BOMA Restaurant & Club — Restaurant in Dakar

Visited Boma again for a celebratory dinner with the family the other day. Usually I just walk in and sit. Some random unpolished French National captures us and tells us we can’t go to the pool area to eat. Totally a surprise. I’ve been at Boma several times, never seen this guy there. In fact I have never seen a Maître d' there before. Usually I have to seat myself I guess it’s an upgrade but he said we weren’t allowed to sit poolside, which was somewhat discouraging. Apparently there was a private affair, however I saw maybe one family sitting there by the pool and a couple of kids in the pool. My daughter brought her swim suit and really wanted a quick dip. But no luck that day, despite most of the tables in the patio being free. I didn’t see a party going on. So we were escorted to a dark, un air conditioned area inside the main room. After sweating a bit I had to ask if they could turn on the A/C. Super happy they did finally. It was about 5 pm and happy hour just kicked in. No one was on the restaurant. Staff and service is generally cool there. Somewhat pensive. One waitress repeated out our orders several times. But still got some of it wrong. I ordered puree potato’s with my Tomahawk Steak (which I wont order again), and I got Mexican potatoes. The fries my kids ordered with their steaks seem to be warmed up from a bag of frozen ones. The Lamb Tangine I’m told was very good. We ordered 2 of these. But for 13000 cfa, it seemed a bit small. The tomahawk steak was big and for the most part really. tasty, with hints of Worcestershire and ginger, for 21,000 cfa. But much of it I could not eat. Big chunks of cartilage, and some parts were really tough, I could not cut the meat from the bone. They gave me a super ineffective cheap tiny “steak knife” to cut this massive tomahawk It was useless. I had my own Laguiole I pulled out to cut this thing. Ate most of the steak and took home the rest to finish off later. But the next day it was super tough. The other two regular steaks, fillet de boeuf, were good. My kids finished them off pretty fast. Ordered a Cabernet Sauvignon. We got a Chardonnay or something. Sent it back. I heard the bartender say he did not know the difference in wines, what a Cabernet is vs white wine. I also ordered a couple of margaritas. They were ok but inconsistant. One had Salt, one had no salt. One tasted virgin, no tequila in it. By the time the second margarita arrived, dinner was over so I didn’t ask if it was virgin or not. Ordered two of the Gao Bao porc. That was very good. So the service was ok. Several servers came by a couple of times But I’m still bugged about the maître d’ who I never saw again. You’d figure after spending over 125,000 CFA the guy would come over and ask how the meal was. The couple of times I got a free Panna Cotta and a limoncello after the meal. Maybe he didn’t work there and just wanted us away...

Food was lovely.

However wouldn’t expect good treatment if you’re not French or are a black person. I was ignored by the restaurant manager and staff when I entered. I found my own seat and after 15 minutes of being seated, I still had to go and request a Menu and asked on how I order.

I saw other French expats come in, be greeted offered menus and taken to their seats with smiles. This ruined the...

A quite and well decorated place but a pity that the service and the attitude of the staff does not follow.. I was asked to pay the entrance to the club while it was always during the free entry schedule and when I contested that I was answered with a rude tone. I also found that the dress code requirement changes depending on the head of the customer.....