After running his Senegalese cuisine-inspired Dakar NOLA concept as a pop-up at various locations, including a residency at the Southern Food & Beverage Museum, chef Serigne Mbaye is opening it as a tasting menu restaurant in Uptown.
Mbaye and business partner Effie Richardson will open Dakar NOLA at 3814 Magazine St., which formerly was home to Pho Cam Ly. It is scheduled to open next week.
The 30-seat restaurant will offer one seating per night Wednesday through Saturday. There are private tables and a communal table for 10. Dinners begin at 7 p.m.
Mbaye was born in New York but spent some of his childhood in Senegal, and he later returned to explore its cuisine. He has worked at Michelin star restaurants including Atelier Crenn in San Francisco and L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon in New York. In New Orleans, he worked at Commander's Palace and started to see links between New Orleans cooking and Senegalese cuisine. More recently, he stepped in to run Mosquito Supper Club while Melissa Martin was finishing a cookbook. Mbaye was nominated this year for a national Best Emerging Chef award from the James Beard Foundation.
Chef Serigne Mbaye has traveled the world pursing culinary knowledge: exploring Senegal and cooking at kitchens from Commander’s Palace to the…
At the new space, he'll focus on Senegalese dishes. The initial menu features seven courses, with appetizers of Gulf shrimp with tamarind and a traditional Senegalese dish of black-eyed peas, crabmeat and palm oil. A fonio salad course features West African millet, finger limes, tomatoes and satsuma vinaigrette. He offers a version of jollof, the staple rice dish. His take on spicy Senegalese yassa is redfish with butternut squash and mustard greens. The final sweet course is sweetened millet couscous with ataya ice cream and mint. The tasting menu is $150 per person.
Dakar NOLA does not yet have a liquor license, and diners can bring their own alcohol.
Reservations are available via dakarnola.com.