What is a Mai Suya?

What is a mai suya?

A mai suya is the person who grills and sells suya at a roadside stall. The word comes from the Hausa language, and it is heard in Lagos too: reporters writing about Lagos have used it alongside the plain English word vendor.

The mai suya is the face of the grill, the one customers watch turning the sticks and slicing the meat. The Guardian Nigeria found that customers may wait, chat and even debate who makes the best suya.

What does mai suya mean?

Wikipedia's article on suya glosses mai as the Hausa word for "seller of", which makes a mai suya a suya seller. The same article notes that suya is also known as tsire, and gives mai tsire as another name for the seller. Suya is the more widely recognised name in many parts of Nigeria.

Mai suya meaning: Hausa name, Nigerian word

The word has travelled with the food. Saveur reported in 2019 that suya sellers in Lagos are known as mai suya. The Guardian Nigeria's 2025 report on why suya is sold at night uses mai suya for sellers in Surulere and Ikeja alike. Other names are heard too, and usage varies from place to place.

What is suya?

Suya is thin meat threaded on wooden skewers, coated in yaji, a dry spice blend built on ground peanuts, ginger and chilli, then grilled over charcoal. It is usually beef, though chicken and offal such as liver, kidney and gizzard are grilled too. It comes with sliced onion and tomato.

The food comes from the north of Nigeria and has spread along the West African coast. Saveur notes it in Cameroon, where it is called soya or tatum, and in the Republic of Niger. In Lagos it is a popular street food, sold from open-air grills, some of them built from old steel drums.

Before grilling, the slices are drizzled with groundnut oil, rubbed with the spice and left for a few hours to take it in. Then they go over the coals until the coating chars at the edges. Wikipedia describes the result as smoke-grilled spiced meat, which is as short a definition as any.

Which meats a stall offers is up to the seller, so the full range is not at every grill. Suya also has a dried relative: Wikipedia lists kilishi as the dried version of suya.

How do you eat suya?

The seller slides the meat off the stick and cuts it into bite-size pieces, adds sliced onion and tomato, and sprinkles more yaji on top or puts it on the side. The order is usually wrapped, often in paper or foil, ready to eat on the spot or carry home, and eaten piece by piece.

How to eat suya at the stall

Watching your order is part of it. The Guardian Nigeria quotes a customer who enjoys suya more "standing by the fire, watching the man turn the sticks and slice the meat with that long knife". You can ask for the onion and tomato raw or grilled on the coals, as Wikipedia notes, and take the pieces one at a time with a little of the extra spice.

Taking it home

Most suya leaves the stall wrapped. Newspaper was a classic wrap; Serious Eats says paper or foil is the norm now, and practice varies from stall to stall. If you are sharing, keep the extra yaji in its own fold so each person adds as much as they like.

Why is suya a night food?

Suya is often a night food for practical and social reasons. Sellers spend the hot afternoon preparing meat and light the grills once evening cools down. Their customers are at work or in traffic by day, and come out after dark to unwind, share an order and wait together by the fire.

The Guardian Nigeria asked sellers and customers in Lagos in 2025 and found reasons that run from culture and climate to plain economics. The habit has roots in the north of Nigeria, where suya comes from and where it has long been eaten in the evening, and the timing travelled south with it.

The heat matters. Standing over a charcoal grill in the midday sun is hard work, so many sellers prepare in the afternoon and set up when the air cools. The food writer Ozoz Sokoh, writing for Serious Eats, remembers growing up when suya could only be bought in the evening, because the whole day went into slicing, coating and a first grilling.

Then there is the mood. For many people, suya is a treat at the end of a long day or at the start of a weekend. It is not fast food: people stay and talk while they wait. Some restaurants and stalls serve suya by day too, so it is not only a night food, but many street grills come alive after dark.

What does a suya vendor's night look like?

A suya vendor's night starts hours before the first customer, with slicing meat, rubbing in oil and yaji, and often a first grilling. Around dusk the charcoal is lit and the stall goes up. The busiest stretch follows the end of the working day, with a queue to manage, orders to slice and plenty of conversation.

1. Afternoon: preparation

   The meat is sliced thin, coated with groundnut oil and yaji and left to marinate for a few hours, Saveur reports. Serious Eats describes the customary two-stage method: grill it once to cook it, let it rest, then reheat it over the coals just before serving.

2. Dusk: the fire

   Once the air is cooler the grill goes up, sometimes an old steel drum, and the charcoal is lit. The coals then need tending through the evening.

3. Evening: the rush

   When people finish work, the queue starts. Saveur described a long wait on Friday nights, because skewers are grilled to order before they are sliced and wrapped. Some sellers set up where plenty of people walk past in the evening.

4. Late: the conversation

   Under a bulb or a streetlight, the stall can become a meeting point. In The Guardian Nigeria's words, "It's a social event as much as a meal": customers wait, chat and debate who makes the best suya.

What should you know when buying suya in Lagos?

Say how much pepper you want before the seller wraps it, or ask for the extra yaji on the side. Ask what sides there are. Expect a wait at busy times, because skewers are often reheated or grilled to order. Every stall does things its own way, so these are general suggestions, not rules.

Prices change with the cut, the area and the cost of meat, so this page does not quote any. If you are unsure, ask the seller before you order.

• Spice: yaji can be very hot. Ask for less on the meat and more on the side, so you can add it yourself.
• Meat: beef is a common choice. Ask what else is on the grill that night.
• Freshness: choose skewers you can see going back over the coals, so they reach you hot.
• Wrapping: say if you are taking it home, so it can be wrapped well.
• Timing: busy evenings can mean a queue, so allow for a wait.

Where are Lagos suya spots?

Suya is sold in many parts of Lagos, from roadside grills to restaurants. In 2025 The Guardian Nigeria described suya stalls from Surulere to Ojuelegba and from Ikeja to Ajah. Stalls come and go, so check a recent map or ask locally for the grills people currently recommend.

This page does not list current businesses, their times or their prices, and it makes no claim about any one area.

Suya vs kebab: what is the difference?

Kebab is a wide family of skewered and grilled meats; shish kebab, for one, began in Turkey and is now typical of Middle Eastern, Eastern Mediterranean and South Asian cooking. Suya is one Nigerian dish: thin slices bunched on a stick, coated in peanut-based yaji, grilled over charcoal, then sliced and served with onion and tomato.

The two are related in shape, and Saveur compares suya to the kebabs of the Middle East. Serious Eats places it in a wider family of skewers, from satay in Bali to souvlaki in Greece, and finds it closest in form and ingredients to Balinese satay.

What makes suya itself is the groundnut spice, the very thin cut, and the habit of grilling it twice: once to cook, once to reheat just before it is served.

Is there a game about running a suya stall?

Yes. Mai Suya is a browser game that puts you on the other side of the counter, as the mai suya. You run a roadside grill in Lagos from 19:00 to 01:00, keep the charcoal hot, flip each skewer in time and serve a queue of hungry night customers.

It borrows the night described on this page: nine meats from beef and chicken to liver, gizzard and kidney, yaji, onion and tomato on the side, and five places from Agege to Victoria Island. Customers ask for more pepper or none, and some want their order in newspaper, others in a box. A night takes about 150 real seconds.

It is a game, not a guide to a real stall, and its stalls, customers and places are simplified for play. Play it straight away, or read what the suya game covers before you start.