Kokomos

We have dinner with friends at Kokomos. Old friends. School friends. Some friends become friends for life. These ones are lifelong friends.

I’m excited and as I enter Kokomos, the new bar & restaurant on the corner of Bunda and Genge Streets in Canberra City, I can’t remember what used to be here, even though I know I should.

From the crowd lined up and perched at the bar as well as long, pub style benches in the warm Thursday pre Christmas after work buzz, you’d think Kokomos was well established in the Canberra bar and restaurant scene. In fact it only opened in June of 2017.

I look around, wondering where our group is going to fit in for drinks in this crowd during the couple of hours before our dinner booking at 8pm. It’s now 6pm. I decide to try my luck with the maitre’d.

“Are you Sonia?”, she asks with a smile. “Yes” I reply, silently grateful for the number of times I have emailed and called to confirm. She does a quick check of her booking sheet “you can have the table now if you like”. I breathe a sigh of relief that I don’t have to fight the bar crowd for a table for 14! I follow her to our prepared booth, all set and ready.

It is quieter down this end too and a bit more intimate than the post work drinks that are going on outside. “I’m Jess” the waitress introduces herself. I’m certainly ready to order a drink and she makes a recommendation. We get to chatting about gin whilst I wait for Jason to return from partying the car.

My Huckleberry Sling arrives – sloe and dry gin, stirred down with blackberries, citrus and charged with bubbles – it’s just the right amount of sweet and sour. I sit back and grin. This place is perfect for our once a year catch up. Especially given that I missed last year.

The fit out over the two story bar and restaurant space has been cleverly designed. It feels every bit big city chic with just the right twist of funky to make it perfect for the occasion, whatever that might be. Pub drinks, shared after work tapas or dinner catch ups with the best of friends. Later, upstairs, I spot a date or two going on and a group of five girls giggling away in the corner.

As we sit waiting for our friends to arrive I have time to notice the clever details and attention to design that has created the space. The same care, it seems, also goes into the service as Jess makes her way around to several other tables, taking care to explain dishes, recommend drinks and make her guests feel welcome.

Kokomos describes itself as providing “ingredient focused, trans-pacific eats and creative cocktails in a lively two story setting right in the hear of Canberra CBD”. Rarely does a restaurant underpromise in what I delivers. Kokomos is really much more than this. It’s all in the details and here, they have detail down to a ‘t’.

Our friends start to arrive and before too long were are in full catch up mode. Generally this is an annual dinner but I missed last year. The two year gap is closed quickly, there are lifelong friends after all and despite a couple of house moves, job changes and adding a couple more years to the grade our children are in, not all that much has changed.

Jess comes around and suggests we begin the meal. We have selected the “feed me” menu which consists of 8 dishes served “family style” and designed to share. We have a couple of special dietary requirements in our group as well and these are catered to without compromise on taste or service.

We begin with a salmon quinoa salad and taro chips which have a perfect balance of salt and vinegar and are completely morish. Next comes smoked beef short rib (with miso glaze & charred eggplant puree), wood grilled street corn, kahuna burgers, Polynesian pulled beef toast, chargrilled broccoli. It’s all good. Very good. We talk and eat. I’m distracted by the conversation but the way the beef short rib falls apart means it’s perfectly slow cooked and the chargrilled broccoli is divine, I could eat the whole plate.

My friends ask if I like Dubai, how the boys are, if we’re planning on moving back? The short answers are ‘yes’, ‘good’, ‘no’, but I do manage to explain a bit better than that. Things are moving in the worlds of my friends too.

The conversation flows as a mix of updates – work, children, family, life. Kasia’s son moves into high school (year 6) next year. Catherine B is loving life with her hubby and three sons, Dianne & Ken are busy with three girls and Catherine D & Simon are juggling two as well.

Janell & Graham are loving life with a grown up daughter and a 2 year old boy. Clair listens on, both amused and somewhat bewildered at the tales of family life, although she’s an aunty so she still gets it (she just gets to give them back!!). Clair is busy in her role as Senior Graphic Designer for Early Childhood Australia. There are a couple from the group missing – Brigid is in Melbourne this year, a few days away from giving birth, Bronwyn is unwell and Toni couldn’t make it.

It’s still great though, despite those that are missing tonight. Over the years I always feel with this group that not much has changed. Yes, we’re all doing different things. Some of us have moved away, some have moved back, a few have left Canberra over the years only for holidays. Our families are here and evidently, our friends. I could put my school uniform back on (heaven forbid!) and turn up at school tomorrow and it would feel all that different. Would it?

The chatter continues long after the food is taken away. We order another round of drinks but inevitably, we all have to leave eventually. There are babysitters involved (loving and devoted grandparents have stepped up to mind the children for the evening) that need to be relieved and work for some of us tomorrow.

We were a relatively large group here tonight (11) and it is not always easy to find a great venue that works. We don’t want to be split on two tables so the oval table seating at Kokomos suited us perfectly. The dining here is both elegant and intimate yet they still manage to serve up quality dishes with a vibrant atmosphere.

The meal was fantastic. I loved the variety and the sharing platters were well constructed and considerate of numbers (no servings of 4 pieces to share between 11 people!).

There service, again, I must comment, was exemplary. From the initial booking to settling the cheque, Kokomos clearly has a team of dedicated floor, wait, bar and kitchen staff that work behind the scenes to deliver a friendly, fluid experience.

As I take my last sip of Teddy and the Fox gin (a Victorian – Bellarine – special) and say goodbye to my friends for perhaps another year or more, I am content in knowing that these really are life long friends.

Would I Return?

Yes. See https://kokomos.com.au