Eating Melbourne

Yeah, yeah, so I’m probably the last blogger in Melbourne to finally review Coda. It only opened a couple of months ago but is already So Hot Right Now that it’s next to impossible to get into.

I booked dinner for 3 on a Sunday evening, about three weeks prior. The day before, they called to confirm my “booking for two people”. Uhhh, no – three please! They ummed and ahhed as to whether or not they could now fit us in, but eventually agreed to change the booking to three.

The three of us rocked up on Sunday night. Can you guess what happened? Yup – booking wasn’t changed, and now they had nowhere for us to sit. They asked us to wait for 10-15 minutes, but there was nowhere to wait apart from standing up in the foyer. The sommelier asked us if we wanted to order drinks while we waited, which we did, but only discovered at the end of the night that these drinks were marked as 100% discount on the bill. Nice gesture, but they would have got more mileage out of it and cheered us up more by telling us at the time!

Anyway, finally we got to sit down and take a look at the menu. As you’ve no doubt heard already, the menu is a combination of Asian and European inspired sharing-style “tapas” dishes. I’d already read a lot about the comparative weakness of the Euro dishes so we decided to stick to the Asian ones.

When we came to order, two of the dishes (including the signature Coda roll) were sold out. Gaahhh! The waiter then suggested that perhaps he could put together a menu for us, and I’m always happy to roll the dice when it comes to tapas style meals, so we agreed.

First up was the famously misspelled “beetle” (ha!) leaf, with crab, galangal, roasted chilli and lime. Few too many fried onions on the top but otherwise tasty and zippy.

Next was the very pretty citrus-cured kingfish with fresh wasabi and pickled radish. What a great combo of flavours, with the tart-sweet citrus and spicy wasabi! And it didn’t overpower the fish either.

Next, the nifty sugarcane prawns – minced prawn wrapped like a Dagwood dog around a stick of sugar cane and rolled in crispy noodles, with a dipping sauce of hot mint and chilli. I loved the flavours, and the presentation was innovative, but I found the texture a bit odd – there was none of the prawn’s original texture left in the mince, it was more like a squidgy prawn paste.

Next we had the Hanoi style crispy rice paper roll with lettuce and nuoc cham dipping sauce. Meh… this was ok but pretty much like every other rice paper roll you’ve ever had, only fried.

Then there was the roasted Coffin Bay scallop with pearl tapioca and salmon caviar. I don’t remember eating this (my visit was nearly 3 weeks ago now) – I would have forgotten it altogether if it wasn’t for the photo evidence. So that’s probably a good summation of the dish.

Next, the “quail lettuce delight” – i.e. a quail san choi bow. Very tasty. Flower Drum does a better version of this, but the Flower Drum version ain’t $5 each.

Our last small dish was the seven spiced cuttlefish. This was my least favourite dish of the night, and the only thing I didn’t finish my share of. I found it too salty and I didn’t love the cuttlefish texture either – little bit too thick and a tiny bit rubbery.

The next thing to arrive on the table was the pork belly. Ohhhhhh, the pork belly. Hell this was good, and I don’t usually like pork belly. The crispy crackling! The soft tender meat! The gelatinous caramelised goodness!

The pork belly is not on the menu. I asked our waiter about it and he said they order in whole suckling pigs for the pig terrine, but they save the belly and cook it up when they’re done making the terrine. So, if you go, ask nicely for pork belly – I thought it was best dish of the night.

Finally, we had the yellow duck curry with lotus root. If we hadn’t just had orgasmic pork belly, I probably would have been more excited about this – it was really good but just couldn’t stack up to the pig.

The service, after the initial booking stuff-up, was good. Casual, and not always super efficient, but certainly enthusiastic – all the staff seem genuinely excited by the food and keen to make sure you have a good evening. Travis the sommelier was very helpful with wine choices to match the food – no simple task given the powerful flavour combinations in the Asian dishes.

Coda seems like it ought to be a cheap night out, with many of the small dishes under $10; however one does find oneself carried away, and before you know it you’ve had ten different dishes and three bottles of wine, and spent well over $100 a head. (Restraint: not my middle name.)  The three of us all had a great time though, and I’d definitely return.