Coquo Restaurant & Wine Bar @ Solaris Dutamas KL
Meet the co-founders Tricia Kandiah and Chef Toni Valero, who are very passionate in serving dishes influenced by Asian and European flavours using quality local produces and small amount of international items. They believe in supporting local farmers and traders, ensure the supply of local produce is sustainable. Most of their ingredients are sourced from Janda Baik, Pulau Ketam and Semenyih.
Coquo Restaurant
A cosy place with dim lighting and furnished with some vintage furniture and wine bar cellar at the front. As you walk to the inner part of the restaurant, there are dining tables and chairs, also an open kitchen that allows patron to sit in front and view the chef and his team in action. Also, ask some questions, the Chef Toni is willing to socialize and share with you.
Wine with me?
Coming soon on these few days, Chef Toni and his team have created a Special Menu that are very fresh, fancy and healthy for food lovers like you! All the dishes are creatively crafted without using artificial flavouring or preservatives, yet just emphasize the natural flavours of the ingredients on its own.
Coquo’s Special Menu
4-course meal
Priced at Rm 188++ per pax
Available from 6th to 9th June 2017
Mixed salad, duck ham, pickle radish, anise vinaigrette
On a bed of mixed salad, there were duck ham and pickle radish; dressed with anise vinaigrette. Looks simple?! Definitely not as there are so much to prepare. The organic radishes are cured for a day before being marinated in an infusion of extra virgin olive oil that comes with a mix of lemon, orange, rosemary, thyme, garlic, bay leaf, star anise and cinnamon. It is left for 2 weeks resulted a tangy sweet pickled that combined perfectly well with the duck ham that is cured for a month.
Roasted eggplant, smoke dry fish, garlic baby spinach leaf, sambal oil
Using the juicy local eggplant and greens sourced from A Little Farm On The Hill in Janda Baik, accompanied with a homemade smoked and dry fish from Pulau Ketam. The smoky flavour was something unforgettable and it was magically touched up by the Coquo’s sambal oil. Really very unforgettable.
Sea bream, lemongrass bouillabaisse, laksa caviar
Using another beauty from Pulau Ketam, the fish was marinated and served with a classic fish stew from France using shellfish, the bouillabaisse; finally touched up with the Sarawak Laksa flavoured-caviar which imitated the original caviar. So real!
Roasted pumpkin ice cream, tropical fruit Macedonia, homemade goat milk yogurt
The no sugar added pumpkin ice cream; where the pumpkin was roasted overnight in charcoal and made into smoothest ice cream; dressed with homemade goat milk yogurt and blended very well with the fruity Macedonia that were made into mini balls with juice from tropical fruits using liquid nitrogen. Molecular dining always gives surprises and this was pretty interesting, you may taste different kind of flavours from each mini ball.
We also had the chance to sample some dishes from their a la carte menu.
Confit Mushroom (Rm 27)
Local mushrooms cooked using sous vide method, along with rosemary and thyme, and then grilled to give the crunchy texture. Added in the soft boiled egg and milk skin, that gave the extra milky-ness and creamy texture to the whole dish. Sprinkled with dry mushrooms, pine nuts and pea sprouts all these bits for extra fragrance and texture. Pour in the gravy and a stir of everything before digging in.
Prawn Carpaccio (Rm 38)
This was one of my favourite dishes. You wouldn’t expect this actually resembles Sarawak Laksa, in another way! Instead of cooking the prawns in broth, it was made into carpaccio. The broth = the caviar, which was made through the spherification process, with the oil reserved to season the carpaccio. Put the carpaccio and caviar laksa on the rice crackers that has seasoned with prawn powder, you will be able to experience the whole Sarawak laksa on your palate. That’s very exotic! A whole new experience to me.
Curry Leaf Ice Cream (Rm 22)
Curry leaf is often used as spices but never will be a main flavour in a dish. But Chef Toni magically transformed the humble curry leaf into a main character in one dish!!! Fascinating flavours! The curry leaf was added with cream, milk and eggs, side with strawberry and Szechuan pepper. The whole combo was surprising, unexpectedly kicking and refreshing at the same time.
Photo by Christine
Coquo Restaurant and Wine Bar
D1-G4-6, Solaris Dutamas (Publika),
Mont Kiara Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: 03-6211 2822
Opening Hours: 6pm to 12am
Closed on Mondays
