Restaurant Le Basilique — Ivorian / French, Yamoussoukro
Restaurant Le Basilique sits in the grounds of the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace — the structure that surpasses St Peter's in Rome as the world's largest Christian basilica. Built at a cost of $300 million of Côte d'Ivoire's national budget on Houphouët-Boigny's personal order, it dominates the Yamoussoukro skyline and creates the most theatrically outsize architectural backdrop available to any restaurant in Africa.
The kitchen produces Ivorian-French cuisine — the attiéké in its finest local form, grilled fish, and the French preparations that the basilica's European-trained staff introduced to the city. The food is secondary to the setting, which the kitchen has the intelligence to acknowledge.
The basilica itself — its gold dome visible from 30 kilometres, its interior featuring a portrait of Houphouët-Boigny among the apostles in the apse window — is available for visits before and after dinner. The restaurant provides both the meal and the orientation.
Watching the basilica's lights come on as the equatorial darkness arrives — the dome illuminated, the colonnade lit, and the empty eight-lane boulevard stretching away from it — is one of Africa's most peculiarly moving experiences.
Best Occasion: Great for Birthdays
Dinner under the world's largest basilica — the birthday setting that no other restaurant in Africa can provide.
Best Occasion: Works for Impressing Clients
The world's largest basilica as the dining backdrop communicates cultural knowledge of Côte d'Ivoire that most visitors never acquire. The food is good; the context is extraordinary.