Accra eats early and late: waakye sold from basins at dawn, banku and grilled tilapia at midnight. Three days moving from Makola's spice stalls to Osu's chop bars and Oxford Street's kelewele carts, with cedi prices at every stop.
Accra's central market since the 1920s, rebuilt after its 1979 demolition. Traders sell smoked herring, dawadawa fermented locust bean, grains of paradise, shito paste and gari by the olonka tin. Busiest 08:00-11:00; Sunday is quiet.
Accra's best-known waakye seller, working from a roadside spot off Ring Road East. Rice and beans cooked with sorghum leaves, served with shito, wele (cow skin), fried egg, spaghetti and gari. Sells out most days before 14:00.
Bean-to-bar workshop founded in 2016 by sisters Kimberly and Priscilla Addison, named for Ghana's 1957 independence. Ghanaian cocoa is roasted, winnowed and conched on site into bars flavoured with hibiscus, coconut and coffee.
As Oxford Street's shops close, charcoal grills appear on the pavement: kelewele (spiced fried plantain), grilled tilapia with banku, chichinga skewers and roasted corn. Trade runs from around 18:00 until well past midnight.
Speciality roaster working with beans from Ghana's Volta Region and neighbouring West African farms. Pour-over, cold brew and a Ghanaian breakfast of tea bread with kofi brokeman (roasted plantain) and groundnuts. Opens 07:30.
Two-storey open-sided restaurant on 10th Lane serving pan-West African plates: Ghanaian light soup with goat, groundnut soup with fufu, Nigerian egusi, and jollof cooked in the smoky party style. Pounded fufu is made to order.
Akpeteshie is Ghana's distilled palm wine, legalised in 1962 after decades as contraband. Osu's small bars pour it neat or infused with bitters, alongside Kasapreko's Alomo Bitters — herbal, dry and served in shot measures.
Chef-led kitchen reworking Ghanaian dishes: palm nut soup reduced into sauces, kontomire (cocoyam leaf) with smoked fish, and tuo zaafi from the north. Tasting plates rotate seasonally and reservations are effectively required.
Ga kenkey is soured maize dough fermented for around three days, wrapped in dried corn husk and boiled. Sold from covered basins near Jamestown lighthouse with fried fish, shito and raw pepper-onion-tomato grind.
Opened in 1991 on Farrar Avenue in Adabraka and now a chain across the city. The Osu branch serves the standard order: fried or grilled chicken with jollof rice, fried rice and shito, over the counter in minutes.
Street drinks trade runs on two staples: green coconuts machete-opened for water then split for the jelly, and sobolo — hibiscus steeped with ginger, cloves and pineapple skin, sold chilled in bottles from cool boxes.
Along La Beach Road the fish grills fire up in late afternoon: whole tilapia scored and rubbed with pepper and ginger, cooked over charcoal and served with banku, hot shito and a wedge of lime. Loudest on Sunday evenings.