Venturing Into The South End

It had been way too long since Jen and I had enjoyed one of our monthly dinners together. And we had something to celebrate - a new job in Charlestown!

On Jen's recommendation, and taking advantage of the fact that the South End is now pretty close to home for me, we decided to head to Coda Bar and Kitchen on Columbus Ave last Friday.

The first thing we did was toast her new job with the most delicious cocktail (again, recommended by Jen). It's called the Grapefruit Summer Press (with Absolut Ruby Red Vodka, St. Germain Wild Elderflower, Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice, Fresh Lime) and it ranks in the top five drinks I've had in the past year. 

Cheers to Jen!

We were too busy talking for me to place close attention to the bread, but if I recall correctly, it was slices of a raising bread that came with a delicious hummus spread:

I was in the mood for something light and summery, so I went with the Spring Vegatable Risotto

 (with peas, fiddlehead ferns, grilled Vidalia onions, and Parmesano Reggiano). It was nicely flavored and hit the spot without making me feel I had eaten too much afterwards:

Jen chose the Steak Frites (chargrilled balsamic marinated hanger steak served with handcut shoestring fries). Can I tell you about the fries? They were perfection. Skinny, crispy, salty, delicious! I literally abandoned all pretense of being polite and consistently stole fries from Jen's plate throughout dinner. She was kind enough to allow it without commenting on it. :)

Desserts were a little underwhleming for me. I loved all the fresh chunks of strawberry and rhubarb, but I felt that the "crisp" part of the dish was a little to deconstructed and sparse for my liking. Pluses included the generous portion size and heaping scoop of vanilla ice cream - yummy!

Trying not to let my bias against most chocolate desserts influence my opinion, I thought Jen's dessert was a little better than my strawberry rhubarb crisp, but it wasn't anything special. I forgot what it was called but it was some sort of chocolate almond cake. It had a nice clean chocolate flavor that wasn't too rich but again, I didn't think was something you would remember weeks later and crave.

All in all, I found the food to be delicious and reasonably priced, and I liked the atmosphere at Coda. Heck, I'd come back just for a meal of french fries accompanied by an unlimited number of Grapefruit Summer Presses. And the brunch menu looks pretty good!