Coda Melbourne — Restaurant in Melbourne

Housed off Oliver Lane you’ll find Coda, another venture by Chef Adam D’Sylva, the same guy behind Tonka. Coda offers up Euro-Vietnamese dishes that are intended to be shared. The menu is wide, the drinks list is extensive (and delicious I might add). The venue itself is dimly lit, has gorgeous ceilings, and music pumping through.

The star of the show was by far the Kingfish sashimi. The flavours incorporated were sour, spicy, tangy, savoury - we couldn’t get enough of it. And the cuts of fish were a great thickness and size, making for substantial bites. The prawn betel leaves were good, slightly aromatic and made salty with the accompanying soy sauce. Oysters were sour but savoury, tasty albeit being on the smaller side. The tempura bugs were a good size, a lovely light batter, a good amount of juicy meat. However adding both the soy and the chilli salt became too salty so only a small amount is needed of each. The mozzarella was nothing special, again the pesto was on the salty side, but the carrots were beautifully sweet.

The pork cutlet was a decent portion for the two of us, the cuts were nice and thick and meat was super tender and not too fatty. The flavour of the pork itself though was underwhelming - the only prominent flavour was the charred crust. The tomatoes had soaked up most of the flavour which, when eaten with the pork in one bite, elevated it. Flavours weren’t mind-blowing, but at least they were there. The fries were good, nicely salted, we would’ve preferred if they were fried for a little longer as some were softer than others and needed a better crunch.

Dining on a Saturday night you can expect it to be busy, but we found that the service was quite slow, we noticed the tables around us being made to wait a while, prompting for some diners to raise the issue to staff. Perhaps there was a staffing issue on this night as they appeared to be under the pump. There has to be a degree of mercy given to the hospo industry at the moment.

Overall, a great fine-dining restaurant. The sashimi is what blew us out of the park, everything else was tasty and fresh but not incredible. I’m not sure how I feel about putting European and Asian food together on one menu though. Still...

Where to begin... (spoiler...I ended up in hospital) We arrive as a walk-in table of 8 on a Wednesday night, and after they set us up at two different tables, they handed us the menus, but then promptly told us that since we were such a large group that we would be put on a fixed menu (why show us a menu then???). Having worked in kitchens for 12 years, a walk-in 8 on a non-busy evening shouldn't set a kitchen back too much, but whatever. They didn't budge a bit on this despite our request for a la carte, and we were hungry, so we agreed. I told them my allergy to shellfish (shrimp, crab, lobster) was serious, and they said no problem.

They began bringing out various small bites which were fine, nothing extraordinary about the food but a nice variety. After about 30 minutes of politely waiting for something substantial, my eyes starting itching, and my throat started closing up. I rushed to the washroom and realized I was starting my anaphylactic reaction to whatever it was they served, or failed to not cross contaminate.

I told my coworkers I was off to the hospital, hit myself with a couple epipens and spent the night in an uncomfortable section of the hospital.

After I left, the waitress asked how everything was, my boss told them about my situation, and her callous response was "Well, that just leaves more for you". This really underlines their lack of understanding about the seriousness with someone's allergy. It also demonstrates a real lack of empathy when you have a responsibility to look after people you are feeding.

Of course, they didn't discount, refused to acknowledge that they did this, suggested maybe it was from a previous place (we hadn't been anywhere else that served food) and at that point everyone was so annoyed that my boss paid and everyone left.

Terrible service, disregarded customer safety, rude attitude (as others have attested to here). There are so many great restaurants in Melbourne, give...

So after posting a one star review after our recent trip to Coda (see below) I received a call from the Manager (Andy) seeking to understand what happened. I could not be happier with the level of engagement and support shown to me by him, and I wish to publicly acknowledge they got on the front foot and sought to fix the problem. So many businesses could have just ignored me and moved on but these guys chose to deal with issue head on...well done!

After supporting these guys during Covid through their takeaway and delivery service, I was most disappointed with the treatment we received when coming back into the restaurant. I had a gift voucher for Tonka (same owner), and when I rang to book a table I asked specifically if we could use the Tonka voucher in Coda and was assured that this was the case, as they were the same owners.

We happily went to Coda to celebrate my son's VCE graduation, and as usual the food was great...but the nasty taste that was left in our mouths when the waitress said they would not honour our voucher (even though we spent $100 more than the voucher value) because it was for Tonka and not Coda left me speechless!

These guys DO NOT deserve your support if they are going to treat repeat customers (or any customers) like this! I paid close to $400 for our meals, and still have $300 left on a voucher I have ZERO intention to use at Tonka given the treatment we received.

Not honouring the voucher for the reason that it was from a different restaurant (SAME OWNER!), and yet cross-promoting Tonka and Coda on their websites and in the venue seems very deceitful to...