Dakar NOLA

"Top 3 restaurant in North America"

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"Sunday morning. West African food- Senegal— one pot meals is wha Senegal does. Cassava and roe trout starter. "

@travelbirds

"Cheffe Serine Mbaye (James Beard Award, Best Chef: Northwest & Pacific ‘26)"

@nchavotier

"Dakar NOLA is a Senegalese tasting-menu restaurant in New Orleans’ Uptown neighborhood, led by Chef Serigne Mbaye. The restaurant offers a seasonal seven-course pescatarian menu that blends West African culinary traditions with local Louisiana ingredients, featuring dishes like Gulf shrimp, jollof rice, and seared redfish. Recognized with the 2024 James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant, Dakar NOLA provides an intimate dining experience that celebrates the deep cultural connections between Senegal and New Orleans."

@drewmillum28

"Saw on CBS Sunday Morning. Chef from Senegal who focuses on West African cuisine. You sit at community tables. "

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"2024 James beard best new restaurant"

@mikeya

"James Beard Best New Restaurant 2024"

@virginieusa

"West African. James Beard award winner "

@aaronrsleeper

"James Beard 2024 Best new restaurant"

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"The mingling of French, Italian, African, German, Native American, and other regions’ flavors defines New Orleans food culture. With his pop-up-turned-restaurant, Dakar NOLA, Serigne Mbaye is part of this long tradition of culinary collision, establishing a new pathway between Senegambia and the Crescent City with one of the city’s finest tasting menus. Consider his soupa konja, a deeply savory Senegalese soup made with okra, rice, and seafood, reminiscent of a gumbo. Mbaye notes that the akara, crispy black-eyed pea fritters he makes with shrimp, are often eaten stuffed inside baguettes in Senegal, which made po’ boys feel familiar to him, while the jollof is red and fragrant like jambalaya. Pass the bright green rof for a cool offset to the spicy red snapper yassa, or double down with a tiny spoonful of Dakar’s red pepper sauce and see which of your tablemates can handle the biggest taste. Because getting to know your fellow diners is essential to Mbaye’s cuisine. Every element of the experience at Dakar NOLA fosters community. With only two nightly seatings, each table moves through the same meal at the same pace. Servers provide tableside handwashing, preparing guests to use their hands to eat and to pass dishes to their neighbors. Mbaye acts as emcee, making unpretentious course introductions that facilitate conversation at the tables as diners recognize ingredients or similarities to New Orleans staples. His vision of fine dining is cooperative, the forging of a shared experience that enhances his food and the diner’s memory of it long after the meal ends."

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"Infatuation special occasion"

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"The chef Serigne Mbaye created Dakar NOLA to help diners understand the crucial role that enslaved laborers played in creating New Orleans cuisine, and connect that history to the city today. Together with his business partner, Afua Richardson, Mr. Mbaye achieves this goal by serving a tasting menu that underscores the debt New Orleans cuisine owes West African and Caribbean antecedents. The chef explains what slavery has to do with this during the meal. He also revels in local ingredients, especially seafood, in dishes that blend the flavors of Senegal, where he was raised, with techniques honed in upscale American restaurants. After courses of soupou kanja (an okra-crab soup similar to gumbo) and jollof rice (reminiscent of jambalaya), it’s difficult to tell where the West African influences end and the New Orleans influences begin."

@eluckey4

"Senegalese tasting menu Wednesday-Saturday :("

@anaflooks