Boma - Yay or Nay?

[L-Harper]

We have an ADR at Boma for dinner for our last night in September, but I'm worried I'm not going to enjoy it. All I've been hearing in reviews is that its really sweet and uses a lot of cinnamon, vanilla, and fruits in everything. For someone who honestly hates those types of flavors in a main meal (I think those flavors should be in dessert only) am I going to hate everything? Other than that, I'm a VERY adventurous eater. I really think my husband and two boys will like it though.

I really want to try Sanaa, but my husband doesn't find the photos of the food appetizing. He has meat texture issues and is worried that the cuts of meat at Sanaa aren't going to be to his liking.

Please help us! Should we just scrap both places and find somewhere else? We are picking from those two because we really want to explore AKL, but I'm not sure if either of these meals are going to make us happy.

 

[Tinkerbellah]

I ate Boma @ breakfast once & it was fantastic!! Maybe better than the other more popular buffets @ WDW. Go w/ ur gut & the pics always help. I would be going to this one again but w/ a 1 year old we are picking more character meals this trip.Good luck w/ ur decision.

Oh & AKL is beautiful! The hotel is worth seeing & that's why I booked Boma when I did. I think my parents might have just taken a ride over to check it out, you can do that too if you don't feel like eating there.

 

[nanni]

I love Boma dinner. It's one of my favorite meals at WDW. However, I am also a huge fan of the salty/sweet combination. I haven't noticed it to be overwhelming there, but know a lot of others complain about it. I think you could find things to your liking and would give it a shot. There may be some things with cinnamon and vanilla, but not everything on the buffet. I think it would be worth it to give it a shot.

 

[skater]

This is my favorite restaurant at WDW. Sometimes I go twice . There are tons of selections and you should try as much as you can. Its not all sweet. The carved meat is fantastic (I don't usually eat a lot of meat at buffets, but this is tender and tasty). The soups are fun to try although sometimes they can be sweet. I even love the hummus! I think there's enough there that you'll be satisfied. Its also a great quality buffet (almost not like a buffet), a beautiful resort (stay for the night vision goggles activity), and just all around fun. You'll get to try things you can't get anywhere else. I wouldn't pass this up.

 

[wolf29]

My kids are picky, but they insist on going to Boma every trip. I personally love it, and though there are lots of things you will not commonly find, there are plenty of dishes that even unadventurous eaters will find appealing. Besides Boma, the entire experience of a few hours at DAKL make this a must-do for us.

 

[Nadjalu]

I think you are wise to reconsider if you are not a fan of those spices in "mealtime" foods.

DH and I enjoy many kinds of foods. He is alot more adventerous than I, as he has eaten from many cultures around the world, but I can eat just about anything except fish (just don't like it).

We ate at Boma on our trip and were completely disappointed. While the foods were good, we did not like them as they did have sweet spices in them. As you say, cinnamon, vanilla and fruit flavors. We sampled every single dish on the buffet that night and couldn't find one that didn't have a sweet note to it, except the kids station...chicken nuggets and mac and cheese.
The meats at the carving station were rubbed with cinnamon, the other meats had a sweetness to them. All of the side dishes, veggies, potatoes and even the soups were sweet!! As I said we sampled every single dish available that night and by the time we got to dessert...well we were so sick of sweet we skipped it.

Now I can find something to eat at any buffet, even if I have to eat all meat. But I left unsatisfied and ate CS about an hour later.

I say if it is AKL you want to check out, go and check it out. You don't have to eat there to check it out and explore it a bit. Many people do this, it is how they choose their next resort.
But if you don't like your meal to taste sweet, you will be disappointed. Now I will say this, they rotate dishes each night. Many people report "not everything is sweet", but I will tell you the night we were there everything was.

Hope my experiences were of help. Enjoy your vacation!!

 

[thegoof213]

yay

 

[minnie mum]

Another big fan of Boma here. We've eaten dinner here several times, and I can honestly say that I have never noticed a significant sweetness to any of the savoury dishes. But they are sometimes seasoned in ways that are not common to the usual American meal. Perhaps that's why we like it so much. Not the same old bland foods that you find at every buffet in the States. And they have a wonderful variety of foods to try.

DH and I love trying new restaurants and foods. But on one visit to Boma we were with 2 of his siblings who are strictly meat and potatoes kinds of folk. And they absolutely loved the meal. So I say give it a try. What's the worst thing that can happen? If you don't love it, you don't go back again.

 

[KeroKero]

We absolutely BOMA, and always recommend it to friends/family who are planning a trip to WDW. While I can't say I've even found anything to be too sweet in the dinner buffet, there are definitely flavour profiles that are different to the average North American pallette. However, we find the selection vast, so you and your family shouldn't have a problem finding enough selections that satisify your hungry tummies!!

Enjoy!

 

[goofyintoronto]

We have an ADR at Boma for dinner for our last night in September, but I'm worried I'm not going to enjoy it. All I've been hearing in reviews is that its really sweet and uses a lot of cinnamon, vanilla, and fruits in everything. For someone who honestly hates those types of flavors in a main meal (I think those flavors should be in dessert only) am I going to hate everything? Other than that, I'm a VERY adventurous eater. I really think my husband and two boys will like it though.

I really want to try Sanaa, but my husband doesn't find the photos of the food appetizing. He has meat texture issues and is worried that the cuts of meat at Sanaa aren't going to be to his liking.

Please help us! Should we just scrap both places and find somewhere else? We are picking from those two because we really want to explore AKL, but I'm not sure if either of these meals are going to make us happy.

While I do normally encourage ppl to try the restaurant at least once, you should go with your gut. If you dont like your meals sweetened, then instead of dinner at boma, why not do breakfast? Its a safer bet. Plus it'll still give you a chance to check out the resort/restaurant.

