Kora Restaurant

Kora is one of the latest in a deluge of new Italian restaurants in the DC area, and the second restaurant by Chef Morou and his wife, Heather. The couple’s first restaurant, Farrah Olivia, has been closed since April, which has given Morou the time to properly focus his attention on Kora.

 

The new restaurant takes the place of the now shuttered Bebo Trattoria, and is named after Morou’s youngest daughter, who smiles proudly from an oversized pop art piece on one of the walls of the restaurant. The atmosphere is modern, but the type of modern you feel from perusing the home furnishings of a west elm catalog. Modern, simple and could easily transform into a retail space with a sales clerk hawking African ebony floating shelves for $800. Wall mount screws sold separately.

I digress. A lot.

The restaurant opens up to a large hostess table, and a large pizza oven that likely burns the midnight wood churning out flat breaded deliciousness.

 

Speaking of bread, the carbtastic surfboards served here are fantastic. They’re baked to perfection, with a slighly crispy exterior, and an aromatic soft center that smells vaguely of herbs. Make sure to get a few dabs of olive oil, poured into a dish of basil, fresh ground pepper, and sea salt. Tuck in.

 

I opted for a half gnudi to start. Half gnudi? I know, you must be thinking one of two things.  Which half?

 

Not quite. (but if you’re going to make me choose, I’d prefer going gnudi, Donald Duck style) Gnudi is a pasta that could probably be best described as a light gnocchi. It also has a much softer and chewier texture, and pulls apart like a piece of bread. In fact, I’d say it’s almost like a little dumpling, and this is definitely one dish that Kora does right. It’s served on top of a small lake of parmesan cream sauce, accompanied by a good dose of caramelized onions, asparagus, and sauteed spinach to top.

 

I love this gnudi so much, I want to take it behind the middle school and get it pregnant.  Despite the pasta and the cream sauce, this dish doesn’t make you feel overly stuffed.  Well, it might to a normal person, but not to a Norm on a cheat meal.  And you know how I treat cheat meals.

BURN IT TO THE GROUND.

Next, I tried the restaurant’s Salmone.  Pan seared Norwegian Salmon on a bed of sauteed spinach and saffron orzo, a veritable raft floating between the Creamy Basil and Saffron Infused Butter oceans.  Sounds good, right?  And again, the presentation is on point.  The taste?

 

Eh.  It falls a little flat.  The salmon is perfectly cooked, as are the spinach, orzo, and sauces, but this dish doesn’t really excite me.  Saffron tends to be a mild spice, and this dish tasted like it needed something else to really make it stand out.  For me, I felt like the salmon was the culprit.  The seared sides of the fillet almost begged for some sort of salted crust, but it just didn’t have the gustatory sensation I expected from the first to my last bite.

On a quick side note, the server gave me the wrong order of Salmone (I ordered the medium rare variant).  It’s an easy enough mistake (did you say steak?) to make when there’s three orders of it at the table, but it stands out in my mind after reading numerous review of how the service is lacking at Kora (apparently the leased space has a bad service curse attached to it, Bebo was plagued with similar problems).  It’s a simple error though, and really I’m just pointing out one minor mixup.  Our server was pretty good for the rest of our meal, always keeping our drinks filled (correctly!) and always popping in to serve the food or check on us at exact the right times.   I just swapped plates with the person sitting next to me (who also ordered the Salmone) and all was right again in the world.  Birds were singing.  Clouds were clouding.  Western Michigan still sucks.

So what next?  If you happen to be a bargain hunter, your 3 course power lunch included a dessert, which on the menu, all look delicious, decadent, and likely to cause temporary blindness.  Much like a half gnudi of Bea Arthur.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Except…except I couldn’t decide.  That, and I didn’t order the power lunch special.  So I went with my gut and ordered the Tiramisu.  The tiramisu here is an espresso laced caked, layered with mascarpone cheese, and a heavy dollop of zabaglione.  Then the chef knocks over a giant shaker of cinnamon and voila!  Edible art.

 

Two thumbs up on the presentation again, and this time, the taste delivers.  Nothing about this dish is overwhelmingly sweet, and it’s the perfect cap to an Italian meal.

If you’re a normal person who’s not on a cheat meal.

So I did what I’d normally do in these sorts of situations.  I ordered two desserts.  I opted for the Bongo Bongo.  A quartet of cream puffs, filled with a rich chocolate sauce, topped with a chocolate semi freddo and surrounded by alternating cranberry and almond dipping sauce pools.  Not as good as the tiramisu, but still tastefully done.

 

While I think Kora still has a few wrinkles to iron out, and could possibly use some tweaks to their dishes, the restaurant is a great places to get a truly fantastic Italian meal.  The breads and pastas here are great, and I highly, highly recommend the gnudi. It is literally is worth the trip over to Kora for a full gnudi.  None of the dishes are uberheavy, even with butter or cream sauces, so you’ll have room for dessert.  Best of all, the prices aren’t outrageous, so if you’re willing to look over the fact that it’s not downtown in the District, you’ll be happy with what Morou has to offer. View a map of Kora here.

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