Tucked behind Oxford Street, this restaurant offers a high-end experience of classic West African cooking. Recently appointed executive chef Ayo Adeyemi offers a £120 tasting menu with his signature smoky, tender jollof rice accompanied by blue lobster with carrot sauce and supple carrot terrine that represent his take on classic Nigerian cuisine. The restaurant design is sleek and minimalist, with contemporary African art adorning the walls and stylish plates and bowls in service.

Pan-African restaurant Tatale opened this summer at the Africa Centre in South London in a colorful room draped with classic kente fabrics from the Volta region. Chef Akwasi Brenya-Mensa prepares dishes that have a connection to his South London childhood and visits to Ghana and South Africa. He wants the place to feel like a West African chop bar—a communal dining hall in Ghana. The star of Brenya-Mensa’s current short, sharp menu is buttermilk fried chicken imbued with hot African peppers.

A new entry in Mayfair’s fine-dining scene is Stork, which counts as neighbors the Royal Academy of Arts and Ralph Lauren’s flagship outlet. This high-energy restaurant feels like a club: An oversized portrait of Grace Jones presides over the room and its addictive Afrobeat soundtrack. Beautifully presented dishes include the West African classic chicken suya and red red, a Ghanaian dish of beans in tomato stew that head chef Taalib Adanse cleverly serves in a roasted plantain.

Nky Iweka’s cute cafe in Fulham offers an extensive array of West African dishes, some classic and some not. Her nostalgic menu is stocked with thick stews and assorted meats like her grandmother’s slow-roasted goat curry. Many of the dishes are not unlike ones you’d find in high street restaurants but with such tweaks as plantain cups filled with jollof rice. A standout dish: the dessert of grilled bananas in a palm wine reduction, served with ice cream and crushed peanuts.

A few steps from the mad bustle of Piccadilly Circus, Papa L’s is a new, laid-back place with friendly servers and an African fusion menu and music ranging from reggae to old-school soul classics. Owner Lawrence Gomez, aka Papa L, hails from Gambia and sprinkles foods and spices from his native country through the menu, including tempura kanja (okra) with housemade chili salt and seared scallops with smoked paprika relish. The cocktails have a Caribbean vibe.

Kudu’s growing South African culinary empire in South London includes a restaurant, a grill place, a cocktail bar and an art gallery. Chef-owner Patrick Williams specializes in his native braii cooking, using specially imported wood from South Africa to grill such dishes infused with sweet, smoky flavor as prawns in peri peri butter, pork chops in sweet-tangy monkey gland sauce and a dry-aged T-bone with beer-pickled onions. The all-African wine list is well curated.