Accra has one of West Africa's most varied restaurant scenes, running from roadside pots serving food to market workers at dawn to polished Osu restaurants with wine lists and air conditioning. The Ghanaian staples are the anchor of any eating tour of the city: jollof rice (cooked in spiced tomato stock, hotly compared to Nigerian versions by people who care about such things), waakye (rice and beans topped with fried plantain, shredded meat, boiled eggs, and chilli), kenkey (fermented corn dough, dense and sour) with pepper sauce and grilled tilapia, and fufu pounded in a mortar and served in a fragrant palm nut or groundnut soup.
The chop bars around Makola and Kaneshie serve fast, filling Ghanaian food to market workers and office staff at prices that make Osu look expensive. These are the best-value meals in the city and often the most authentic. For mid-range dining, Osu's Cantonments Road (Oxford Street) is lined with restaurants covering Lebanese, Indian, Chinese, and continental food alongside Ghanaian places; the quality varies but the density makes it easy to browse. East Legon has the newer, more creative end of the Accra dining scene, with a handful of places using local ingredients — kontomire, garden eggs, fermented dawadawa — in less traditional combinations. Street food after dark is generally safe and often excellent: look for waakye sellers, grilled corn, kebabs, and fresh-squeezed orange juice around the main junctions.