November 8: BOKA Restaurant + Bar [CLOSED]

[Closed July 2017]

Red or blue, red or blue? I'm pondering this question on election day, and about to decide to have lunch at Purple, when a co-worker stops by my desk. "I'm going to BOKA. Want to come along? They're a little expensive, but they've got great truffle fries." You don't have to ask me twice.

It's a brief eight block walk, and we're seated immediately in the upscale place in Hotel 1000. They asked if we had reservations, but just so they could clear it out of their system if we did. CNN's on the TV behind the bar -- only an hour until election night! (At 4 PM EST? Right...) We're served water quickly, and I ask for an iced tea.

The waiter takes our orders: I'll have the BOKA burger, medium well, and truffle fries. My co-worker gets the fish and chips (also truffled). The food arrives quickly.

The server brings the plates, but he's not sure who gets what. "Which one's truffled?" The waiter's quickly behind him. "They both are." We dig in.

My co-worker says the fish is pretty good, but there's only three small pieces of it. His fries are lightly truffled, and he says they're also good.

I hesitate to toss ketchup onto my burger, but decide that a little bit shouldn't overpower it, and add a knifeful. My first bite is hot enough that I need to wash it down with a gulp of iced tea. I think I might have burned my tongue a little bit. It's more on the "well" side of medium well, but that's fine. But with the glistening white cheddar on top, I definitely did not expect it to be so dry. Another bite, another swig of iced tea. Repeat. I don't know if it was a lean cut of beef, or whether they flipped it too often, or if they pressed the fats out (this is my best guess), but when I popped the last bite in my mouth, my co-worker asked me a question, and it literally took me 15 seconds to chew, swallow, and swig to be able to speak.

Flavor-wise, it was unremarkable. Maybe it was my burned tongue, but the ketchup was mild, the cheese was invisible (intastable?) and the beef was, well, just not that beefy.

"Hey look, your fries are different than mine," I point out to my co-worker. His are thicker-cut skin-on fries. Mine are peeled shoestring. He asks me, "Have you ever had truffle fries before? Do you like them?" I have, at a restaurant in Vegas a few years ago. These fries, I tell him, are very, very, very lightly truffled, where I can barely taste it. I note the lack of oil on my the fries' liner, especially in comparison to his. I still scarf them down.

Later, on our way back to the office, I pull out my receipt. There's no $2 upcharge for the truffled fries. I was fooled -- there was no truffle oil on my fries. Doh! I point out that because he got them and I didn't, there was a mixup: a truffle shuffle.

*groan*

Thanks. I'll be out all week. Don't forget to tip your waitstaff. Back next Tuesday.

Boka
1000 First Ave. S.
Boka burger, fries, iced tea, $29.71