lexington, the bar has become Champs again.

Great French food, a wine cellar, a beautiful location, real croissants made by a French pastry chef – what’s not to like? This is a serious set-up. The bakery alone will no doubt be marked out as the best in Ghana. 

Backed by 16 acres of palm-studded grounds and a sweeping azure pool, Accra’s luxury bolthole is certainly living up to its hype.

This new venue is a great addition to the Labone eating scene. It is the kind of place that takes the marbling of its beef very carefully and therefore the kind of place we like.

Despite some stiff competition, not least of all from the same group in the form of Urban Grill, Santoku remains Ghana’s best restaurant, if not West Africa’s (wealthy people from Lagos have been known to fly over for dinner). 

Three eateries in one, all of which are likely to leave you happily replenished. Monsoon’s centrepiece is its bar, a reasonably plush spot that wouldn’t look out of place in any city, and its main à la carte selection offers a good choice of seafood and meat options.

Rockafella's accra, a well established restaurant in Osu, can easily be described as one of the best restaurants in town.  Offering a range of international cuisine,ranging from ribs to pasta to sushi, there is definitley something for everyone.

Firstly, let’s get the sushi out of the way. It’s good. Really good. The sushi chef knows what he’s doing – that much is clear. However, it’s across the rest of the Asian fusion menu where the creativity begins to shine. 

Backed by 16 acres of palm-studded grounds and a sweeping azure pool, Accra’s luxury bolthole is certainly living up to its hype. Waiters on in-line skates glide across the gleaming patio, supplying fresh snacks and icy drinks to holidaymakers stretched out on loungers around the pool.

This popular Labone eatery houses a sports bar and lounge with banquette seating, a large projector and a stack of TVs, as well as the main restaurant. There’s now a teppanyaki bar indoors. 

On the same complex as Coco Lounge and Urban Grill, and from the same team, this excellent Vida e caffè is already very popular.

This bakery is a serious operation. All the equipment and grain is imported from France (as is the pastry chef), and all the bread and patisserie is freshly baked each day. The croissants are a highlight, obviously, but the cakes are fabulous too.

Iced cupcakes, golden pastries, crunchy baguettes and bulging paninis are the staple at this very European of cafés. From the humble sausage roll to a light and salty spinach and ricotta puff pastry, find a bevy of bakery favourites chalked up on giant blackboards behind the serving counter.

This café serves light lunches and brunches. Its sandwiches are popular, especially the calorific chicken, cheese, bacon and avocado version.

Café Kwae is an all day café/restaurant founded by Yvette Nana Ama Ansah and inspired by her love of good, simple food and her passion for travel. 

Ci Gusta, an international franchise bringing a wide array of gelato, frozen yogurt, waffles and many other desserts. This cafe, located conviniently in Airport, provides a perfect place to relax during rush our.

Firefly is a confident nightspot – the industrial chic of its whitewashed brickwork, dim lighting and edgy beats attracts a preened international clientele. 

Based on a regular local boozer, the Honeysuckle in Osu is a homely place for homesick Brits who want a dose of Premiership football and some recognisable food. 

Champs offers an international menu, wide coverage of all major sporting events on eight large screens TV and four project screens and a wide selection of regular events organised entertainment events, a quiz night every Thursday, regular live music. 

Hidden in the back roads of Osu, near Koala, is the always happening Shisha Lounge. Consisting of an elegant outdoor eating area, an indoor bar (almost always witha  DJ spinning some discs), and a delightfully rustic ‘tree house’, it has carved a niche for itself in Ghanaian nightlife.

Sai wine & champagne cafè is open for business and a wonderful addition to Accra. Sai sells nothing but wine and champagne from key wine producing countries through out the world.

We’ll still keep recommending this bar as it remains one of the most happening bars in Accra right now, thanks to its relaxed, music-forward approach to the good things in life: alcohol, fried food and really great music.

Formerly Bassline Jazz Club, +233 (named after the Ghanaian dialling code) is an intelligently designed club that has live bands six days a week. Inside, there are two floors. The band play on a small stage downstairs, but can also be seen from the U-shaped upstairs.

