Miliki

Food is simply good here. Made to your liking. Haven’t tried everything on the menu «yet». But, it all looks good. Made fresh and down to earth. Big portions!!! Definitely get your money’s worth… Come look see and eat. Gotta have it!

I read amazing things about this place a few months ago and have been dying to go since. Today I took out one of my friends for a belated birthday brunch, and since Sequoia was full I asked her if she wanted to try Miliki. No regrets… wonderful service and awesome food! She had the benedict with tomatoes and avocado and I had the Mexican scramble… both were fantastic! I’d love to come back to try out dinner!

I want to say that this place was good but not only does the food have to be good but the customer service needs to be also. Food was great but wow wait time to get food was terrible, customer service was terrible, had to cut my own $ 2.75 grapefruit, had to ask for water 3 times. They have potential but really need to have someone come in and assist with how to serve the customers.

I’ve never had Nigerian food before but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The waitress was really nice and offered some suggestions– though I’m sure everything on the menu is tasty. They also have a non-​Nigerian breakfast menu that looked tasty too– I’ll have to go back and check it.

I was craving west African food and a friend recommended this place.
I’m so glad they did as the food here is delicious and reminded me very much of a trip to Ghana that I’d taken a few years back.
I had the vegetable combination plate which included stewed greens, jallof rice, beans, plantains and an option to add goat meat. We also shared the puff puff, (which is like a dense fried donut hole, no gaze) and akara (ground beans and onion stuffed pastries).
The service was fast and friendly and our waiter was very attentive throughout our meal.
Although the restaurant is small, The vibe is very upbeat as they play African and Caribbean music at a comfortable volume.

This is the real deal! The blueberry pancakes are the
. We’ve been chasing them since full house closed!

Really friendly staff. I got the salmon croquettes for breakfast and it’s a huge portion! It still served with two eggs AND potatoes. The salmon croquettes go nicely with the lemon and the sauce. Potatoes are quite tasty.
They have live music I think Friday and Saturday nights? Check them out!
I have to come back to try their traditional African food for dinner. For breakfast/​brunch, they serve American-​style food.

Super tasty and enjoyed having something so good right near where we live. The fufu was so good — and plenty of it.

Now that I’ve perused other 1 star reviews, I feel much better about the wrath I’m about to unleash. Miliki is where gentrification and horrible customer service intersect. Period. My sister, 3year old niece and 4 year old son went here to eat last Saturday. From the moment we walked in to the time we seated ourselves and then got back up to retrieve our own menus we were ignored. The male waiter and female waitress did not acknowledge us while we sat for minutes until flagging the waitress down. What’s worse is that 2 separate parties of white patrons were seated and greeted while we waited to order our drinks. After drinks came our waitress walked back and forth on several occasions and made eye contact with my sister. She not once asked if we were ready to order (we were). At nearly 15 minutes in we left money on the table and got up to leave. Sister wanted to leave $ 10 but I dramatically snatched $ 5 off the table.
It’s bad enough that internalized racism was in play but the blatant attention to the other white patrons was something else all together. Only when those who are getting the benefit of good service recognize the disservice or lack thereof to others, is when real change can take place

Wow. Ok, I’ve only had one meal here, and it’s a fairly simple one, but it was perfectly executed. The Croquet Madame is outstanding… I can only imagine how good some of the other plates are. I look forward to finding out. Nice, polite, attentative service as well.
I’ll be back soon.

My husband and I were very excited to visit Miliki. We had just moved to the Bay Area from Chicago and hadn’t had Nigerian food in a month or so. My husband’s family is Nigerian, so I had become accustomed to well cooked Beef stew, jollof rice, efo, and other Nigerian dishes.
The food at Miliki was very underwhelming. It lacked taste and even seemed old, or not freshly prepared. It wasn’t spicy at all and the portions weren’t impressive. I’ve had Nigerian dishes from restaurants as well as my husband’s family and the food here couldn’t stand a chance.
Although the food wasn’t impressive, the service was good and the prices weren’t too bad either. After trying a few times, I now make stew perfectly for my family and this was inspired by visiting Miliki, so some good did come from it.

Full House is back incognito!
High Quality breakfast without the pretentiousness next door. Very reasonable pricing and the staff are great.
I will be a regular for breakfast and will visit for dinner.

After Full House closed, I was crushed. For so many years, it had been our go-​to place in East Oakland for breakfast and lunch. I didn’t like the attitude or the prices at the hipster place that moved in (Sequoia Diner.)
Then we found out Kirk, the cook from Full House, was back, cooking breakfast and lunch at Miliki! His food is very good and plentiful, for extremely reasonable prices. I particularly love his baked goods– the herbed biscuits, the cinnamon muffin that was like a cross between a muffin and a sticky bun. Bring back the coffee cake, too!
I’ve also eaten dinner at Miliki, and enjoyed the Nigerian food very much. African pop music with my meal? Yes, please; it’s the sound of joy and sunshine.

