"Based off of the decor, service, and the appetizer and dessert - NOCA gets my 5 stars!!!!\n\nHusband and I decided to treat ourselves out to a nice meal with a gift card we earned by sitting through one of those timeshare presentations. TOTALLY WORTH IT! We made a reservation here while in town to visit the parents....\n\nWe walked in and were immediately seated (it was a quiet and not too busy Tuesday evening). The service was, to put it lightly, impeccable. Our water was cold and constantly refilled. The waiters were beyond courteous, yet not overly friendly, and did a wonderful job explaining our dishes to us.\n\nIn reality, we were first disappointed when we were handed the evenings menus - they didn't match with the menu we had drooled over online the day before. Sigh. We were presented with some delicious bread and olive oil... and a little amuse-bouche: an apple puree with huckleberry sauce/reduction, and leek. It was pretty, but made me feel like I had eaten a bit of tomato. Which was interesting, to say the least. Not terrible, just interesting.\n\nOur appetizer came out - OH MY WORD. The Hamachi Crudo ($15) was exquisite. I NEVER describe food like that, but this was wonderful. It was rolled up pieces of hamachi adorned with teeny little orange rice crunchies, served with a ponzu based reduction, avocado puree, and some kind of orange spicy glaze. I practically licked the plate clean. I probably would have if it wasn't such a nice restaurant. So good. So perfect. So light and clean!\n\nFor our entrees, we ordered the Rigatoni ($19) with Berkshire pork sausage, rapini, pecorino (i think) and the Skirt Steak ($25) which was served with onions, a potato cake which was reminscent of a very large tater tot and wilted spinach. The skirt steak was PERFECTLY cooked, and had great flavor... all of the elements were tasty, but not exactly wow. The same for the Rigatoni, which was actually more of a penne pasta. There was a large amount of pork sausage, and the dish was nice and spicy, but a bit oily. Again good and tasty, but no WOW factor. Yeah, after an amazing appetizer like the hamachi, this was a little disappointing.\n\nWe decided to just splurge and ordered the Peach Shortcake ($8) for dessert. HOLY COW!!!!! I think this was better than the Hamachi. I know, I can't believe I'm saying that either!!!! You MUST get this dessert as long as it is in season! A lovely poached?/baked?/perfect peach on top of a whole-wheat cake/biscuit thing, served with -get this - MASCARPONE GELATO!, vanilla sauce, and a passionfruit glaze. PEOPLE, it does NOT get any better than this! I actually tried to lick this plate. I actually regretted telling my husband that I didn't mind sharing dessert. I wanted one for myself. It is the most perfect blend of almost sweet, fruity, warm perfect goodness that ever existed on such a funky little plate. Who knew whole wheat could taste so good? Who knew?!? I want to eat this again. And again. And again.\n\nNow run, don't walk to NOCA to get yourself a piece of this awesomeness!!!! (Remember - Hamachi Crudo and Peach Shortcake. It's all you need.) And ohmygosh, I didn't even factor in the amAAAAAAzing shortbread cookie they handed us on our way out! Seriously, just when I couldn't have hit a higher sugar-high!!!"^^ . "0"^^ . . "5"^^ . "0"^^ . "0"^^ . . "2010-08-12T00:00:00"^^ . .