Cobre

Every once in a while, one of my closest friends asks us to join her and her partner for a dinner out. They both have fabulous taste in food, so we pretty much let them choose where to dine. We were quite excited when they proposed Cobre since we generally don't eat a lot of Latin American style cuisine.

When we walked into the restaurant, we were struck by the decor: exposed brick, sleek and comfortable banquettes, a mirrored wall, and the varied, creative lighting. We arrived too late to be considered fashionable, but our dining companions and our server were very gracious. As she handed us our menus, our server was very careful to stress that they server nuevo Latin cuisine, and that it is in no way "authentic."

We apologize if we fail to identify some of the dishes we ate. When we dine with friends, for some reason we feel obligated to at least attempt to be witty and charming.

Cobre has a nice Latin-based drink menu, with lots of tequilas, a few cocktails, and a good selection of beer.

mojito (front) and sagatiba caipirinha

There was no ceviche of the day, so we opted to try the two available on the regular menu.

tuna ceviche

prawn ceviche

We especially liked the fried plantain served with the prawns.

Why choose among the taqueria when you can have all four?

duck tacos

some sort of fish tacos

lamb bondiga mole tacos

skirt steak tacos

All four were very good, and showed a wide variety of flavours and textures. At this point, we ordered a side dish, cornbread made with blue corn.

cornbread with sweet chili butter

There is not a huge wine selection, but what they had looked good, and it wasn't hard for us to pick Joie Riesling. Okay, okay, for four of us, we got a second bottle later on, a Pascual Toso Sauvignon Blanc.

Ordering every one of the tapas was not in the cards, so we selected four.

roasted sablefish

scallops

maple chipotle tamarind glazed wild boar belly

peruvian tacu tacu

There were three desserts, which we shared and enjoyed. The blueberry coconut one with blueberry ice cream is up at the top of our post.

chocolate something or other
with caramel popcorn

dulce de leche

We ended a satisfying evening in a lovely environment, with good food, good drink, good service, and especially, good company.