Dakar in NOLA (Senegalese)

Ataya

Apéritif, Served hot. Thicker than a typical green tea, ginger is really strong. Mint foam is made by pouring back and forth between two cups to froth.

No pics of the bread (Mburu), but a small little roll with a spicy palm butter.

Last Meal

Fish soup, lots of spices. Can really tell the relationship between this and a creole gumbo. Nice bit of crab in there and some crisp rice.

Fonio Salad

Fresh and lots of citrus. Not much more to say. Not a big citrus salad fan so not sure how to rate it.

Parce Que
Great fresh shrimp that popped. Again the seasoning is really bold and spicy without going overboard or becoming a mess. The tamarind was ground down in a bit of a lightly sweet sauce. It isn't bbq shrimp, but you could draw some parallels.

The Rice Connection
Gulf Fish a la Senegalaise
Served together

Really good piece if fish, skin on. Mustard sauce really mild and roasty. Had a peanut sauce type mildness. Carrots and rice served with the fish. You made your own plate of portions.


The two side sauces were a habenero sauce that brought some heat and the other was Roff/Rof that was billed as Senegalese Pesto. (chimichurri might be a better comparison since there was no cheese).

this recipe looks similar to the dish Chef said he likes to stuff his grilled/baked fish which I would like to try. Also mentioned sweating the parsley first.


Rice was shared and was sold as their type of 'jambalaya'. Definitely light seasoning/spice then any of us would cook. However, mixing in the habenero and roff makes up for that.



Palate Cleanser
Did the trick. Not sure exactly what it was. Lemon for sure.

Ponchatoula
Cafe touba was described their coffee, kindof a cafe au lait. Had more herb and clove flavors than any cafe au lait. Also kindof noticed the affinity for powdered sugar with the second dish.

finished with another tea service of the green tea apéritif sans the mint froth this time.

The service and experience were both great. Chef comes out several times during the seating to talk to the dining room as a whole and each individual table. You can feel the love for sharing his food and explaining the process of why he chose which dishes.

Some of the hangups for people will be the single seating every night, 7pm. Reservation only. Prepaying, including 20% gratuity. So you are out about $400/couple before walking in the door. Also a $15/bottle corkage despite not offering alcohol. It is an 'experience' dinner and you can choose a communal table or separate. We did separate which was fine. Would probably do communal if we do it again, but there certainly is a risk of matching up with someone you might not want to be with.

House Drinks
Didn't try any of these.