Finding restaurants in Lagos which take international bank cards will be harder than you think.

My first trip to a restaurant in Lagos resulted in my having to get the waiter to accompany me to a cash point because they had no facility to take payment! This was a restaurant which was obviously aiming at a well-to-do audience but they still did not have the facility to take international cards.

As a foreigner you will mostly have to use cash wherever you go. Which is a problem when the amount of cash you can take out from cashpoints (if you can find one which is dispensing) is at limited or very costly.

Given the cost of everything when you can only withdraw NGN 500s and NGN 1000s, carrying a handbag or suitcase full of cash is not practical or safe. And if you come from a pretty cashless city like London, it is pretty irritating.

Someone once told me never to use my international bank card in Nigeria. But I have never had an issue with fraud or excessive charges emanating from Nigeria, so I use my international bank card wherever I can (at least I did before I discovered World Remit). But it is to best check with your bank before you use your bank card in Nigeria.

How to find out which restaurants take international cards?

Searching on Google won’t help you! Calling the restaurant in advance may help depending on who answers the phone when you ring. Most likely you will be told “no” if you ask if they take international bank cards. Not because they don’t, but because the person on the phone doesn’t know whether they do or not, and it is easier to say “no” than “I will ask someone”!  So try asking a few different ways if you get an immediate “no”.

“Do you have an international POS?” or “can I pay with a foreign card” gets a better response when asking on the phone and “International POS” whilst brandishing your card in hand, gets a better response in restaurants.

Visit hotel restaurants

Several hotels in Lagos which are visited by international crowds have restaurants which welcome non-resident guests. So the easiest place to find a restaurant which will take foreign bank cards is an “international standard” hotel restaurant. There are several good ones to choose from, with a range of restaurants from buffet style to a la carte.

You will find good restaurants which accept international cards at the following hotels:

The Wheatbaker, Ikoyi

The Renaissance Hotel, Ikeja

The Southern Sun, Ikoyi

The Eko Hotel, VI

Restaurants accepting international bank cards

These are the restaurants I have found which take international bank cards. I will add more as I discover them.

Hard Rock Cafe, Oniru

Shiro, Oniru

Backyard, VI

RSVP, VI

Craft Gourmet, VI

Crust and Cream, VI

Izanagi, VI

Do you have any other suggestions? Please add below.