We live in the Laural and wanted to try out a new place near us but the new breakfast place had a long wait so we decided to try this place and well…
The service was terrible, I know that when things get busy it will be a bit slow but I had to ask 3 times for another cup of coffee even though they walked by us several times, I felt that they had more time to gossip behind the counter than take care of customers, They were not to friendly, As a business owner myself I know how important customer service is!!!
Now for the food: the french toast was dry and a bit over cooked, the Blueberries that cost a $ 1 more were frozen and delivered in a big bowl of hot water that pretty much sucked out all the juice and had very little taste left in them and at no time were we asked how anything was and if we needed anything else.
I rarely ever right a bad review but this was one of the worst places I have eaten in a long long time!!!
Never going back…

When I saw the a note on the window menu that the chef was the chef at the now closed Full House Café, I dashed in after leaving the hair salon. I saw that they had the excellent meat loaf sandwich on the menu. It was only few minutes after 2pm, but lunch was over and they were serving the Nigerian menu.
I’ve never had Nigerian food before and it took me awhile to figure out the menu. There are a lot of choices that you can mix and match. I wanted to try one of the beef appetizers but they were out of it. I decided to ask the server for suggestions.
Her favorite dish was a Joffof rice combo plate, with plantains, spinach, and black eyed peas. She suggested adding chicken. It sounded good to me so that’s what I ordered.
Joffof is orange and consists of rice, tomatoes and tomato paste, onions, salt, and spices. The rice was delicious and so were the fried plantains. The black-​eyed peas and spinach were okay. The dish did not really need the chicken. Nigerian food is nothing like Ethiopian food; my lunch remaindered me more of a Jamaican or soul food meal.
I do plan to go back and try other dishes. The stews sound interesting And if I am there before 2 I can see if the meatloaf is as good as I remember it be.

I found myself in the Laurel district this morning, so I decided to stop into Full House for some yummy breakfast. Imagine my surprise when I couldn’t find that old diner and instead found Miliki. Well, despite the fact that I wasn’t feeling very adventurous, I decided to try it out anyway.
I ended up ordering pancakes. What I actually wanted was some sort of combo –of eggs, home fries, bacon, & pancakes. But I didn’t see anything like that on the menu. Oh, well.
The pancakes were fine, but expensive –for what it was. In retrospect, I should have paid the extra $ 2 for the «real maple syrup» (yikes!$$), because the pancakes ended up tasting kind of yucky with the cheap-​o syrup that came with it. In the end I paid $ 8.23+tip for a mediocre meal of 3 medium-​sized pancakes and yucky syrup. :(
The ambiance was also «meh.»
I won’t be returning for breakfast, but I might try again sometime for lunch or dinner.

BREAKFAST– Feels like home, and now that Kirk (chef of the old full house café, two doors down) is cooking up the breakfast. I must admit, the food is better here than it was at Full House. The home made sausages are perfect, as was the Cajun scramble… its almost like he has more room to improvise the meals, cook it his way, and its evident in every bite. Portions are huge!
DINNER– Delicious as well!!! Spicy, vegetarian friendly. The owner is so sweet and hospitable, and I am in love with the puff puff :-)
Thank you Laurel District, and Miliki for keeping our community together.

Very nice option for breakfast-​particularly if you sleep in and don’t want to look like somebody’s fool waiting in the line at Sequoia. I’m laying on 3 stars but really 3.5
Cornmeal waffles are delicious-​add the real maple syrup. Homemade sausage patties are quite good.
Coffee is a bummer. Really? This is the East Bay. Coffee capital of California (if you ignore the Goat up in Healdsburg). Options abound.
A work in progress but nice neighborhood option

I’m only speaking for the breakfast… But definitely want to come back for dinner and live music in the near future!
We came 2 days in a row for the corned beef hash. We followed the chef from the old Full House Café. Best corned beef hash in the Bay. Great portion sizes.

4 Stars for food and friendly service. The dining room feels a little dated, but it’s in the Laurel, so…
The vegan options are plentiful. The owner (who is also usually the server) will tell you that all of their foods are vegetarian based. If you ask more direct questions you’ll find they’re vegan; Oil is used — not butter.
Vegan items on the menu;
Plantains
Black Eyed Peas
Spicy Greens
Rice
Good, comfort-​foodish fare.