La Boca Review / new location _ same great food

Went to La Boca, 870 Tchoup (old A Mano location) on Saturday night. There were four of us for an 8:30 rez.

The new restaurant is quite different from both La Boca's old location and from what A Mano did with the space. The lighting has been dialed down, the bar has moved from the back wall to a half-moon shaped bar in the middle of the restaurant - great move - with 2-tops, 4-tops spread about the room and some high boys along the front wall, which I thought was a nice touch to give the tables some different height.

The primary menu and wine list has stayed the same, but they were offering a tasting menu for $47 bucks which demanded full table participation in order to participate. It looked really promising so we all decided to give it a go. And we weren't disappointed. Going to try and recall everything we got, because it truly seemed like an endless parade of food coming our way. *Also forgive the spotty recollection as I had been drinking for some time and continued to do so once we arrived.* O Brah can probably fill in some gaps.

x bruschetta w/ goat cheese, caramelized onion jam and mushroom(?): great start. not too rich or filling but it satiated my fierce hungry pangs. also started off with a bottle of wine recommended by the sommelier. who was a gas by the way. charming in an aggressive, drunk, pompous kind of way. at one point he took a bite off my plate, but we'll get to that in a second.

x empanadas - - one was veggie and the other was beef. the veggie one was a little bland but the beef was packed full of flavor, I would have eaten another one had that been an option.

x housemade chorizo / good, not great. I've had better from Fresh Market. Came with 3 killer dippings sauces though (roasted red pepper one was my favorite).

x gnocchi w/ mushroom cream sauce. this was my least favorite thing I ate. It was in terrible need of seasoning and the gnocchi was underdone to me. Although our sommelier when I mentioned that promptly began telling me that that was how gnocchi is supposed to be, at which point I disagreed again and he picked up a fork and took a bite off my plate. Dumfounded, I listened to him reiterate that it tasted right to him .. and he scurried off to wait on another table. We all had a good laugh about it. But I stand by my statement that the didn't cook the flour off enough .. it was pastey and bland.

**the somm did bring us 2 really solid bottles of wine, btw. both around $50 and went great with everything**

x hearts of palm salad / this was served right before the steaks came out. It was fantastic. Nice and bright, not over-dressed. I really liked having something slightly cool with a pop of acidity
in between heavy apps and the steak + sides we had coming.

x steaks: NY strip, 2 bone-in filets and a ?? .. all cooked between med rare and med rare + (mine) and all came out wonderful.

x sides: garlic fries were unbelievable, asparagus was cooked very well .. nice char, well-seasoned and still had a good snap. mash potatoes were on point as well.

x dessert / honestly I don't recall what it was. remember it being pretty quality though.

Overall it was a fantastic meal. Doesn't quite make up for losing A Mano, but the new space is a great atmosphere and they're putting out some really really good food .. and at $47 dollars per head (minus wine) it felt like highway robbery. Will be back for sure. Hopefully they keep that tasting menu around.