Sharky's — Restaurant in Dakar

Totally local. Unpretentious, and laid back atmosphere. We go maybe 1-2 times a month, to catch the afternoon breeze, watch the surfers, and eat sushi. Just went again last weekend. Food is consistent and tasty. Great selection of sushi combos, sashimi, salads, yakitori, nems, and dumplings. Some specialty rolls. I usually get the hot philly roll, the salmon salad and salmon sushi combo, No15. They have pasta and burgers, lots of options. So the mixed drinks aren't memorable, but they have cold beer. Service is pretty quick. There are lots of hawkers. Once you make eye contact, they come over to try to sell you whatever they have, xylophones, guitars, fabric, whatever. There is off street parking, and lots of seating options. Its right on the beach. Great sunsets. One horribly annoying thing now are the flies. A tremendous number of flies landing everywhere. The food, your drinks, your face. Maybe it's periodic. I donno, but super annoying, a bit disgusting. It's increased recently. I think I trapped maybe 30 in my 1/4 empty beer glass. Yeah, I know it's west Africa, but they need fans, or something. This is Dakar not Niamey. Sucks to see a platter of tasty raw sushi, right in front of you, with nasty flies buzzing around. They are landing on it while you're trying to balance your chopsticks holding your sushi & trying to dip it in the the soy sauce. They dive bomb into the soy sauce like Kamikaze pilots. We will still go back but I'll bring some type of fly paper or something. I found keeping a 1/4 empty cup of beer nearby helps. They fly in the glass, and then I can trap them with a coaster, shake up the glass and the b@st@rd$ drown. Also They really need to get their credit card reader to work. They have one, but lately they have been saying they have no connection. I think they just don't want customers to have that option. They got the credit card reader to work !!! It’s January, less flies. They have new menus! Same prices for...

Sharkys is a place my team and I love going to every Friday because it gives us the right environment to distress from a long week of hard work. Feeling the sand under your feet while chatting with your colleagues and bosses is wonderful. However, there are a few things we do not really like here. The first is the dirty seat pads. For the last 3 years we've been going to Sharkys, these seat pads have been the same. Well, it used to look better, but now they have been completely neglected, and they look as dirty as ever. The second thing is the food, very poor menu, unless of course for the sushi lovers. Third thing is the service, sometimes, the wonderful person who takes your orders and serves you your first drink, disappears and you have to wait until he or she decides to show up after 15min or so then you can call him or her to serve you another drink or just call the attention of one of his colleagues passing by or serving other tables. The fourth and the really terrible one is the sellers. I appreciate the fact that our brothers and sisters are trying to make a descent living, but the repeated harassment is just unbearable. The same people come to you over and over again trying to convince you to buy their items even when you politely told them a few minutes ago that you were not interested. The singers, with their beautiful welcoming melodies, always want you to have an extra budget for them when you are going to Sharkys. This really causes some people not to want to go to...

We came for dinner, and had to clear the table ourselves from the last guest’s plates, napkins, glasses and ashtrays. Although only half the tables were seated, staff seemed to struggle. Nobody came to bring us menus, so we went to get them ourselves. So far, we weren’t very impressed. But the worst was yet to come: the food. We ordered from the extensive japanese section: udon soup and 2 different teppanyaki dishes. The ‘noodles’ in the udon were overcooked spaghetti, the broth just salty water and the chicken extremely dry. The two teppanyakis were among the worst food we have had in a very long time. In fact, it made us feel unwell and we stopped eating after a couple of forks. When the waitress came to clear the table she said ‘That’s not our fault, the chinese eat it like that!’

I think it’s fair to say we definitely won’t be...