Happy Home Restaurant

Authentic Nigerian food in Itaewon

Restaurants

Happy Home Restaurant

A corner of Nigeria in Itaewon

Lamb Pie / Courtesy of Shuttle Delivery

You don’t find Happy Home by accident. Someone in a WhatsApp group sends you the address, or a friend grabs your arm and says “trust me on this one.” That’s how word travels about a place that has been quietly feeding Seoul’s African community for over 14 years. The owner, Ozo Emeka Martins, is from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and opened this restaurant with one simple intention: to make people feel at home. Walk through the door and the aroma hits you first — palm oil warming, spices blooming, stock simmering low and slow. Highlife music plays softly. The crowd is a genuine mix of Nigerians, expats and Koreans eating with their hands, which is exactly the point.

What's on the menu?

Traditional Roll / Courtesy of Shuttle Delivery

Happy Home serves West African cuisine at its most honest, with dishes spanning Nigeria, Ghana and Liberia. The menu is built around the kind of food that takes time and care to get right: rich soups, slow-cooked stews, and the staples that hold everything together.

The Egusi Soup is the dish people come back for ground melon seeds slow-cooked into a rich, nutty stew with greens, tender meat and traditional spices, best eaten with a generous portion of fufu. The Okra Soup is another standout, glossy and fresh, with seasoning that is unmistakably Nigerian. For something lighter, the Jollof Rice and Fried Plantain are crowd-pleasers that need no introduction. A dedicated hand-washing station near the back of the restaurant means eating the way it was meant to be eaten: with your hands.

Budget: 14,300 – 35,800 KRW per person