Restaurant Review: Boma – Flavors of Africa

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Kelly

Full Disclosure: I paid for this meal with my own money and I was in no way reimbursed for this blog post. The opinions are completely my own.

After a day at Universal Studios, we made sure to leave early enough to get to our dinner reservation. We went to Disney World two years ago, and this is the only dinner restaurant we repeated from the last trip. Boma is located at the Animal Kingdom Lodge Resort.

According to the restaurant description, Boma is “Designed to resemble an African marketplace, the exotic restaurant serves dishes inspired by the varied flavors and seasonal dishes of over 50 African countries, from the coast of the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean.”

Last time we went, I had to practically be forced to make reservations here. “African” food did not sound too weird and out of my comfort zone. Last time we went, I’m pretty sure I ate mainly from the kids section – plain pasta and french fries.

This time, I’m proud to say, I did not need to be forced into making the reservation. I wanted to go back to prove to myself that I could try new things. It also didn’t hurt that it was by far my husband’s favorite restaurant that we went to last time.

I took a photo of a lot of the food offerings, but they didn’t turn out very well. Here is a photo of the menu – in case you are wondering what the selection was like.

They had LOTS of vegetarian options, as well as a few that I believe were vegan.

Here is one sample of some things we ate – I wish I could tell you what they are, but we ended up sampling almost everything so there were many plates and I don’t remember what was what really.

This, I believe was a kind of seafood chowder soup. It was really good. It was similar to clam chowder, but it didn’t have a milk base so it was lighter.

This, obviously, is just a greens salad. The good part though, is the apple vinaigrette dressing that I put on it. It was SO good. They had several different kinds of dressing – including I believe a mango vinaigrette as well, but I still liked the apple the most. I definitely went back for seconds of that as well.

And this, is just as small sampling of the desserts. I believe the ones shown are a chocolate brownie, chocolate mousse and caramel cheesecake. (And fruit of course.) All of the desserts were SO good. I’m pretty sure Boma had the best desserts of anywhere we went to. There were probably about 10 different kinds of mini desserts including cookies, brownies, cheesecakes, tiramisu, and more! Added bonus: since its buffet style, you can have a little bit of everything….and go back for more….

A fun thing to note: at the Animal Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom Lodge, their straws (and cups, etc.) are all made out of paper! They are a little weird to drink out of at first, but its for the animals! This way if someone decides to litter, and an animal decides to eat it, it won’t hurt them!

Taste: A+, the desserts were the best we had on the whole trip, the food was good, and there was a HUGE variety. And if you really don’t like anything…..there is always noodles and french fries 🙂
Cost: B, it was typical buffet priced – well, typical buffet price for Disney. Not exactly cheap (I think $30-40 per person) but depending on how much you eat, it could be well worth it – especially compared to other meals of the same price.

Would I go there again? Absolutely. And you should too. 🙂