Baobab Fare — Restaurant in Detroit

I’ve supported Baobab and always respected the culinary experience there. However, my recent visit with my wife was deeply disappointing. We were treated with unnecessary attitude and passive aggression by one staff member, a short Caucasian woman who, instead of enhancing the experience, inserted herself in an unprofessional and condescending way.

I got up to ask the cook a question about the dish — as I’ve done before, because I appreciate hearing directly from the chef and felt the cook, being Black, could better relate to my tastes and offer a more culturally grounded answer. Before I could finish, the server rushed over with visible irritation, as if it was a problem that I spoke to the cook. Later, after placing our order, she returned with an attitude to inform us that what we ordered wasn’t available. When we didn’t immediately pick a replacement — because we couldn’t understand what she was saying clearly, she snapped and said, “You can just cancel if you want.”

That type of dismissive, rude energy completely shifted the vibe of our night and left a bitter taste before the food even arrived. Hospitality should never feel hostile — especially in a cultural restaurant that should embody warmth and connection.

And then she brought me have cold food!

But we ended up getting another waitress. Her name was Chelsea and she was absolutely amazing.!

My check out guy was amazing. But I will probably never eat here again me or my team because that highly unprofessional rude waitress.

UPDATE RESPONSE TO OWNER

Mamba, thank you for responding. I respect your mission, and that’s why I’m speaking honestly. I read your message closely. While I appreciate the apology, real accountability means being specific. You didn’t name the behavior, the staff member, or truly acknowledge the damage caused. This wasn’t a one-time slip, she moved with comfort, and superiority. That kind of energy doesn’t appear overnight. It grows where it’s allowed.

You mentioned I should’ve asked for a manager, but I tried to handle things calmly and respectfully. I didn’t escalate, didn’t return her energy. But let’s be clear: it’s not the guest’s job to fix the environment. It’s leadership’s job to make sure that energy never greets a paying customer, especially not with that much confidence. And just to be clear the manager and everyone at that front desk knew about it because she told them.

After she told them, she stopped serving me, and they begin to help me, and they offered me some dessert. I wasn’t looking for a dessert. I was looking for accountability. Someone should’ve intervened right then, not later. And if I hadn’t stood up, she would’ve thought that behavior was okay. She got the right one, and I still stayed peaceful.

This isn’t about a bad day. It’s about recognizing when toxic behavior has been made normal, and choosing whether your space continues to tolerate it. I’m not here to damage your brand, I advised people to still continue to eat there. The food is amazing. Honestly, I never wear traditional Islamic clothes, I’m normally in suits and casual clothes. But I think it was what I had on that caused her to act that way. It was a horrible situation. I hope this reaches you with the same integrity I brought. And to any readers, I hope this doesn’t deter them. But there’s no way that lady should get away with what she did.

Much...

Wow, I followed with great anticipation the announcement that Baobab was coming to the New Center area located on the corner of Woodward avenue and the Blvd. I was excited being from Brooklyn one of the largest melting pots of cuisines. My pallet waited, finally the day came and they were open for business, I rushed to experience this next level of good food from the motherland, well things got off to a slow start, my order was taken, I sat and waited, and waited , waited, waited some more still no food, so I continued to wait, til finally I asked about my order, apparently my order hadn’t been turned into the kitchen to prepare, I asked for the owner, they apologized, and said that they would personally see to my order, I thanked them, finally got my order, I didn’t receive any complementary discount or extra food, or even a free drink, I said okay just give them time. So a few months later I said let’s try this again, similar situation occurred again, okay I said maybe it’s jut them getting their sea legs, things happen, also I found the food is just okay, I know that there are different types of African foods from the many different regions, the food was somewhat bland on the two times I ordered, but I felt it was important to support this business, so I took it in stride, so I wasn’t in no hurry to go back no time soon. My friend was asking me about the restaurant when she came to Detroit, so I didn’t tell her about my past experiences, and I took her there, we ordered our food, we waited, waited, waited, and continued to wait, I was embarrassed, so we asked for the owner, he came, she explained how long we had been waiting, and he apologized, the usual, and again the order hadn’t been turned in, so he said that he would personally handle our order, so we continued to wait, so once we got our order we still tipped and left, she called me later to say that her food wasn’t that good, neither was mine, so that was two years ago, so I was out walking today, and decided maybe let’s give it a go, it’s been two years, things probably have improved, well the personal customer service had improved, so I ordered my food, and sat down and waited, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, coming up on an hour, so I asked how much longer, and I got the same kinda response that something occurred in the kitchen, one thing I’m not going to do is give negative energy when a situation is not good, so we waited and finally my carry out order came, I watched the owner with her wait staff at the end of the counter making some comments and laughing with them, poor form for a business owner, so I won’t be going back. I’m going to the Blue Nile this Sunday in Ferndale, their food is excellent, and the service is good. Been going to The Blue Nile since they were downtown. If you want to experience quality food and great service check out The Blue Nile in...

Just came in to Boabab Fare after recommendations from locals and visitors alike and was excited to try it out. The decor and the aesthetics are nice.

For the bad: When we arrived there were only four people in the entire restaurant and we were told we could sit anywhere. As one person in our party is (visibly) disabled we attempted to sit at the hightop (to ease their sitting and standing) and the same person that told us we could sit anywhere told us that they’d prefer that we not sit at a high top (😐). While the high top does seat 6 and we are a party of 3, there were only 4 other patrons in the entire restaurant. Dining while disabled is already difficult but clear microaggressions like that make it all the more burdensome. Once seated in a lower table it took a while for the same person that greeted us to come to our table.

For the okay: Once they did we were asked if we’d like to order drinks or appetizers. We decided to order sambusas, we were told they had to ask if they were available. They checked in with the kitchen and came back and told us that the fryer wasn’t working so no sambusas. We decided to try the only other appetizer instead, the plantain chips and dipping sauce. They weren’t bad. The sauce is definitely the stand out. We also ordered drinks, the passion fruit juice and the passion fruit fizzy. They were out of the passion fruit fizzy. The passion fruit juice was okay.

For the good: Our appetizers and our entrees came out quickly. Our entrees were hot and good. Overall while the food is good the service teetered on subpar. As someone that’s West African with strong connection to East African culture and food the service fell short of a welcoming African diasporic experience that I was excited to have. So much of the experience of dining out is about the atmosphere and the service. Our host didn’t tell us their name when we sat down (although we did find out on the receipt) they didn’t ask if we’d dined with them before or if this was our first time (so they could make suggestions; we overheard their colleague do this with table behind us so it doesn’t seem to be out of the norm). We’re visiting the Detroit area for a concert from another part of Michigan so not sure if I’d/we’d dine in again based on the service...