As a downtown Lexington resident, I drove past the construction site that is now Coba Cocina on Richmond Road. Â Our friends and family enjoyed speculating as to whether they were building a persian nightclub or a mosque with the golden dome and over-the-top architecture. Â
You can imagine our surprise when they plopped a mediocre (at best) Mexican restaurant inside of an off-the-strip Las Vegas nightclub.
We arrived to no wait on a Monday night (looks like the excitement has worn off) and were instantly greeted by four very helpful hostesses. Immediately we were sat by the jellyfish tank (which is less impressive if your back is to it) which is just as cool as you think it is. Â Definitely a unique centerpiece.
The service was attentive but not exceptional and the service from the bar and kitchen was prompt. Â However, with such a burgeoning craft beer scene in Lexington, you would think that Coba would have more than Bud Light and Dos Equis on tap. Â I also don't understand why they bring you an 8 oz. glass for a 12 oz. beer but it's not really that big of a deal.
The "house" salsa is decent enough with a nice touch of garlic but the bean dip is better. Â Both would be better if Coba served chips that weren't passed under a heat lamp after coming out of the bag.
I ordered the Maximilian. Â Four enchiladas, beans, rice, and a cheese sauce; the standard mexican fare. Â The food arrived hot but that's the best compliment I can give it. Â The tortillas were chewy to the point where they almost tasted stale. Â The cheese sauce had absolutely zero flavor while the beans and rice were resoundingly unremarkable. Â Overall the entree arrived lukewarm which is simply unacceptable when the restaurant is slow. Â I think they may have attempted to make up for it by coating the meal in salt.
BOTTOM LINE: The decor is tacky at best and most certainly doesn't make up for the lack of flavor in the food. Â Not only is it not worth a two hour wait, it's not worth any wait at all. Â The prices are reasonable but there are a half dozen Mexican restaurants in town that serve better food for roughly the same price. Â My suggestion? Â Walk in, claim you're going to have a drink at the bar, look at the jellyfish, and head on down the road.
We tried Coba Cocina last week on a week night and experienced no wait.
PROS: Â Coba is unique in Lexington for its dynamic architecture. Â It reminds me of some of the restaurants in Las Vegas. Â So I'd give it 5 stars for its decor.
We also liked the food as solid Tex-Mex. Â I had Maximilian's Combination or something like that with 4 enchiladas and enjoyed them.
CONS: Â They serve two free dips: Â a fairly good puree of black beans and a truly yuk tomato salsa. Â Their salsa has to be the worst salsa I've ever tasted and seemed to consist of a bowl with some canned diced tomatoes mixed with garlic salt. Â Awful!
The restaurant, however, perhaps doesn't want to offer good salsa since they want you to buy from their list of additional salsas? Â We ordered two and they were decent if not spectacular. Â Many Mexican restaurants in town serve their free house salsas and far exceed the quality of Coba's salsas that we tasted.
The restaurant is laid out in a circular pattern and thus challenging for the staff to see customers. Â When we entered we were pounced upon by 3 servers and it was a bit overwhelming. Â But then, having delivered our food, our server disappeared and we finally had to flag down another server for refills on our drinks.
Apparently you have to give up and leave your table to go to the bakery to order dessert. Â I don't think you can eat at your table. Â The gelato looked good, but the other desserts looked like cheap, undercooked desserts like you might buy in bulk at a Walmart bakery section. Â We planned on buying a baked good, but they all looked so unappetizing we left. Â Plus, the bakery is something of a madhouse full of people looking or eating there instead of at their seats.
OVERALL: Â We will likely go back for the Tex-Mex if there is no wait. Â Hopefully the house salsa and baked goods will radically improve. Â If not for the impressive decor, I honestly don't think Coba would survive in competition with other local Mexican restaurants.
After reading some of the reviews our party was prepared for subpar service and a lengthy wait for our food. Didn't happen. The longest wait was to be seated and even that wait wasn't overly excessive compared to anywhere else at dinnertime. Our server was on top of things, kept our drinks filled, checked on us often enough, brought the food out in a timely manner, and was very personable. Wish I could remember his name to give proper kudos. Coba itself is an interesting environment. We sat right next to the massive jellyfish tank which is likely something to see when the sun sets and the tank is lit up. Coba is unlike any other place in Lexington, which I expect is a lot of the appeal. You just have to see it for yourself to understand. As for the food...they have great chips and salsa but my fish tacos were bland tasting. I tossed some salsa on them which saved the meal. We went into their dessert shop afterwards and I have to say the most memorable part of my visit was the strawberry basil gelato. I'm willing to give them another chance in the food department and try something else on the menu. If nothing else I will go back for the gelato.
