Bissap Baobab Lounge Review

Bissap Baobab, a Senegalese restaurant in the Mission, was okay. While it had a nice hip and laid-back feel without being a hipster joint, and had welcoming and friendly wait-staff, the food and drinks were mediocre -- there were only two dishes I'd call good.

The star of the meal -surprising for a west-African restaurant- was the chocolate souffle dessert. We had it with vanilla ice cream and it was top-notch as evidenced by the fact that it disappeared within a minute of arriving.

Another good item was the pastelle appetizer, which were effectively good quality samosas. The filling we chose -beef- worked well.

As for the rest of the food, let's start with the other appetizer we selected: aloko (fried plantains). We could see this being good when served hot, but ours arrived luke-warm and was passable (happily not as gross as we could imagine them being when served cold).

The three entrees - joalienne (Senegalese paella), yapou khar (lamb with couscous), seafood coconut (fish with coconut-based sauce) - were all okay. Not really bad, and certainly not bad in any obvious ways, but not particularly good either. The lamb, tender in places and dry at times, was, as an average lamb dish with no distinguishing flavor, the best of the three.

The banana flambee dessert truly paled in comparison to the chocolate souffle. Overly sweet and overly gingery, this sat on the table for a long time before being finished. Most of us only found it edible after trying to scrape some of the sugar-ginger mixture off the top of the bananas. The ice cream we selected to go with it -ginger- was perfectly fine by itself but added too much more ginger to the the bananas when eaten together. And, sadly, we didn't get to watch the bananas being flambeed.

Between us we tried a number of drinks; as a general rule they were weak, mostly ice, and not worth repeating. For instance, the sorange (ginger, orange, whiskey) and rose (ginger, cranberry, vodka) were weak and mild on flavor. The fleur (tamarind, ginger, whiskey) was unusual (though not in a way we really liked) and strongly flavored of whiskey but actually not very alcoholic. The ginger juice was exactly as advertised: strongly ginger -even more so than good quality ginger ale- but without the bite of good quality ginger ale.

Total was $25/person including tax and tip (but not drinks) for effectively a full three course meal.

Original Announcement

On Thursday at 8:00pm we'll converge on Bissap Baobab in the Mission to try some Senegalese food (and drinks, for it is famous for its drinks). For those of you that can't recall your geography, Senegal is a country in west africa.

http://www.bissapbaobab.com/

Please tell me if you are coming!

Comments from Other Attendees

This restaurant was more memorable for the atmosphere than for the food. The clientelle epitomized mission hip, as did the wait stuff. Beautiful women with weird jobs that make you wonder how you they can afford to live in San Francisco until you realize they're probably living in the not so nice parts of the surrounding nabe.

As for food, it was a letdown. The ginger alcoholic drink had too much ginger in it to be good. The meat dishes were dry. On the whole, I think this restaurnat was not worth going to, except for atmosphere. More of a place to go for after work cocktails when you want to be sophisticated and global about your happy hour, rather than a place for food.

-Seth

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