Le Baobab

I’ve been to Le Baobab quite a few times since my first review.
Over our last visits, food quality hasn’t been consistent. Sometimes the chicken is succulent and perfectly grilled, while at other times it’s overcooked and dry. When it’s dry, I need more sauce with it; once we were charged $ 1 for a tiny container of hot pepper sauce & $ 2 for more onion sauce. Grilled fish is usually good and tasty. The plantains are pretty much always good: a great starchy accompaniment when not so ripe & deliciously soft and sweet when ripe.
On certain days of the week, the kitchen cooks up some stew. I’ve tried the stew once & it was warm and comforting.
Service is variable. Sometimes it’s friendly & sometimes not so much, depending on who’s there. There have been a few issues. One night, at the end of a long 13-​hour drive back to Philadelphia, I called in an order to Le Baobab around 10:15 pm. I was told they were closing at 11:00 pm so I’d need to arrive by closing time to pick up my order. I agreed. We rushed to the restaurant. When I got there at 11, my order was nowhere to be found. We ended up waiting 45 minutes longer (after we arrived at the restaurant) for the food to be ready. It appeared they had forgotten about our order & then started cooking it after we arrived. The long delay was inconvenient since we were very hungry after the long drive. We could’ve gone somewhere else if we’d known that they didn’t have our food, but they didn’t tell us that that’s what had happened. There was no apology, no acknowledgement, no communication.
Summary: Food is often good. Service is slow & better communication is needed.

I went to Le Baobab one night because I was desperately craving west African food. Although there are so many west African restaurants in the area, I was still very skeptical. Some restaurants skimp on the meat in dishes, but many seem to decline in food quality down the line. In other words, it seems that restaurants may be taking shortcuts that result in faster preparation times, but also salty, dried out food. Coming to Le Baobab felt like taking a chance.
The store is small with very plain décor, but the customer service from both the man and the woman was great. I asked questions about the portion size and dishes and got a response that was stellar. For example, the man went to the kitchen and returned with a made-​up platter for reference, instead of relying on vague descriptions. The amount of chicken in that styrofoam platter was perfect (it was a lot!) I eagerly place my order of the grilled chicken, attieke, and fried plantains. Before I paid, the woman opened each container to show me the meal. This was a great touch because I knew exactly what I was ordering before I paid.
The food, oh gosh, it was delicious! Like I said, the portions are large. Each side had it’s on styrofoam container the size of a fried rice platter (i.e. fried rice & chicken wings) from any of the neighborhood Chinese spots nearby. The attieke was cooked perfectly and was light. The plantains were cut up, perfectly ripe and fried to a nice golden brown. They were also sweet and soft. The chicken was pure perfection, featuring cuts and pieces of thighs and drumsticks. Nicely grilled with charred crispness on the very outer edges, but the skin and meat were still very succulent. It was also very well seasoned, with very little reliance on the usual abundance of salt. A nice touch was the diced onion, tomato, pepper mix that was blended in some sort of light sauce on top of the chicken. It was slightly similar to the taste and consistency of the diced veggies in pasta salad tossed in Italian dressing. Some additional condiments were a chicken flavored bullion cube in the attieke (I didn’t need it) and a small cup of a red pepper sauce. The sauce starts out a tad sweet, but gets very spicy at the end. I wasn’t a fan of it because of the initial sweetness, but the ending spiciness was great. However, I didn’t eat it with my food. I used another brand of pepper sauce I had in the fridge, which complimented my meal perfectly.
I plan on coming back to try other dishes. Actually, I initially had my eyes set on the grilled lamb, but they were all out, so I settled on the chicken. This gives me an excuse to go back for the lamb very soon!
If you are in the area, craving or wanting to try west African food, definitely come to Le Baobab. You will NOT be disappointed.

It seems like most of my dining experiences of late are by mistake. you know, planned on going to a restaurant and when you arrive there it’s closed or out of business and then seeing another place nearby and thinking what the heck…
Well that’s how I came to eat at Le Baobab Restaurant. I was in SW Philly, and as usual, hungry on the run, I was headed to a breakfast spot that served only breakfast all day. I wanted to try it out because the owner was the ex-​Head Chef at the Four Seasons Hotel. But alas the spot wasn’t open and looked like it was out of business, but I will keep trying till I find the real story.
Le Baobab was right next door and I went inside to ask if they knew anything about the other spot and a pretty African lady said ‘no, I don’t know anything about them, are you hungry?” My answer was ’ Does the Parking Authority suck?” She smiled and said «have a seat». I was the only customer and I thought what the heck…
It was a small place with nice African Art and a few tables & chairs. I chose Chicken Brochette with Jolof of Rice and a veggie called Potato Leaf along with Plantains.
I love African food and while a lot of foods in West African are similar, each country has it’s own spin on the same dishes. Le Baobab’ cuisine is from Burkina Faso and the food had some unfamiliar spices, but was hearty and filling while helping my imagination go to a place I’ve never been before.