La Cabane du Surfeur: Oceanfront Dining in Dakar
Located on the beach in the popular Almadies neighborhood, La Cabane du Surfeur is a perfect choice for lunch or dinner. I visited for dinner and had a great meal.
The Food
Fish. If you’re not ordering fish at La Cabane du Surfeur, what are you doing? I ate fish for dinner almost every night when I visited Dakar. It’s so fresh and the fish grills at each restaurant are somewhat different but reliably flavorful.
Prices for fish dishes at La Cabane du Surfeur range between CFA 4500 to CFA 8000 (USD $8- $13). If you go really wild, you can get the shrimp for CFA 10,000 (USD $16) or the langoustines for CFA 22,000 (USD $37), if available.
We were first offered a bread basket with some sauces. We thought that the white-looking tin contained butter… we were wrong. It’s mayo!
I decided to get the Yassa Poisson as it looked like the house special and a common Senegalese dish. It comes as a fully grilled fish. The Yassa is a lemon, garlic, and mustard sauce. I loved it! My colleague got the Thiof (grouper) grille and it came as a filet, so definitely get this if you don’t feel like deboning a full fish.
There are several sides you can choose from with your main dish. I highly suggest ordering the Aloco. This spicy fried plantain dish is super flavorful. If you’re not into the banana-like flavors of plantain, try the attiéké, a dish made from cassava.
There are also sandwiches, pastas, grills, salads, and pizzas available.
The Vibe
La Cabane du Surfeur has a laid-back vibe that works well for lounging and staring out at the ocean. Reviews on Google state that it’s a great spot to watch surfers during the day so come for lunch instead of dinner to get that experience. Although it was dark by the time we made it for dinner, I could still get a view of the ocean with the lights nearby.
Do you need to know French to dine here? Probably not. We ordered in French because we could but pointing at the menu will work fine enough here.
We didn’t attempt to pay with a credit card. In my experience 9/10 times, the card machine at a restaurant wasn’t working. Be prepared to pay with cash.
Other Restaurants Around La Cabane du Surfeur
Want to try something else? There are a bunch of restaurants on the same street that looked really good to me, such as Restaurant Le N’Gor Pieds dans l’Eau, Noflaye Beach, Chez Fatou, and Secret Spot. Alkimia is on a parallel street, away from the ocean views, but is a super popular restaurant in the area. All these restaurants are still on my want-to-go list for Dakar! Next time…
Additionally, if you want a rooftop bar in the area (or a spot where your credit card will definitely work), you can head over to L’Adresse Hotel. This is where I stayed and they have good drinks and dinner with a little bit of a sea view.