Boma Tariah
Founder and head chef
Trained in hotel kitchens in Lagos and Accra, came home to cook the food he liked to eat: beef, fire and pepper.
Since 2019
Our story
Ember and Oak began as a weekend grill in a GRA garden. Seven years later it is a 96 cover steakhouse, but the fire is still lit by hand at 3pm every day.
The fire
Oak charcoal and dry mango wood
Gas gives you heat. Wood gives you flavour. Our grill is a two metre steel hearth fed with oak charcoal for steady heat and split mango wood from old orchards in Rivers State for a sweet, gentle smoke.
The grill team lights it at three, lets it settle to a deep red bed by five, and keeps it fed until the last steak at a quarter past ten. One fire, one team, every plate.
When the national grid goes, nothing in the kitchen changes. Two generators and an inverter bank carry the room, the ageing cabinet and the cold store without a flicker.
Seven years
How we got here
- 2019
Weekend grill nights in a borrowed garden off Tombia Street, twelve steaks a night.
- 2020
Pickup only through the lockdown months. Our kerbside window was born.
- 2021
Moved into Woji Crescent and built the glass ageing room.
- 2023
Opened the vault and the garden terrace. First tomahawk night.
- 2025
Started buying direct from three family ranches on the Jos Plateau.
- 2026
Monthly grill classes and the Sunday family table.
The people
Who cooks your steak
Ebiye Okoro
Grill master
Runs the hearth every night. Can tell a medium rare from a medium by pressing it, but probes every steak anyway.
Nkechi Amadi
General manager
Looks after the room, the bookings and every private event. The person who answers when you WhatsApp late.
Sule Danladi
Butcher
Breaks down every side of beef in house and decides when each cut leaves the ageing room.
People shown are invented for this demo.
The beef
From the Plateau to Port Harcourt
- 01
Raised
Grass fed on three family ranches near Jos, then finished on grain for ninety days for marbling.
- 02
Chilled
Processed at a halal certified abattoir and trucked south in refrigerated vans twice a week.
- 03
Aged
Hung in our glass ageing room at 2 degrees and 80 percent humidity for 21 to 45 days.
- 04
Cut
Broken down in house each morning. Trim goes into burgers and staff meals; nothing is wasted.
3family ranches on the Jos Plateau
45days, our longest ageing for special orders
31people on the team, most from Rivers State
7years of fire, lit every afternoon
Your table is waiting by the fire
Book in under a minute. Tables for two to twelve, the ember counter for solo diners, and the vault for private evenings.