Boma in Africa is "an open, natural space that provides safety and shelter in the bush." The 270-seat "marketplace" restaurant is open for breakfast and dinner, featuring an exhibit kitchen and bakery that allows guests to walk up to a half-dozen side-by-side cooking stations and have their entres freshly prepared.

We had dinner at Boma - Flavors of Africa, a buffet restaurant located one floor below the lobby at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge in December 2005. It is laid out to look like an African marketplace. There were two of us for dinner. I am 35 and my husband was 34. We have been to this restaurant every trip since we discovered it in 2002. I find this buffet is often bypassed by guests who fear it might be too exotic or because there are no characters at either breakfast or dinner. They are really missing out. This restaurant serves a wide variety of ethnic and American foods cooked in an open kitchen located right behind the buffet. You can see the foods being prepared and the chefs are always willing to answer any questions you might have. It is twilight in the restaurant for dinner and it is a bustling place with good service. My husband opted for a Tusker beer, which is an African lager and he deemed to be quite good. I had a Coke.

Dinner at Boma can be quite an adventure in that you can try a wide variety of foods you might not order at a sit-down restaurant for fear you might not like them, but it has plenty of more familiar options as well. My suggestion is to take a little of everything. There is such a huge selection of choices that if you take too much of any one thing, you'll be full before you can try everything! The food is laid out in 7 or 8 "pods" with about 4 or 5 choices per pod. One pod might have soups and stews, another has various salads with several different dressings, vegetables, etc. There is a carving station usually offering 2 kinds of meat. There are several child friendly options such as macaroni and cheese and chicken fingers. Be sure to save room for their extensive selection of desserts.

The food at Boma is seasoned, but most of it is not very spicy. The menu changes daily although there are some staples we have found each trip. Their soups and stews are consistently quite good and often not what I would expect. This trip the sausage and vegetable stew, which was more of a soup, was particularly delicious. The meats on the carving station always have several different sauces for dipping. We had prime rib with Boma mustard, a tamarind Bar-B-Que sauce and a masi mara sambal sauce. Some of the items we have found to be more common African food choices each trip are some type of bobotie (a savory bread pudding with meat, the exact ingredients differ, we had beef and lamb), pap which is sort of a cream of wheat consistency side dish and fu-fu which is a sweet potato vegetable puree (I think). There are often rice dishes and African breads. The falafel was delicious, while the hummus and the couscous were just OK. One of my husband's favorite options is the watermelon rind salad. We had so many different things that it's a bit hard to describe them all. As I said the selections vary nightly. The dinner buffet is served from 5pm to 10pm and costs $25.99 per adult and $11.99 for children aged 3 to 9 years old. Non-alcoholic, non-specialty drinks are included in price.

When I have bypassed something that did not sound appealing to me, my husband would try it and most often it was delicious, and I was heading back for seconds. The advantage of a buffet is that you can try everything, after all. If you aren't sure what's in it or have food allergies, the chefs are there to ask. The desserts are all tiny sample size ones, so feel free to pick up 4 or 6 of them, if you still have any room left. This is where you can get the Zebra Domes that are often talked about on discussion boards. They have a chocolate cookie base with a dome of cappuccino flavoured thick pudding on top. They also have pineapple cheesecakes, chocolate mousse crunch (my personal favorite), fruit tarts, cookies, brownies, bread pudding, etc. For those of you who might be more health conscious than I, they have a selection of fresh fruits and a delicious fruit salad as well.

Breakfast at Boma

All I can say is come hungry to this meal! Pretty much every type of breakfast food you can think of (and some you did not) are included in this buffet. The buffet itself is set up in "pods" and each one has 4 to 5 different selections. There are all kinds of pastries including bear claws, cinnamon rolls, bagels, danishes and muffins. Another pod had different fruit including a delicious fruit salad. There are a variety of cereals both hot and cold. One of the more interesting options was quinoa, which is a grain that has the highest level of protein you can get from a plant. It was cooked into a porridge-like consistency (although they also had oatmeal) and had different things to mix in like raisins and brown sugar. There were pancakes, waffles, bacon, sausages and made to order omelettes. There were several different kinds of breakfast pizzas and ham on the carving station. They had bobotie, which is like a bread pudding with meat. It is also served at dinner, but this one had corned beef and sausage while the one at dinner was lamb. Needless to say the selection was extensive. The food was hot and delicious. Fruit juice is included and I highly recommend the Frunch, which is a mix of orange, lemonade, pineapple, guava and papaya juices. A pot of Kenyan coffee is extra but it is delicious and will certainly help to jump-start your day at Walt Disney World. Breakfast is served from 7:30am to 11am daily. The buffet costs $16.99 for adults and $9.99 for children aged 3 to 9 years old.

We love Boma for several reasons. First and foremost, the food is delicious and not something we can get at home. Secondly, the selection of food is varied and everyone will find things they like. Lastly, it assures us a visit to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, which is a lovely resort. It is my opinion that this is the best buffet on property and while I have not done them all, I have done many of them. It is one of our must-do choices every trip to Walt Disney World.

To check on when you can make your reservations at Boma - Flavors of Africa go to the PS Report.

Editor's Notes: I would like to thank Bethany (lovethemouse from Magictrips) for volunteering to do this PS Spotlight. This is her second review, click here to see what she thought about Maya Grill in the Coronado Springs Resort.