We’ll still keep recommending this bar as it remains one of the most happening bars in Accra right now, thanks to its relaxed, music-forward approach to the good things in life: alcohol, fried food and really great music.

The Accra-based arm of the French cultural centre offers a large range of artistic activities every week. It particularly excels in live music events, but there are also regular art displays and talks from international artists.

The tapas revolution has finally hit Accra, and with customary Latin style. This is a lovely if unsubtle space (it’s all red and black with pictures of bulls on the wall) that lends itself to a jovial atmosphere.

This popular restaurant often has live bands, including highlife musicians. The food’s good, but the music’s better. Many sets start off with a mixture of reggae, and other (random) hits before returning with a highlife set that gets everyone up and dancing.

Accra Mall is looking lively again, with nearly all the units now open. Clothing boutiques, global sports brands and high-end jewellery outlets populate the ground floor of Ghana’s largest shopping centre.

Marina Mall is made up of three floors of shops, with a food court taking up the top level. There’s a welcome branch of D-Café, as well as fast food outlets including Marina’s, which sells burgers and kebabs, and KFC.

Designed for excellent access and visibility, West Hills Mall is on the new motorway in west Accra. West Hills is a 30-minute drive from the Accra CBD, and forms the gateway into the Greater Accra Region from Western Ghana.

Located in the suburb of Nungua in Accra, Ghana, the Junction Shopping Centre is the go-to venue for residents in search of popular clothing brands and restaurants. 

In the last 25 years, Melcom has become one of Ghana’s great retail successes. It’s now the country’s largest chain of retail complexes, with almost 30 up and running, including a new location in East Legon.

Set in Accra’s East Legon residential community, A&C Square offers a mix of shopping, dining and entertainment – plus access to banking, health clinics and other services.

Labadi Beach has always been one of, if not the, highest end hotel in Ghana, as the wall with photos of staying digitaries attests. But in the light of new openings, it has had to up its game.

Backed by 16 acres of palm-studded grounds and a sweeping azure pool, Accra’s luxury bolthole is certainly living up to its hype. Waiters on in-line skates glide across the gleaming patio, supplying fresh snacks and icy drinks to holidaymakers stretched out on loungers around the pool. 

Offering an outdoor pool and spa centre, Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City is situated in Accra in the Greater Accra Region, 1.1 km from Independence Square.

This hotel is a cut above the standard you might have come to expect from the Holiday Inn brand elsewhere in the world, and the cluster of expensive suits usually found milling around in the bar area is an accurate sign of the property’s popularity with the business world.

The Fiesta Royale has smart rooms, efficient service and a good bar and restaurant, making it an ideal bet for business travellers and families. Its location, no more than 15 minutes from the airport, is superb. 

The Golden Tulip is one of the most popular hotels in Ghana, thanks to its sizable rooms, its conference facilities and its location near the airport.

The Royal Senchi Resort is a bold undertaking; a largely thatched 84-room complex with facilities for large conferences just west of the town of Akosombo.

Those willing to splash some cash for the millionaire treatment can stay at this deluxe private members’ club near Fetteh.

*Time Out Accra review soon* Blue Diamond Beach Spa Resort say: Blue Diamond Beach Spa Resort currently includes - 10 sea view chalets and 1 suite. - A professional camping ground with a BBQ, shawarma grill and African Kitchen. -

We were rather taken aback by Aqua Safari. It faces out to the estuary of the River Volta, a mile or so upstream from the ocean. From an open-sided restaurant and bar you can see Ghana’s island-dwelling folk crab-fishing and clam-diving in the water.

‘Hidden away’ doesn’t really do justice to the location here. This smart new villa complex in the lush folds of the hills around Aburi isn’t somewhere you’d stumble across – it’s only accessible via a long and winding road, and that’s just how the owners want it.

There’s no missing the 100-room Atlantic Hotel, a huge white monolith overlooking the ocean around Takoradi. The rooms in the main building are modern and well-appointed – ask for one with ocean views.