noche: beware the monday special

A friend of mine recently hipped me to the Monday all-you-can-eat tapas specials at two of Here to Serve group’s restaurants – Shout and Noche. In general, I’m kind of wary of all-you-can-eat specials, since it’s usually a euphemism for, ‘hey come eat a sh*tload of crappy food for a trifle’. Add to that the fact that I’d just finished reading Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, in which he gives the following warning about ‘Monday specials’:

Never order fish on Mondays, especially if it is a “Special”. By Monday, the fish is already 4 days old. The chef places his fish order on Thursday… he assumes that if he has any left on Sunday he can get rid of it on Sunday and as a “Special” on Monday. So, most likely that tuna you plan to order on Monday night has been hanging out in the restaurant’s reach-in cooler, with the doors opening every few minutes during the dinner rushes, for at least 4 days.

But the lure of a belly full of food for $10 on a night I am usually just too drained to cook, was enough to convince me that I should at least give it a try.

The all-you-can-eat option at Noche doesn’t include everything on the restaurant’s menu, you have to choose from a much smaller selection of items that changes every week. On the Monday I visited, the week’s selection consisted of a lot of starchy items – obviously to get you feeling full faster – and some others that both sounded and tasted pretty average. The server brought one of each item to the table for our first ‘round’, after which we just told her which items we wanted more of. Here’s the highs and lows of the night’s offerings.

• Mixed greens with ranch dressing – nothing else to this really. Greens on plate with ranch. I don’t like ranch, so mine was just…greens on plate. Yawn.
• Gazpacho – half-serving of the classic cold, spicy tomato soup. Good, but not great.
• Montaditos – sort of like bruschetta, there were three types to choose from: BBQ pork, prosciutto and manchego, and grilled zucchini, each served on a bite-sized piece of French bread with a drizzle of balsamic. The BBQ pork was by far the best of the three. The prosciutto and cheese seemed like they’d been sitting out too long – both were dry and almost crunchy, not tender and chewy. The zucchini honestly had no taste at all.
• Garbanzo salad – simple with bright, yet unassuming flavors, but effective as a palate cleanser
• Veggie risotto – I was looking forward to this, but it tasted more like overcooked rice – sticky / gluey, not creamy / smooth like I’d expected.
• Grilled chicken with corn masa – the chicken was very tender and the sweet taste and slightly grainy texture of the masa was a nice complement
• Blackened tuna with chipotle mashed potatoes – when I saw this one on the menu, I could hear Tony Bourdain’s wise-ass voice in my head, “Feel like tempting fate, do ya?” At this point, I felt like I didn’t have much to lose, so I figured, why not? Surprisingly, this was the highlight of the meal. The potatoes were whisper-light and enhanced by the subtle, smoky heat of chipotle. The tuna – of which I’m not a big fan, even under non-questionable circumstances – was perfectly seared with a delightful blackened crust.

Throughout the evening, the service was quick and efficient, though not overly attentive. In short, Noche’s all-you-can-eat Mondays probably won’t become a staple of mine, but it’s a good one to keep in the mental Rolodex for another try.

Magic 8-ball says:

cheers,

k

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