Akadi is refreshingly immersive, designed to evoke conviviality like few other restaurants. The overall effect is personal, approachable, and inclusive, with a particularly ardent following among Portland’s vegan community. Order peanut stew with fufu (a kind of sticky cassava dough perfect for dunking), or beef brochette skewers served with smoky jollof rice and a dash of Akadi’s cult tomato sauce, also available in bottles to go. Lose yourself in the room among the hanging twinkle lights, low-slung couches, cocktails made with baobab and banana, Yoruban wall masks, and West African jazz. Live music at restaurants—nearly a dead art form—is alive and well at Akadi.