On our recent trip to Walt Disney World, we were determined to eat at every single restaurant that the Animal Kingdom Lodge housed. (Okay, I was determined; Dennis didn’t care as long as he got to eat.) The only restaurant that we’d been to before was Boma, the buffet featuring African specialties along with American favorites.
Open for both breakfast and dinner, Boma is a buffet specializing in dishes from 50 different African countries served alongside familiar American favorites. Guests dine under thatched roofs, surrounded by brilliant colors which invoke the vibrant textiles found in Africa. We’d eaten dinner there before, but hadn’t ever visited for breakfast. Because we would be staying at Jambo House, I made both breakfast and dinner reservations for our long weekend stay.
Our Trip
Thursday
We arrived on Thursday morning and headed straight to the Magic Kingdom for lunch at Tony’s, a haircut at Harmony Barber Shop, and a perfect view of the 3:00 parade. Afterwards, we headed back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Kidani Village’s Sanaa Restaurant.
Friday
Breakfast at Boma
On Friday morning, we had breakfast at Boma before heading out to play mini-golf at Winter Summerland and checking out the new Toy Story Land at Hollywood Studios.
As a rule, we’re not big breakfast eaters. We normally are up by 5:30 a.m. and out the door by 6:15 at the latest. Having a breakfast reservation at 8:00 a.m. allowed us to sleep in and watch the animals from our balcony before meandering down to Boma.
What to expect
At breakfast, expect to find the usual fare, such as Mickey waffles, scrambled eggs, ham, omelets, pancakes, and fruit, served alongside more diverse options such as sweet plantains, spinach-quinoa salad, and smoked salmon.
I thought that breakfast at Boma was very good. Because we had the Disney Dining Plan, I ordered a mimosa to drink (something I’d never have at home). There was a wide variety of foods on the buffet including all sorts of fruits, various pastries, meats, potatoes, eggs, and waffles.
I chose an egg white omelet made to my specifications, bacon, a cinnamon roll, African fruit fool, French toast bread pudding, strawberries, grapes, potatoes, asparagus, and of course, Mickey waffles. Dennis had lots of meat–bacon, sausage, ham, potatoes, and eggs. Breakfast was very good, but at $34.99 each before the mimosa, I thought it was pricy. I probably would not have booked breakfast if we hadn’t have had the deluxe dining plan. You can eat a lot of cereal in your room for $70.00.
Mini-Golf and Toy Story Land
After breakfast and mini-golf at Winter Summerland (included with our package), we headed to Toy Story Land at Hollywood Studios. I thought Toy Story Land was very cute, but also much smaller than anticipated. However, I was disappointed that there was no store–I had really been hoping that they would bring back the Potato Head parts that they used to have at Once Upon a Toy in Disney Springs. Toy Story Land would have been the perfect place.
Dinner at Jiko
After our day in the summer, we had an amazing dinner at the Animal Kingdom Lodge’s signature restaurant, Jiko. This was, by far, the best meal I’ve ever had at Walt Disney World, and probably the finest meal I’ve ever had in my entire life. It was awesome! A review will definitely be coming soon.
Saturday
Keys to the Kingdom Tour
On Saturday, we were out the door early for our behind the scenes Keys to the Kingdom tour at the Magic Kingdom. We skipped breakfast, had lunch at Pecos Bill’s, and then came back to Jambo House for dinner at Boma.
Culinary Tour
The Animal Kingdom Lodge offers a culinary tour a various times during the week before Boma and Jiko open for dinner. If you are interested in learning more about these two restaurants, this is a wonderful event, plus the staff serves amazing samples. Best of all, it’s free!
Dinner at Boma
For dinner, guests can dine on entrees such as whole roasted salmon, pork ribs and pork shoulder, beef sirloin, roasted chicken and turkey, along with African specialties like pap and chakalaka, fufu, and bobotie. There are also a variety of soups, stew, sides and salads, as well. You may find couscous, plaintain crisps, different types of rice, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, or even cabbage.
The Main event
Dinner at Boma was delicious. I tried several dishes that I would never have at home, including the carrot-ginger soup. I also had roasted turkey, spiced sweet potatoes, apple jicama salad, watermelon rind salad, and chicken-corn chowder. Dennis and I both enjoyed the huge Chermoula-chilled shrimp on the salad bar. Everything was delicious, and many of the foods were items that I’d never have at home.
Dennis enjoyed the whole roasted salmon and slow-roasted pork ribs. He tended to focus more on the meat section of the buffet, whereas I chose more of my items from the salads, soups, and sides.
Dessert
If you go, don’t forget to save room for dessert. Boma is known for its zebra domes, thin layers of white cake, with a topping of Amarula liquor mousse covered with white chocolate ganache and drizzled with dark chocolate ganache. They’re delicious! However, there are many other bite-sized delights to choose from, including tiny Key Lime cheesecakes and Kenyan coffee tarts. Or, you can also try the apple cobbler, bread pudding, and various cookies or brownies.
Never fear. If you have little ones, there are plenty of items on Boma’s buffet that your children will love. This is Disney, after all.
At a whopping $59.99 per adult before specialty drinks, Boma is definitely on the expensive side, so make sure you go hungry. If you do have the dining plan, this is a great use of a credit.
Sunday
On Sunday, we headed back to Hollywood Studios–this time to ride the new Alien Swirling Saucers. Afterwards we headed to Disney Springs to use up our snack credits, pick up a few souvenirs, and have lunch.
