Our final foray into a new dining experience with Restaurant Week.
We arrived to find noca in a strip mall. It is not a stand alone restaurant and it is a little on the small side but their food and service makes up for it.
Our "greeter" would also be our waitress. I say waitress because we had 4 different "servers"...which was fine because it kept the transitions very smooth and seamless. the meal started with an amouse bouche (sp?) of carrot puree and walnuts. it was a quick taste of the great food about to be had!
i started with the parsnip soup. it was creamy without being too rich. flavorful pecan halves were sprinkled on top to add some texture. for my entree, i had the oil poached cod. it came with seasoned couscous and some lightly grilled vegetables. my first bite came off as "good, but not overwhelming". but as i took my time and tried not to wolf the meal down (working on actually enjoying food vs functional eating all the time, the fish seemed to taste more flavorful. it was very soft but the al dente couscous added some crunch and the subtle flavor of the oil started to really soak in.
after the meal, we were treated to a heaping bowl of grape cotton candy-can't remember when i last had fresh cotton candy. then had the real desert: 2 warm and cinnamon/sugar coated mini donuts with a small vanilla milk shake "shot". absolute deliciously divine.
our water glasses were kept full and we were tended to just the right amount. don't let the strip mall locale fool you...noca's food is fantastic.