Boma – Flavors of Africa
Boma – Flavors of Africa is a buffet restaurant in Jambo House at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge at Walt Disney World. It serves breakfast and dinner buffets inspired by the cuisines of many African countries, alongside familiar American dishes, in a room designed to resemble an open-air African marketplace. Boma is a word in Swahili and several other African languages for an enclosure, such as a fort or a livestock pen — a protected gathering place, which is the idea the restaurant is built around.
History
Boma opened on 16 April 2001, the opening day of Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge. The resort, designed by architect Peter Dominick, was built around the art, food and wildlife of Africa, and its two main restaurants were part of that brief from the start: Boma as the large, family-oriented buffet, and its neighbour Jiko – The Cooking Place as the signature restaurant. Both opened with the hotel and have operated since, apart from the resort-wide closure in 2020, after which Boma was among the later restaurants at Walt Disney World to resume buffet service, initially returning with family-style platters before the full buffet was restored.
From the beginning the buffet was promoted as drawing dishes from some fifty African countries, a breadth made possible by the buffet format itself — no single à la carte menu could credibly range that widely. That range, and a handful of dishes that developed followings of their own, made Boma one of the best-known resort buffets at Walt Disney World and a regular recommendation for guests staying elsewhere who want a reason to visit the Lodge.
Setting
Boma sits on the lower level of Jambo House, below the resort's vast lobby and next to the Victoria Falls lounge, which overlooks it. The room is arranged as a marketplace: thatched canopies over the serving stations, warm wood and earth tones, carved details and an open, busy atmosphere rather than a formal dining room hush. The buffet lines are not tucked away at the back. Food is prepared in view of diners in open cooking areas, with an exhibit kitchen, a wood-burning grill and a rotisserie, so guests can watch dishes being finished and talk to the cooks as they move from station to station. Seating areas are broken into smaller sections under the thatch, which keeps a very large restaurant from feeling like a single hall.
Cuisine
Dinner is the meal Boma is known for. Stations typically move between soups, salads, carved meats from the grill and rotisserie, and hot dishes drawing on North, West, East and Southern African cooking — spiced stews, curried dishes, bobotie, couscous and other grain dishes, roasted vegetables and African-inspired sauces and condiments, set alongside plain grilled items and a dedicated children's section for less adventurous eaters. The soup course in particular has a loyal following, with recipes rotating through the week.
Breakfast follows the same pattern in a morning register: eggs, breakfast meats, potatoes, pastries and fruit alongside Lodge signatures, including jungle juice, the passion fruit, orange and guava blend served at several Animal Kingdom Lodge restaurants, and dishes such as turkey bobotie with a spiced egg custard topping.
Dessert is a small buffet of its own. Its best-known item is the zebra dome — a small Amarula liqueur mousse cake coated in white chocolate with dark chocolate stripes — which originated at the Lodge, is also sold at the resort's quick-service restaurant, The Mara, and has become one of the most frequently cited snacks at Walt Disney World.