SnackRite brings West African cuisine to town

SnackRite, located on Simcoe Street, is the latest addition to Tillsonburg’s restaurant scene. Owners John and Olaide Araoye offer West African cuisine at their new venture. (Jeff Helsdon Photo)

Jeff Helsdon, Editor

Tillsonburg diners looking for something different when searching for international cuisine locally should check out SnackRite.

The restaurant, which opened on March 22 at 145 Simcoe St., features West African cuisine.

The eatery is the first restaurant for owners John and Olaide Araoye. Moving here from Nigeria, they noticed a void in this style of cuisine in Tillsonburg.

“We didn’t find any West African here so we opened,” John said.

They described the food as authentic, traditional type of cooking using spices.

“It’s not like the traditional burger we eat everytime,” John said.

The food is all fresh.

“We get it fresh from the farm,” Olaide said. “We don’t use processed food.”

“We don’t fry anything,” John added. “The only food we fry is French fries.”

Meat pies are one of the main features on the menu. Jollof rice and chicken is the best seller to date. The menu also has seafood soup, peppered chicken, peppered turkey, peppered goat, fried plantain and many other unique items.

On the dessert side, puff bites are a feature.

“It’s similar to Tim Bits, and less sugary,” John said.

“It’s not hard, it’s soft,” Olaide added.

The reception to their food at their TurtleFest booth was overwhelming. They sold out of all their food.

“A lot of people bought our food, left and came back again,” John said.

TurtleFest was an example of the catering SnackRite offers for weddings and birthday parties.

The couple have lived in Tillsonburg since 2023. John had a career in IT as a project manager after attending university in England.

“We decided let’s look for more opportunities, somewhere we could raise our kids to be nice people.,” he said. “Canada looked welcoming as there’s lots of multicultural people, so we decided let’s give it a shot.”