And just what should you expect? It's an African buffet, meaning you'll find flavors and tastes here quite unlike anything else in Orlando, and probably at your usual restaurants at home, too. But it's not unusual meats or vegetables; you won't be munching lion or gazelle or any such exotica. It's the usual meats (pork, beef, chicken) and the usual vegetables, but all are prepared differently than you're used to. That means unusual flavors in sauces, heavy spices that zig when you'd normally expect them to zag, and unusal combinations you wouldn't normally think to put together, such as green beans, tofu, and curry.

A fixed price ($26 adults, $12 children) brings unlimited visits to the food stations, and a wise strategy would be to try micro-servings of as much as you can fit on the plate the first time around, then load up on the ones which you found appealing on the second run. The menu rotates very often, so this review can only pretend to review today's food. For meats, there was a prime rib carving station (which we found to be entirely like every other buffet prime rib: neither sickening nor awe-inspiring), baked salmon, slow cooked pork ribs, and spiced chicken. The salmon was very good, with crusted nuts atop it and baked to perfection. The ribs were uneven: excellent for my first plate, but only mediocre on the second.

Side items are where Boma really comes alive. These included mealie bread, potatoes with afritude, bobotie, two varieties of cous cous, and fufu. Soups on our visit included cous cous seafood stew, coconut curry chicken stew, chicken pepper, carrot ginger, and my favorite, lentil with sausage. The crunchy sharaak bread worked well with the numerous salads available. Again, here there were combinations you wouldn't have imagined: avocado, papapaya, and grapefruit in one salad, for instance. Or the oddly spicy watermelon rind salad. Whole fruits were also available: pineapples, watermelon, or strawberries were out, and all were fresh. If you ask me, one of the highlights was the hummus, which came in three varieties: white bean, tomato, and kalamata olive. Each complimented the lavosh cracker, though the olive was my personal favorite.

Kids without an experimental taste bud on their tongues will find PB&J sandwiches, chicken tenders, pasta marinara with meatballs, and macaroni and cheese. I wasn't surprised to see the usual Disney recipe for the chicken tenders (they taste alike across the resort), but I was surprised to see how fresh these were, especially sitting out in a buffet like this. Similarly, the meatballs and marinara were surprisingly bursting with flavor. And the mac and cheese was the premier, mixture-of-cheeses kind of macaroni.

There are three full stations containing just dessert: banana bread pudding (a bit formulaic), fruit tarts (tasty), cookies (boring), chocolate mousse (rich), crunchy African pastries (not at all to my liking), and their famous dessert, zebra domes, a chocolate concoction that includes a smidgen of alcohol. These were less tasty than I'd remembered from previous visits, and a bit of a letdown. 

The service was essentially non-existant for me, but I must have missed the server by accident. My table mates assured me they saw her numerous times and found her highly attentive to their needs and drink requests. Plates were cleared promptly too. Still, it's a bit unusual to receive the check-presenter (the folder which contains the bill) and to locate inside a card explaining in multiple languages the concept of tipping, and the customary 15-20% range. I found this odd because it was a self-service buffet. Those ranges are more common in full table service locales, and especially in fine dining. 

At the end of the day, any restaurant will stand or fail on its own merits; i.e., on whether the food is any good or not. And the food on my visit was interesting, decent, and yes, a touch exotic in their inter-mixing, but somehow the food lacked joy. There was no standout item that required multiple visits. I thought I'd found it in the ribs, but saw on that second trip I was mistaken. On the whole, I'd give the food a grade of "B", even if only by default. It wasn't a "C" grade but also not an "A". I hope future trips will restore this location to its former home in my heart as a tremendous buffet, both for variety and value.