Portland, Maine is a lovely city that is diverse and has a fun, quirky vibe to it. We stopped at Boda on the way home for a quick bite to eat. They pride themselves on being a “very Thai kitchen and street-vendor inspired tapas and skewer bar.” We were pleasantly surprised at how friendly and welcoming the staff was despite the fact we had to wait forty minutes for a table. The wait time was not strange given it was a Saturday and they do not take reservations, so we opted to sit at the bar instead. There is parking in a lot behind Joe’s Smokeshop, which is next door to Boda. Boda is also the sister restaurant to the Green Elephant (BMH’s review), a vegetarian restaurant, right down the street. We enjoyed the food immensely because it was full of bright fresh flavors and the skewers we had were quite good despite the price. We would return to try other things on the menu and especially the black sticky rice dessert with coconut cream, which makes us think of the sweet sticky rice with mango of our childhood.
Grilled shrimp skewers with spicy garlic lime dipping sauce $7
Beef skewers marinated in ginger, garlic, soy sauce, lime leaves, lemongrass $5
Wolfe’s Neck Farm Organic Beef Salad $13- organic beef served medium rare, mixed with red onion, cucumber, lemongrass, mint and chili lime dressing, served on fresh lettuce
Steamed assorted vegetables with Nahm-Prik $7
The nahm prik noom, or spicy eggplant relish, was amazing. I will attempt to recreate this on my own as it is a common Northern Thai dinner staple.
Hot and Sour Tilapia Soup $7- tilapia, shiitake, cherry tomato, scallion, saw cilantro, and cilantro in an herbal broth