Because we still had several dining credits left, we decided to eat at the Boathouse before heading to the airport. Our lunches were amazing! I promise that eventually I’ll write about that meal, as well.
Conclusion
We enjoyed both of our meals at Boma. However, if I had been trying to save money and hadn’t had the dining plan, we may not have chosen this restaurant. That being said, we have had dinner at Boma several times now, and it never disappoints.
If Boma is not in your budget, check out this post on ways to save money on food at Walt Disney World.
Have you dined at Boma? Let me know what you thought by leaving a comment below.
Everything looks delicious! Everything at Disney is typically steep. As I tell my family,, you’re paying for the experience, lol. Thankfully you have an additional post abt money saving tips.
I absolutely love Boma and this makes me want to go back ASAP!!
My boyfriends family ALWAYS eats here and I have never gotten to go! Now I am definitely crashing next time. Yum!
Wow! Thank you for that thorough review. It sounds like you had an incredible time at Disney. I have Disney fever and hope that we will go soon too!
I havent been to Disney in so many years…this is bringing back all the feels!!
Natalie
http://www.thegracereal.com
Very informative. Now I know where to eat when I take my son there.
Everything sounds and looks delicious! I’d really like to try a zebra cake. Thanks for the review. Now I’ll know of a good place to eat when we take our kiddos there.
Great post, this is definitely what we need before going on this trip!
Thank you so much for sharing
Boma sounds amazing, though I’ve never been yet. Thank you for sharing your experience!
One of my favorite things about Disney is the food! I’ll have to check Boma out when I visit this summer. Everything looks delicious!
Ok now I have to go there! This is an amazing review. Better than their own website! (For obvious reasons hehe)
My goodness look at the portions! My world I would have to be rolled out of this place. Desserts would have killed me!
Love it! We always try do to one expensive dinner per trip with our family. This place looks great
What a cool concept! Those desserts look AMAZING.
The dessert made my mouth watery. All the food looked very delicious and amazing, a bit costly though. I think in a place like this you don’t only pay for the food but for the overall experience as well!
This looks amazing! My husband wants to visit Disney one of these days. I’d go just for food like this. Definitely on my list of things to do now.
What a great review! Very useful for our next trip to Disney. Thank you for sharing.
I love a big breakfast, this looks great! I like the idea of samples on the culinary tour!
A culinary tour– what a fantastic way to get to know the food and flavor of a place!
I’m reading this before eating lunch and it’s making my mouth water. I absolutely love buffet restaurants at Disney because when you eat a lot (like I like to) it can get expensive really fast. A buffet allows big eaters to fill up without a lot of extra cost.
Everything looks delicious! The carrot ginger soup sounds amazing 🤤 I like that you’ve included photos of some of your meals, everything is so wonderfully displayed and looks yummy! But I’d have to agree that that price is a little steep for breakfast!
Great review!
The carrot ginger soup made my mouth watery. That sounds like a pretty good place!
That all looks amazing! I haven’t had a Disney experience since I was a kid. However, I think I would probably enjoy the food aspect of it that much more now that I’m an adult! lol!
I love this review! I’ve never been to Disney World, but it sure looks fun. Also, because I have food allergies, I rarely go to restaurants, but reading reviews is the next best thing. Looks like a delicious and fun trip
Disney is awesome for people with food allergies. They will send a chef out to your table to talk with you.
Good to know in complete details about Boma.Will be useful whenever I get to visit.Looks awesome.
All of that looks absolutely amazing. I remember the last post you had you spoke of Jiko, so I can’t wait to read about that restaurant. I’m like your husband, just point me straight to the proteins (though I do enjoy most vegetables as well). $60/person is steep steep steep, but if you all planned for it, then it was probably worth it.
What a lovely sight and details of the foods. I will check it out when we go in August especially the African cuisine on their menu.
Wow it looks like the serving is big so even though it might be out of my price range, it’s still worth the try!
Yummy! I’ll be stalking your Disney posts, my family is thinking about making a visit, and we’re not sure what to expect as we’ve ever been 😊
This place looks amazing! If I’m ever in the Cleveland area, I’ll definitely make it a point to visit and get to try it for myself!
Boma is in Orlando,
Florida—about 1100 miles from
Cleveland lol.
Oh wow, sounds expensive, but really tasty! Overall, what was your favourite new food that you tried?
The soup was so good! I even got the recipe.
Disney food…wow. There are some serious jems there. I’ve never done Boma but LOVE that Disney provides so many options to explore flavors from around the world. I was just down there for the food and wine festival.
Yes, you could buy a lot of cereal for $70. But it’s not quite the same experience, is it?
I was looking at that pink drink and wondering what it was, then scrolled down to see you don’t know. It looked delicious though.
I’ve eaten at Boma before and it was really good. I agree that if I wasn’t on the dining plan I might not have eaten there. My only issue with the dining plan is having to be somewhere specific at a certain time. Occasionally it can become a burden to pack up and leave to make your set dinner plan. Love Boma though!
Marni and family are going at the end of July. They get the dining plan.
We’ve only gotten the dining plan the last two trips, and I’m still on the fence about it. However, if you plan on a lot of character meals, it’s worth it. Disney did have a free dining promotion through September. I hope Marni’s family was able to get in on that deal.
I want to know about your meal at Jiko.
It’s on my list to write about. It was amazing! Expensive, but so so good! We did have free dining for our August trip and then upgraded to Deluxe Dining by paying the difference.