Here's a review I wrote some time back, though much of it is still valid:
Now this is the way a buffet should be run.
Youve heard me disparage recently about the quality of buffet restaurants. Most of them feature bland, soggy food served on steam tables and should be called all-you-can-stomach instead of all-you-can-eat.
But Boma The Flavors of Africa, one of two restaurants at Disneys Animal Kingdom Lodge, offers a new concept in buffet dining. The food, which features a variety of meats, fish and vegetarian items based on African dishes, is adventurous in scope with brilliant flavors. And instead of steam tables most of the food is served on state-of-the-art (if all-you-can-eat technology can be called art) surfaces that allow the foods to be served in pots, pans and other vessels while still keeping them hot.
There is no buffet line per se; youre free to just wander aimlessly from one station to another. Actually, the crew here doesn't like the word buffet. Instead they use the word pod to refer to each serving station. Im not sure serving pod is much of an improvement in semantics, but I like the concept of being able to roam and forage. How many times have you been in a food line behind some really slow people who have to analyze all the food before they commit to taking any? I was once behind some guy in a buffet line who had to ask his wife at each tray whether or not the food was something he liked.
That man would not like Boma because chances are his wife would have no idea what the food is or whether he could eat it. But thats just the sort of restaurant you should have in an exotic lodge like this one. Be daring, sample foods whose ingredients you cant pronounce. Taste something just because youve never tasted it before.
There are way too many items to list them all, but some of my favorites were the smoked tomato soup (that one is on the all-vegetarian pod), the seafood gumbo (we forget that some of the foods we associate with Louisiana Creoles has roots in Africa), cous-cous Marrakesh, sweet potato pancakes, and a flank steak that was rubbed with sugar, onion, garlic, coriander and cumin. The watermelon rind salad was interesting (one of those things you try just to say you tried it), and there are nearly 20 pastries to try every night. The one called zebra dome is pretty amazing. You have to have that one.
All of this is priced at a very affordable. Yes, you can find cheaper buffets, but when you consider the quality of the food and the excellence of the attendant staff, Bomas a bargain.
So just be sure to call ahead. The number for all Disney dining venues is 407-939-3463. Boma is open for breakfast daily from 7 to 11:30 am. and for dinner from 5-10 p.m.
Scott
ScottJosephOrlando.com
