La pampa — Restaurant in Dakar

Excited to try this place out, I drove across town from Ngor to check it out. It’s in a busy part of town so parking can be a problem. Wasn’t this time. Easy to find off a main road. I went about 2:30 pm to beat the traffic. Most places have a host to seat you. We walked in and it seemed pretty busy. I didn’t see a host or anyone to come greet us. It’s a fairly expensive place for it to not have a host to seat us. The restaurant is spilt up into 3 zones; disorganized humid terrace, fast food pizza cafe and nice a/c dining area. So of course for the Argentinian steak I planned to order I wanted to sit in a quiet off the street dining room. As I walked into the dining room, we were quickly met by a waiter advising us to leave the room. He said in needed to sit in the pizza zone or the messy street terrace. The tables were a mess and the place looked like it wasn’t set up for dining. He said the pizza place has the same menu, and that I can sit in there. I saw several tables were occupied in the dining room and asked why I can’t sit in the main room. He said they were closed and they were cleaning it, and that I should sit out in the terrace. He showed me a tiny table next to the toilet. Looking around there were other tables, mostly all dirty. I said look, people seem to be in the dining room, it looks like you’re serving. It’s a mess out here. If you can’t serve me in the dining room, we’ll leave. He gave me a weird look and took us into the dining room, like he’s doing me a favor. It was sketchy. We ordered the Argentinian T-bone (17 ounce), Argentinian Entrecôte (15 ounce), salad and a couple beers. All for 40,500 CFA. About 80 bucks. We ordered it Med rare. The t-bone was somewhat tough and not cooked evenly throughout. Some points were perfect, and others were more medium well, and off the bone basically raw. Impossible to cut. Lots of griddle and un-chewable fat. The knife they gave me was a bent up glorified butter knife. Had to use my own Laguiole. It wasn’t an great piece of beef, it was ok. But nothing to write home about. If there is a next time I’ll try the entrecôte. It was better. Had more taste and more tender. It was super lean. Save half the cost and get the local meat. The salad was ok, as were the veggies and purée. You get one side dish, and the warm rolls. The Roquefort sauce had a bland taste. No local draft, just expensive Heineken draft. Once we sat down, the service was friendly enough. But I was still confused about the not being able to easily sit in the dining room. I don’t think I’ll make another special trip to La Pampa. I may go back, but with...

I came here during the second week of Ramadan with my family, one hour before fasting ended, to celebrate my mother-in-laws birthday. I ordered the major meat platter and a fish dish plus a pizza for my son. After waiting over 1 hour and 20 minutes our food finally arrived, and it was the wrong order. No one ever came to update the status of the order and the manager walked around seemingly ignoring our table. When a family closely resembling the ethnicity of the manager arrived, they were greeted with the manager opening the door for them and no longer than 10 mintues after they arrived were offered appetizers even before they had a chance to order from their menu. The waiter, acknowledging our delay in receiving our food intercepted one of the dishes made for that family and brought it to our table. When we finally got our correct order all of the side dishes we ordered were incorrect and the ingredients of one of the dishes had changed from the previous time we were there. Unbeknownst to the manager, one of the members of our dinner party knew the chef personally and asked to speak with him. The chef was cordial and had no idea we had been waiting as long as we had to receive our meal. The manager said, "you have to understand that we are in Ramadan and everyone stops working to break fast" It was a very unacceptable experience. I suggest that those looking for quality Argentine food try out La Parrilla restaurant instead. 2 stars for finally getting the order right, the meat was cooked well although the service was...

I appreciate the effort to bring the Argentinian cuisine in Senegal the tentative went ok. I had empanadas of course. They were a good approximation to those you can have in Baires but too much cooked and not enough spicy. The meat was too cooked despite I asked for a medium rare and with excessive fat. It was tender and juicy. No wine. I get, religious problem. Wine it’s an important component of the meal in Argentina. Without it is incomplete, maybe halal,...