Review Source:Great atmosphere, bad service, ok food. My husband and I got there at around 10:15 pm on a Saturday night and there was still a 20 min wait. Your phone number was put on wait list and we were texted when our table was ready-so that was cool. We sat at the bar and were greeted by friendly bar tenders. My husband ordered a classic mojito and he said it was great. I had the house margarita and it tasted a bit watered down. We were seated  next to the largest jellyfish tank in the US and it was very pretty to look at. The chips, salsa, and bean dip was brought to our table and that was all good. We ordered some guacamole and it was excellent! It tasted very fresh. Our entrees were just so-so. My husband got the Baja grilled fish tacos and I got Maximillian's enchiladas. It was all good, but it was food I would definitely not wait long for. Our server seemed in a big hurry. We would have to call after her the few times she dropped by to check on us. My husband sat without water for over half the meal.  All in all, we were glad we went. It's a great place to go for a fun night out with friends, or out of town family, or even possibly business clients. There wasn't really anything, besides the atmosphere, that I just had to go back for.
Review Source:Because this is a new establishment and it has received so much attention in the press I have given it three visits before I made up my mind. Â The food is solid. Â Nothing amazing but not terrible. Â The prices are reasonable and the service is good enough. Â
On our first trip we started in the Tapas bar because there was a long wait -- two hours. Â The one thing i did like is that they text you when you table is ready so you could leave and run errands or shop close by. Â However, parking is an issue. Â I am not sure why they would choose to place this elaborate establishment in a strip mall area but the access is not very good.
Drink are adequate, nothing that made me want to splurge on another.  We tried the, Margarita (authentic) and a frozen drink  that was a Margarita mixed with Chambord.
For dinner someone had the Carne Asada (ribeye) and for 16 dollars it was a very good steak. Â Seasoned well and cooked to order. Â However they do not carry any type of steak sauce. All of the entrees were decent and for the price well enjoyed.
The salsa and black bean dips they bring to the table are good but very small and when you have more than two people it does not go far.  The guacamole is made fresh and is a good appetizer choice.  We tried the Mexican shrimp cocktail and we were very disappointed,  It consisted of a salsa mixture with  tiny tiny shrimp that had a rubbery feel.
In three trip we were never offered a dessert menu so I assume you have to go into the bakery to get something sweet. Â On two occasions we tool something home and on the third we sat at an outside table. Â It would be nice to stay at the table and enjoy dessert.
The dessert selection is large but trying to get to the case and order is difficult due to the crowds. Â There is no uniform place to order. Â Like everything else the baked goods and gelato are decent but nothing that will rock your world.
If you remove the fancy building, over-hyped fish tank and elaborate decor, this place would not have the crowds that have made local news. Â If you judge by food alone it is just average. Â But with reasonable meal prices it is worth a try if you are in the area.
Still working out the kinks (April 6 2013), and everything was OK-ish. We went at a very odd Saturday afternoon time to skip the two hour waits. About 10 minutes. Table was buried in back with view of kitchen prep. Barely a glimpse of the much-ballyhooed jellyfish tower.
Kind waiter. Very polite, but overwhelmed and not around much. He did tell us not to order off Lunch Menu -- it is "unavailable" during Weekend service -- meaning dinnertime prices only on weekends. (Maybe a pricing factor if you're feeding a big Family or a soccer team?) Initial salsa+BlackBean Dip and chips are micro, micro, micro servings. The usual things you might like to sample -- tacos, enchiladas, etc -- aren't available a la carte. You have to get the whole rice n beans space-wasters. The brisket tacos were our favorite -- good flavor (not quite tender enough). The "hand hacked guacamole" was fine (not really aware of any other way to make guacamole that doesn't involve hands -- are people out there whipping it up in their Cuisinarts?)
We stopped and sampled the coconut gelato on the way out -- we would get it again.
We all noticed we were dying of thirst an hour after we ate, so anyone watching their sodium intake might wanna pay attention.
It feels, as is fully disclosed, like a Concept in search of a chain/franchising type deal.
Everything was Fine -- a perfectly acceptable take on ethnic-lite fare inside the Circle.
Anyone in need of seriously authentic Mexican in Lexington knows about the taquerias on our west side. But if you're looking for a blue-lit suburban taco with a view of a jellyfish tank, this would be the place to get it.
