Finding blend of Nigerian, intercontinental experience in Circa Prive

For the Lebanese Hadi Bazan, the Chief Executive Officer of Circa Prive, cooking mouthwatering dishes and excellent customer satisfaction is of utmost priority. Chef Hadi, as fondly called by satisfied guests, brings to bear his creativity in the preparation, design, and presentation of the food menu at the restaurant.

Located on Admiralty Way in Lekki Phase 1, in Lagos, Circa Prive is worth visiting for unforgettable culinary experience amid the most astonishing ambiance and fresh air courtesy of the serene Lagos lagoon. Circa is also famous for its luxurious lunch, dinner, and wine pairing offerings.

With 14 years of experience spanning over seven countries and in world-class outlets, Chef Hadi confessed that his job and passion are cooking and being a chef.

“Any day I wake up, I always feel like cooking,” he said, adding the menu is special. It takes me a lot of time like six months to create the unique menu here to satisfy all types of guests whether Nigerian, Lebanese, Italian French or Chinese, Circa has all it takes to satisfy all your tastes from prawns, chicken, steaks, salads, appetizers and more.

According to him, “we have inter-continental food with a twist of the Nigerian touch like jollof rice, coconut rice, fried rice, plantain, yam among others. We have all it takes to make you happy.”

Though Chef Hadi says Circa Pive is a restaurant, it is a lot more different from others in town because of its ambiance, the unique food offering, the way it takes care of customers, quality of food, how they are prepared, very low music particularly jazz that enables guests to relax, get their drinks and enjoy their food while appreciating the aquatic splendor, and commitment to maintaining standards every day. There is also an in-house wine specialist to ensure perfect food and wine pairing for the guests.

A major part of his success beyond the right recipes, better preparation and presentation is having the right passionate and well-motivated team. “I have about eighteen people in my team who are very professional and can maintain the standard of the quality of any dish they are doing even if I am not around.”

His creativity is obvious in the way he creates or recreates a model of Nigerian food that appeals to international guests. All he does is to take Nigerian food and creates different tastes.

‘’I have been able to satisfy my customers with my special culinary creations. For instance, I have done something creative with egusi soup. I added some flavours to it and it tastes better, comes in a better presentation and gives people the opportunity to try something new. I have a good base while in the culinary school; I studied under chefs from different countries: France, Lebanon, Italy among others.”

On patronage so far, he said it had been impressive, ‘’since opening everybody is talking about the food, the presentation, and ambiance. So if you have very good food, good presentation, good ambiance, and good customer service, customers will come.’’

For the Christian faithful, he assures of a new brunch on Sundays after church service because the restaurant has a good place at the seaside where guests can do brunch amid lots of exciting offerings including local dishes.