Coda

Basement 141 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. (03) 9650 3155
Score: 27/40
The first time I heard about Coda, was actually by being told about it by a chef at another restaurant.

I was sitting at the bar at Cumulus Inc, which fronts onto the kitchen. I was sitting there with a workmate for a post-work drink and autopsy of our days, and we ended up nattering away about food, when a young, female sous chef leaned over and whispered ‘the best place in town, apart from here of course, is Coda’.

From then on, it seemed like every man and his dog had been to Coda. But not me. I had been looking for an excuse to venture there for a while, knowing it’s a reasonably pricey venue, and when I asked a girlfriend out for a pre-wedding dinner, it seemed like the perfect time to pop in.

So three of us chicks ventured over one evening. The staff were suitably up their own arses for us to be assured that this is the Melbourne dining experience of the month. They pretty much ignored us and then as they walked us to our table they were sure to kiss, shake hands with or at the very least warmly greet all the regulars, or friends they recognised.

The menu at Coda is a sort of semi-tapas experience. There are a number of smaller tapas-style dishes for starters, often by the piece, and then larger main-style dishes, but few of them.

We started with the blackened quail, daikon and shiso salad ($7 each). The quail was crispy and dark on the outside, but juicy and plump inside. The sugarcane prawn with sweet chilli sauce ($6 each) were a very unexpected surprise. They arrived, balls of prawn with the sugarcane sticking out in the middle, but covered in little rice-puff-noodley-type things. They were crunchy and juicy and delicious. But I was disappointed that my companions didn’t munch on the sugar cane and spit out the husk like I did – well, that is until I realised that meant I could have theirs too.

The next dish was probably my favourite; The Coda roll. Described as a ‘crisp parcel’ (read: spring roll) of bone marrow, ginger, shitake mushroom and rice paddy herb ($10.8 each). The spring roll was fresh and hot and crispy and delicious. The flavour of the marrow was perfectly complemented by the other ingredients – possibly magnified. The rice paddy herb was a marriage made in heaven, and really interesting, with an almost aniseed-type flavour. A friend who couldn’t stomach the idea of marrow instead had a Hà Nôi style crispy rice paper roll, with nuoc mam dipping sauce ($6.8 each) which she reported to be lovely.

The next dish was betel leaf filled with spanner crab, galangal, roasted chilli and lime ($5.8 each). I love betel leaf and this dish was the perfect complement to its flavour but also did justice to the spanner crab, which doesn’t have a massively strong flavour and is easily overpowered.

For our mains we chose roasted yellow duck curry ($36) and sizzling prawns with king brown mushrooms ($34). Both here horrifically disappointing after the stunning array of tasty starters. The duck curry was so salty I would say it was almost inedible. All I could taste was salt, salt and more salt. The sizzling prawns were reminiscent of a bad suburban takeaway, with their sweet cloying flavour and for the price, we were really disappointed with the number of prawns – I don’t even think we managed two per person on a table of three.

To finish off, we couldn’t go past a good, old-fashioned Bombe Alaska. It was absolutely beautiful and ridiculously tasty. The waitress that served us kindly informed us that she was ‘really scared’ as she lit the dish alight, because she had only done it once before, but she did a great job and it looked really gorgeous – even with the threat of serious burns, we polished it off quick smart.

The waiting staff were very attentive once we were seated and seemed almost desperate to help us with our wine selection. We had a half bottle of Cuilleron ‘la lolieres’ St Peray Marsanne ’07, from the Northern Rhone in France ($58). I then had a glass of the Whittmann Estate Riesling ’07 Rheinhassen, Germany ($15). There was a good wine list, with a good selection. But we did notice that the staff were tending to push us towards the upper end of the price range, despite us saying that we weren’t really wine buffs and were looking for something more moderately priced.

Overall Coda is a great dining experience, but only if you stick to the smaller dishes. There needs to be some serious work on the disappointing main courses. And while I know it was our first time, it would be nice to be treated with as much care as friends and family of the staff that walk in the door.

Website: www.codarestaurant.com.au

Atmosphere: 7/10
Service: 6/10
Value for money: 7/10
Food: 7/10