Rate Your City results

Time Out Accra - Rate Your City: The Results

The results are in. Thousands of votes were cast in our Rate Your City campaign and here is the outcome. There are a few clear winners, but some real surprises too.

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Thousands of people cast their votes in the Time Out Accra Rate Your City campaign. We wanted to get a snapshot of the hottest places in Ghana from you, our discerning reader. We are on a mission to highlight the best in hospitality in Ghana and push the standards even higher.

We had sixty shortlisted venues and also gave readers the opportunity to vote for a venue of their choice outside of the shortlist offering some very interesting feedback...

Competition was very stiff – and very close, with the lead changing almost daily in some categories. So a massive congratulations to the winners and runners up, and of course to all shortlisted venues. 

The Campaign is a prequel to the inaugural Time Out Accra Awards 2015 scheduled for May this year, when readers and judges will continue to vote for the very best venues that make up Accra's growing hospitality sector. From the best restaurant to the best nightclub, from the best spa to the best boutique, we'll have them all covered... 

This is your city - let's make it even better. 

Best traditional food

  • Ghanaian
  • Osu
  • price 2 of 4
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Conveniently situated close to the centre of Osu, Buka is, without question, one of the best lunch spots in the city – and more often than not has full tables to show for it.
  • Ghanaian
Enjoy authentic Ghanaian cuisine in a modern atmosphere at The Chop Bar. With all the mouthwatering Ghanaian dishes on the menu, you won't be disappointed. Reasonably priced and with great service, the Chop Bar is a great lunch spot.  
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  • North African
  • Labone
  • price 2 of 4
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
There are three branches of Maquis Tante Marie. The menu is definitively African, with authentic dishes predominantly from Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.
  • North African
  • East Legon
  • price 2 of 4
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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 hits before returning with a highlife set that gets everyone up and dancing.
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  • Ghanaian
  • Labone
  • price 1 of 4
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
More of a street stall than a restaurant, Katawodieso is semi-legendary in Accra. It serves excellent traditional Ghanaian food – and the queues at lunchtime attest its success.
  • Ghanaian
  • Osu
  • price 2 of 4
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
The main appeal is hearty home cooking that remains true to Ghanaian classics. The atmosphere is as relaxed as the staff are, but the food is freshly cooked – fufu, banku and jollof rice all come with a choice of chicken, beef, mutton or fish, (usually ‘red fish’).

Best pizza

  • Italian
  • Osu
  • price 2 of 4
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Mamma Mia
Mamma Mia
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. 
  • Accra
  • price 2 of 4
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Coco Lounge
Coco Lounge
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.
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  • Pizza
  • Airport Residential Area
  • price 2 of 4
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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.
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  • Accra
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. 

Best burger

  • American
  • Accra
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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.
  • Accra
  • price 2 of 4
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Coco Lounge
Coco Lounge
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. 
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  • French
  • Osu
  • price 3 of 4
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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. 
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  • Labone
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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.

Best sushi

  • Airport Residential Area
  • price 3 of 4
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Santoku Restaurant & Bar
Santoku Restaurant & Bar
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). 
  • Cocktail bars
  • Osu
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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.
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  • International
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.
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Soho
Soho
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. 
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  • International
  • Labone
  • price 2 of 4
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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. 

Best cafe

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  • Coffee shops
  • Osu
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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.
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  • Airport City
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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.

Best bar

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  • Accra
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.
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Republic Bar & Grill
Republic Bar & Grill
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.

Best live venue

  • Music
  • Music venues
  • Ridge
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.
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Republic Bar & Grill
Republic Bar & Grill
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.
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  • Tapas bars
  • Ridge
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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.
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  • North African
  • East Legon
  • price 2 of 4
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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.

Best shopping malls

  • Shopping
  • Shopping centres
  • East Airport
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.
  • Shopping
  • Shopping centres
  • Airport City
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.
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  • Shopping
  • Shopping centres
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.
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  • Shopping
  • Shopping centres
  • Accra Central
Melcom Plus Complex
Melcom Plus Complex
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.
  • Shopping
  • Shopping centres
  • 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.

Best hotel

  • Hotels
  • Luxury hotels
  • Labadi
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Labadi Beach Hotel
Labadi Beach Hotel
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.
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  • Hotels
  • Airport City
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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.
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  • Hotels
  • Dzorwulu
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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. 

Best Ghanaian resort

  • Hotels
  • Luxury hotels
  • Out of town
  • price 3 of 4
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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.
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  • Hotels
  • Resorts
  • Out of town
*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. -
  • Hotels
  • Resorts
  • Out of town
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.
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  • Travel
  • Out of town
  • price 3 of 4
‘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.
  • Hotels
  • Chain hotels
Best Western Atlantic Hotel
Best Western Atlantic Hotel
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.
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