The mind boggles at what a waste of resources has gone into this place. Someone spent a couple million bucks on this building and they're not going to make that back.
I was there with my wife, two kids, and in-laws, six total. We were seated right away because we went at 4:20 p.m.! (By the time we were leaving at 5:30 there was a 1.5 hour wait to be seated, yet there was a line of people out the door and a security guard outside trying to keep the traffic flowing.) We were given a banquette, but it was long and shallow so that we were all facing the opposing banquette, "Last Supper" style. Unless you were sitting in the middle two seats you couldn't talk to or be heard by anyone else you were with. It was weird. Â
The waiter was bad. He was slow, never engaged us, didn't make any recommendations, didn't appear to care about us at all.
The food was fine. I had the brisket tacos--asked for them in corn tortillas, but got them in flour--and they were just fine. The others' food at the table was okay as well. Nothing at all to wow, nothing to really complain about.
Overall you just sit there thinking, what will this building be after this place goes under in six months? Yes, there's a line out the door now, but those people aren't going to like it any better than I did, possibly worse since they have to wait so long to be seated. My guess is it'll either be a Jumping Monkeys or a Kar Smart.
with the understanding it had only been open a few days, here are my comments. Â
we went there on a saturday afternoon at 2:00. Â had about a 25 minute wait. Â when walking through the restaurant, there seemed to be several tables that were empty. Â hostess staff seemed inefficient at quickly seating waiting diners. Â initial seating assignment can only be described as weird. Â our group of 6 would have had to sit on same side of table. Â it was an odd split table with seating around the outside. Â we asked for a different table. Â after seating, service was confusing. Â there were more than 1 server. Â they had a main server and assistant servers. Â assistant's couldn't bring us additional salsa, had to wait for our main server to return. Â servers didn't know the menu. Â when asking for childs chicken strips with fruit instead of fries, were told we couldn't substitute. Â the menu said fruit was a choice. Â they were out of some of the fresca drink choices. Â given that, the servers were pleasant. Â
as for th food.....i had chicken burritos. Â there were 2 small flour tortilla's with chicken. Â no sauce, no cheese, no lettuce. Â pretty bland. Â another ordered bacon and cheese nachos. Â didn't get the bacon. Â wife ordered sangria. Â it was advertised with assorted fruit. Â not a speck of fruit. Â margaritas seemed pretty weak, served in a water glass. Â wife ordered the lettuce wrap appetizer. Â it was good. Â size seemed out of proportion to dinner entrees, a lot of food. Â nice setting. Â not sure if it wants to be white table cloth or casual dining. Â may give another try after they have had a chance to smooth operations. Â not rememberable.
Honestly, don't let these reviews fool you. Almost none of them even talk about the food rather the set-up so please let me break this down for you. While the building itself is a complete venture for Lexington and the million-dollar jellyfish tank is pretty freaking cool, customer service and food can make or break a restaurant no matter how bright their lights glow. We had a party of 14 for my friend's birthday. We called ahead and though we understood they were not taking reservations as they just opened, we did so out of courtesy so that they could expect us as they went about seating arrangements and we were informed that there was currently no wait and that we could be seated at that moment. Five minutes later we pull up and enter the establishment only to be told that it would be a 45min to an hour wait. The hostesses were downright rude and had an attitude when we explained we had just spoke to a host who said we could be seated immediately. The host stand clearly has horrible communication because as the three ladies who we initially encountered upon arrival insisted with attitude that we would have to wait a while, another one appeared from around the corner about 3 minutes into our conversation to inform us that our table was ready. The salsa and bean dishes are rediculously small. We had the server bring more until each of us had our own because it was THAT necessary. Among the fourteen of us who were there not one person thought the food to be anything other than so-so. Furthermore, not one person upon discussion of the food and the new place over dinner said they want to come back. I had the spinach enchiladas which weren't bad but after my first three bites I literally could not stop making faces as I started to realize how hard it was for me to keep eating this with a pleasant face. The latin vegatables on the side were poop. As in, after one bite, eating more was not an option. The avocado salad was bland except for the two pieces of avocado on top. No dressing didn't make much sense but I suppose... I did however have the roasted corn on the cob as an extra side which was the only thing I wanted to eat since the other stuff was so MEH or downright horrid. There was NO dessert. We were told that if we wanted dessert we should go next door to COCAH or whatever it's called to try their gelato. This I found as a complete nuisance not to mention large inconvenience. Ugh I don't even want to talk about this place anymore. The building is awesome but still is not enough to bring me back to this place EVER again. Good luck..
