Boma

Boma is the last African centric restaurant that we’ve made reservations for on this trip. It sits across from Jiko on the first floor of the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Around dinner time, this area was quite busy and seemed to have a lot of people. I didn’t have much expectations at all since it was just a buffet, but it was interesting to see how they laid the food outside and let people get what they want instead of being served.

Ambiance

Despite it having a ton of people, the noise level wasn’t super loud. It straight up reminded me of a Vegas buffet, albeit smaller. There were several stations, and each time you go up, you just grab a new plate.

The price per person was $49, and because it’s a buffet, you will definitely get your worth in.

The service was very good in that they cleared out the plates promptly and made sure they filled any waters or sodas.

Food

This is how the station for some of the meats looks like. In the meats area, there was a decent set of variety of offerings including sweet corn pudding, baked salmon, spiced pork ribs (in picture), sliced beef striploin, and lamb bobotie. The salmon was decent and met my expectations for a buffet style preparation. My favorite in this area was actually the beef striploin. There’s a carver that cuts the striploin when you ask for it, and they can accommodate to your meat temperatures as well. The meat definitely was not the best quality, but it was tender enough that made it enjoyable. There were a variety of toppings including 2 sweet-ish sauces and a chunky vinegary horseradish topping. The horseradish topping was sublime as it gave you that kick in the nose but also had that acidic aftertaste to it that I particularly enjoyed.

After this area, there were a few more stations including a kids section of typical American-ish food for those that prefer not to adventure (think mac & cheese, chicken bites, etc), a salad station (couscous, pickled green beans, tabbouleh, and more), and a rice station (peanut rice and white rice). The peanut rice was something that I have not had, and it was surprisingly very tasty with any of the curries in the next station.

In the curry station, they had a variety of different soups and curries including corn chowder, lamb curry, and buttermilk squash soup. All the soups and curries were quite delicious and very comparable to what you would get if you were to eat at a table ordered Indian restaurant. The buttermilk squash was similar in flavors and texture to the squash soup at both Jiko and Tiffins. Some of these were quite rich standalone, but tasted delicious with rice.

In the dips area, there was a variety of bread vessels such as pita and thin crackers to eat with the different hummus flavors. This really was not much different than the other restaurant servings in this resort, but it was good.

The dessert area was not timid at all and had a very good varietal selection of things including warm banana bread pudding. I particularly enjoyed the Kenyan coffee tart and passion fruit mousse. They also had seasonal cut fruits as well. The desserts were very enjoyable as they were not too sweet and actually had great flavors.

This was an example of my first serving as it had some salads, pickled green beans, a slice of beef strip loin with chunks of horseradish, and a creamy corn pudding.

Final Verdict

Keep in mind that the pictures above only showed a subset of the offerings in the buffet. There are some more foods, but you should not expect this to be a large casino style buffet.

The main impression that I have that seems to resonate with African flavors is that it has some mix of East Asian and Indian flavors but also is much lighter. Despite Boma being a buffet, the food quality and taste left a very good profile and was one of our top enjoyable choices in our Disney World trip this year. We would love to come back here again when we’ve got the appetite or if we stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge again.

Yelp Jabs

The famous carrot ginger soup is gone! The meat has been cost reduced to stringy carve beef or ribs, dry chicken was also available. Jasmine rice ,gone, asparagus,gone… anything with a decent flavor gone. Me now gone.

This Yelper just sounds bitter. The peanut rice was unique and pretty good, and so were many of their cold salads. I would never rate a buffet for their chicken. Getting the chicken at a buffet is also like filling up on potatoes and starches. It’s a waste.

For starters, it was not clear if Boma was in the main AK Lodge or in the Jambo house. We went to the main lodge and had to ask a Cast Member where it was, since we saw no signage, to be informed it was at Jambo House. We had to hop on a bus to take us over. Not a big deal, just a small annoyance. The buffet didn’t have many options for the price point. There were maybe 4 meats, a few veggies and starches, some salads, bread and a few dessert options.

This Elitist didn’t bother using their Disney World app to see where the restaurant is located. Of course blame it on somebody else other than themselves. I can see how some people are disappointed by the amount of offerings compared to more touristy buffets such as those in Vegas. We did come here for dinner, so I can’t speak for how the breakfast and lunch offerings are like. The dinner offerings are reasonable.