Balboa Cafe

Location:
Mission Street, Off Oxford Street, Osu, Ghana
Osu, Accra, Ghana

Restaurant

By Lorna North

An increasingly popular new addition to Osu’s restaurant scene is The Balboa Café on Mission Street.

This vegetarian restaurant is a welcomed change from the many westernized, fast food establishments that are fast becoming Oxford Street’s main feature. The Balboa Café is strikingly different to most of its surrounding competitors in both atmosphere and cuisine. Since it opened in July 2007, the restaurant’s personality and growing reputation for its laid-back approach and friendly service has created a fresh option to a somewhat limited array of choices.

The restaurant is set back from the chaos of Mission Street in a quaint enclosed terrace which has a Bohemian elegance to it with its artistic, high-backed chairs, polished wooden tables and cobbled mosaic floor. There is constant entertainment, whether it is from the reggae band that plays every Sunday or the owner’s young children dancing around to the beat.

Run by an Australian wife and her Ghanaian husband, the restaurant operates on a brilliant method of team work. You can see the respective qualities of the cross cultural partnership as the wife freshly prepares the dishes using plenty of vegetables, tofu and spices, which result in an innovative combination of Ghanaian and Western cuisine. The husband, whose name is Country Root, provides the entertainment with his band, "The Feeling Brothers," who perform their self-written reggae songs.

The restaurant is popular with volunteers and travelers stopping in Accra, since its prices are in the budget range. A main dish, such as the highly recommendable mushroom burger, costs around 4 cedis. In busy times the service is slow, as is true of most Ghanaian restaurants. But, given the quality of the food and the general lively atmosphere, this place is extremely good value for money.

Prices:
Breakfast: Very cheap
Lunch: Very cheap
Dinner: Very cheap

Regulations: Unknown

Dress Code: Casual

Reservation: Large groups only