Review Source:Yes I was brave enough to try this place on its 1st real night open to the public! I did not try it before but just on the 1st pubic day open. We waited a very long time up in the top bar for a seat to eat. But no worries as I knew the wait would be long. Had great service from one of the bar lady's and I would say the other was great but I would not say fit to be the bar tender. The beer of my choice came with a chilled glass, love that touch anywhere. Â I had a few as we waited and had good time waiting and taking in the place. The Jelly fish are fun to get lost with. I picked up on right way if you say a certain word, the service will respond with "My pleasure" and that's such a great touch for any business. Once they had a spot for us they had a tv you could watch to see if your up or they send you a text. Once seated service was very friendly but could also tell she was a little overwhelmed. Â Once the app ( Shrimp Cocktail) came it was great!! Will have another day. Then my main dish I had the Cuban. Was very good for the price. At the end of the night I would say this place brings a atmosphere unlike any places around, and a value on food that can welcome many price points in. Â Pics coming!
Review Source:Are you kidding me? What is this thing doing here? It looks nearly impossible at times. But it opened for reals yesterday. Some of the guys went for lunch, and I guess I couldn't wait to check it out. Two of us went for a drink in the "Cobar" area of the space ship slash human aquarium with the jelly fish tank, jelly fish shaped bubble tanks, and chihuly looking fixtures. This is how one might expect to feel at an underwater nightspot, except with richmond road, and not a tropical reef, outside the (rather impressively and large) window. This place is clearly meant for the sexy person in us, and maybe the food will even be good.
Review Source:We tried Coba Cocina at lunch on day two. The service was excellent and the staff  extremely friendly. I appreciate the day one visitor's review, but the first day for a new restaurant is not a good time to judge the food or staff. Even day two is too early, but I was amazed at how smooth our lunch service was and how good the meal was.
Coba Cocina is very different. The atmosphere is more like a fine restaurant in a luxury resort than a traditional Mexican Cantina, yet the prices are very reasonable (average $8 lunch to $12 dinner). Many dinners were around $10, with a fine Filet Mignon topping the list at $24. You are tempted to add to your bill with delicious appetizers (that feed up to 4 - check out the Sweet Corn Cakes) and ala carte sides (a small bit of salsa/black beans comes with the meal, a larger portion is extra), but even the extras are reasonable from $3 to $6. As I was eating I kept thinking that we can't be getting this level of food, ambience, and service for the price, but when the check came - we had.
As for the food, it is the best Mexican I have found in the Bluegrass. A plate of four enchiladas (without sides) wrapped in corn tortillas (the spinach mushroom was excellent) came with four different sauces. Everything was very good to excellent, but the more unusual dinner entrees are where Coba stands out. Agave Glazed Salmon ($16), Brisket Tacos with poblano peppers and sautéed onions ($12), and the Agave-BBQ glazed ribs. In such an extraordinary setting a few of the items seemed a bit ordinary, like the chicken quesadilla - which could have benefitted from a more flavorful cheese. Maybe the chef is being a bit too conservative in an area that is used to TexMex flavors. However the overall quality and taste of the food made us want to return for dinner.
Another unexpected twist was a bakery / sweet shop accessible from both the restaurant and the side of the building. A display case filled with fresh Gelato in six flavors, cakes, Tiramisu, bread pudding, brownies, etcl.
Coba Cocina is a place you need to experience to appreciate, highly recommended.
Visiting on opening night - before a restaurant is able to work out issues - is always a gamble. And they have several issues to work on.
Decor is visually interesting, staff was attentive when not overwhelmed. We were quoted 45 minute wait; actual was 90 minutes. Water served immediately, with chips and salsa soon afterwards. Server was prompt taking order. We ordered queso, which arrived after we ate the chips. Since entree was so late getting to us, we started to eat the queso with spoon. No chips offered.
Manager visited and apologized for service being slow; we understood. We told him about the queso being served after chips were eaten, and he assured us he would take care of it. He didn't.
Food arrived 1 hour and 15 minutes after we ordered it. The food was just ok. Nothing spectacular. The carne asada was overcooked on a grill that was too hot. My chicken dish was fair, but the serrano-limon sauce was outstanding. They do spicy sauces well here.
After 3 hours I got my check and was able to leave. I almost didn't go to the dessert case, but I'm glad I did. The gelato was outstanding. Service at the bar was also great.
Again, this was opening night, and I anticipated problems. Just not this many.
Food prices are quite low. Average dish between $9-15. Good prices on desserts.
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