 

[SaberJ]

Nay.

I never placed my finger on why I (And the remainder of my party of 3) didn't like the food at Boma, but now that you mention it, I'd say the "sweet" seasonings we likely the cause. I'm not a fan of sweet foods at all. And that doubles with the fact that it ultimately gives the food a bland taste, IMO.

We ended up eating fries and pizza off the kids menu, and then spent the rest of the meal eating the desserts. Which were good, but not worth the bad main course, IMO.

 

[Huff]

I have not noticed the over use of cinimmon, sweeteners or fruit on our visits. I loved the curry lamb and chicken. Prime Rib is always great but what I liked was the variety of sauces to put on it. There are some unusual dishes to try but plenty of not so exotic items as well.

 

[koolaidmoms]

If you are not a fan of those flavors I also would say nay.

We went once because I really wanted to try it. I am also not a fan of cinnamon, vanilla and fruit spices. I like the bobotie and chicken. There was a seafood soup that I also enjoyed but mostly I ate salad.

Even the desserts which I had heard raves over were just okay to me.

The restaurant was very crowded and loud as the room is very large. Our table was against the window and the tables were so close together that if one of us wanted to get up we disturbed the people at the table behind us and I hated that.

I am glad I went once but it will not be a place I return to again very soon.

 

[Cindilou107]

If you and your family like Indian cuisine, you will like this restaurant. My husband and I had dinner there our last time at WDW in 2008. We were going to return during our trip Feb. 2012, but I saw Sanaa was on the dining plan so we are going to try it instead. My husband and I enjoyed Boma very much. Every dish we tried was full of flavor, lots of curry, cinnamon and allspice.

 

[Cindilou107]

If you and your family like Indian cuisine, you will like this restaurant. My husband and I had dinner there our last time at WDW in 2008. We were going to return during our trip Feb. 2012, but I saw Sanaa was on the dining plan so we are going to try it instead. My husband and I enjoyed Boma very much. Every dish we tried was full of flavor, lots of curry, cinnamon and allspice.

 

[disadventurer]

Boma has quite a variety of food choices and the majority appeals to our family. For us though, it is just too much food. It was fun when the kids were small, but now buffets are just a turn-off. We would rather share a dinner or have an appetizer, and save room for a delicious Disney dessert.
Have fun and enjoy the African food--it really is good.

 

[disneyfan888]

I know that everyone's taste buds are not the same and everyone has different flavors, but I honestly don't understand how some people say that their are sweet flavors on everything when that is not the case. Saying that "everything" tasted sweet, those must be some special taste buds because my family nor myself, who are picky eaters had a problem. I admit that I was hesitant eating at Boma because of the same things, I heard and read similar stories on how almost all the food had sweet flavors or cinnamon rubbed on everything. We went for the first time in March of this year and were staying at AKL. I had already had in my mind that we were not going to do it because even though we were on the DDP it just diddn't seem worth it because based on the feedback I was certain we would not enjoy it. After a long and tiring day we went back to the hotel and the family was starving and we did not feel like going some where else to eat, that only meant one thing, we were eating at Boma. I was sure it would be a waste, my family were all picking on me because they knew I was probably the one who would dread it the most. On my first trip I got tiny portions of some things to see if I would like anything. I took some prime rib, a piece of chicken, potatoes, this ground beef thing with bread in it, and a piece of rib. a bit of salad, and a piece of bread. Out of all that the only thing that was hot spicy was the rib tip and nothing, I mean nothing was sweet. At that moment I was so happy not only because the food was not sweet, but because it was absolutely delicious! I HATE sweet foods that are meant to be salty, can't stand them. To me food should not be sweet, thats why dessert exist to satisfy the sweet tooth. I was in shock and began wondering to myself why some people argue that everything is sweet. I dont know if they recently changed the menu or the way they prep everything and maybe thats why some people say the menu is sweet, but it was not like that at all. All my family did was rave about the food and months later out of all the restaurants we ate at including a couple of signature ones, they only want to go back to Boma! I would say, give it a chance. Only you will know for sure. We have been to Boma a couple of times since then (we live here) and it is still superb with salty foods, not sweet. Yes their are a bunch of sauces you can add to them if you want to make them sweet and/ or spicy, but that is up to you. No meat tasted like cinnamon, or vanilla or anything that was not salty, except for one thing, that already says it has a sweet BBQ (which I stayed away from ) Again only you will be able to judge for yourself, everyones taste is diffeent and when it comes to food you are going to get pretty much a split audience in most cases. I just had to share my 2 cents becuase as a picky eater, I feel I have to defend against the extremism of "everything is sweet and tastes like cinnamon or vanilla" they have stuff that has this, but not EVERYTHING. I hope you enjoy!

 

[leebee]

Go into your kitchen and taste the cinnamon- NOT the cinnamon sugar that you might shake onto toast, but the straight cinnamon. I think that in their minds, most people associate the flavor of cinnamon with cinnamon sugar, or on top of baked goods like coffee cake, and therefore think foods with cinnamon will be sweet. Cinnamon is not sweet... it's actually almost bitter. Boma uses cinnamon in some of its dishes- but not all, and not even a majority of their dishes.

We love Boma because African inspired food is a different taste palate than what we usually eat here in the USA. If you are really sure you won't like it, untried and untasted, I guess that means there's more availability for those of us who wouldn't miss Boma on every trip! Also, although some folks find it noisy, it's nothing compared to Chef Mickey's or the Biergarten!!
for Boma!!

 

[L-Harper]

I've decided that I'm going to stick with our Boma ADR. If nothing else, I do love me some hummus! I also like curry so I should be fine!

 

[ciera321]

I'm not a buffet fan, but I love Boma. The flavors are wonderful, not spicy, just flavorful and the variety and atmosphere are great.