We visited Coque a little over 3 years ago and 2 years and 7 months ago they moved to a new location. It still has a similar format to the older place in that you move to different locations in the building to eat and drink various offerings. This 2 star Michelin restaurant serves everyone the same tasting menu. It is a modern, stylish set up but it does not allow you to make personal connections with staff or other diners. There are lots of bites on the menu but it is not a stuffing meal, despite that. I also found the timing to be off with some rooms lingering too long while others were sped through. They offer drink pairings for purchase and then some courses come with a beverage. We selected our own wine which you do while in the large wine room. They have a large list but not much help in selection. It would have been nice to have the list while in the bar area where we spent a good amount of time with just one bite and a cocktail. In this new location they have changed the dining room chairs I objected to in the original place, which is a huge plus in my opinion. One of the most memorable parts of the place is it’s amazing collection of plates and serving dishes.
When we arrived we were first ushered into the Bar which was a good sized downstairs room with a large screen playing a video about the restaurant at one end. Fairly loud music played in the background. There was a empty second room off to the side where we first were seated but quickly moved to some stools in front of the bar and served a Bloody Mary ice cream/sorbet in a pottery hand holding the cone. It was a little spicy with chunks in the sorbet. It was visually interesting.
Next was a Cocktail Coque Club which was a red vermouth and jam made from something like figs which was topped with a foam of gin and then topped with a bubble of nitrogen. It was more effect than cocktail but technically fun.
A snack was a sesame taco with miso and foie. The taco ‘shell’ was slightly frozen and inside was very thin sweet corn in curled shavings. It was delicate, crisp and sweet. It reminded me of the cereal “Captain Crunch” in flavor and crispness. The filling was really good and overall it was quite tasty.
Next we moved to the Celler Room. I don’t know if this was a misspelling of the translation of cellar or a play on El Celler de Can Roca. Either way it was a large roundish room filled with wood wine racks and an impressive fake tree in the middle that reached up to the cut outs in the ceiling. The wines racks were decorated with oversize bottles, series of bottle sizes and special groupings. The wine list was on an iPad but it took a bit to get one and as you were to select your wines for the evening here it would have been helpful to get it early and have the help of a sommelier so a decision could be made quickly. Perhaps they really wanted you to purchase pairings?
Here you were served a sample from a keg of Fino Tio Pepe. It was a mild white port.
The snacks came out together. A Bull Cured Meat was on a puffed wheat cracker. The cracker was very crisp and dry and the meat tasted like ham. Also there was a Macaron of paprika with creamy ‘torta.’ It was a cheese macaron with a good chew and nice cheese flavor.
A few steps down from here was the Sacristy where we were served Laurent-Perrier La Cuvée. This room had a smaller video screen and lots of bottles of sparklers. The first snack was Pan bao with oxtail and truffle. It was a good doughy bao and really tasty topping. The second snack was to look like Shumai but was really a purple potato that had a sweet glaze with a runny center, but not to the point of being liquid.
Our next room was the kitchen where we had a beer of wheat Casimiro Mahou. It was a huge kitchen filled with toque topped chefs busily preparing their dishes. Very clean and organized. The first snack was grilled Sea cucumber braised with soft prawn in pil pil. It was a nice combination of crisp and soft.
Second was Hydrolyzed Spanish omelette which was egg yolk in a potato crisp topped with truffle and sitting on a nest of pasta. It was another nice blend of textures with the yolk being liquid yet fudged.
Finally it’s time to be seated in one of the dining rooms. The good sized tables are covered with white clothes, widely spaced and each set with a little lamp. Geometric carpet, brass open work separates another dining room and opaque globe lights add to the overall brightness in the room. Music in the dining room mostly comes from the kitchen with the loudness rising and falling as the doors open and close. There were windows to the street in the room we were in but others were totally interior.
First are slices of bread made on site and olive oil. They appeared to forget to bring napkins and after I asked for one they brought warmed ones to the table. A nice touch but needs to come without having to ask.
The first snacks were Wild mushroom and game consommé, a scone with butter and caviar osetra and Smoked sheep omelette of milk and cured cheese. The broth was well flavored and light. The scone had a good amount of tasty butter with the caviar on a doughy buttery scone. It was good. The omelette was in liquid form with a very smokey flavor. The Manchego cheese made this one good.
Hake cheeks were mixed with eggs of the tobiko (flying fish roe) and red tuna belly. It was then topped with roe bottarga. The hake was velvety smooth and the roe had a good pop to contrast with the creamy sauce. Some thin crisp things added texture as did the chewy bottarga, which also added a fishy component. This was a tiny potion for the huge bowl/plate it was served in. The plate had indentations that made it hard to get the last bits of the course. An impressive plate, though.
The Winter Vegetables Garden came with dried tomato and tendon soup with celery and slices of truffle. It was all served on garden motif plates. The winter vegetables included grilled zuchinni, pinenuts, ham and onion with a mayo-like sauce that was made from marrow. It was very good. The dried tomato had pearls of wine mixed in which did not pop. It had very strong flavor of tomato and overall this one was okay. The soup was in a covered bowl and was a gelantinous broth with tofu, celery, and truffle slices. It was well flavored but little of the truffle flavor came through whereas the celery added a lot of crunch. It was good.
Pea pods of Maresme and green mole was served with hydrolyzed egg yolk of vanilla and aside consomé of Iberian ham. The pea pods were cooked with butter and grilled green olives and accented with pea crisps. They were ultra fresh tiny peas that were really flavorful. Alongside was the ham broth that was also very flavorful. The 2 were good together but also good separately so you could really appreciate the taste of each.
Pickled red mullet al amontillado was plated with Romesco peanut sauce alongside sea urchin yolk with “vicaina” and kombu air. The skin of the mullet was crisped in the oven and used to surround the meat in a tika masala like stew. With it was a garlic mayo and peanut sauce. The pickled meat was mild but a little dry. It was overall a nice item.
The sea urchin foam was mixed with butter on top of sea urchin. The sauce cut right through the funk of the urchin. It was fun and good to eat.
A peanut of romesco was served on a porcelain fish. It was mixed with mace plant and was not so great.
Salt greased duck was served with a taco of black mole and duck confit and pickled foie with mango. The Magret duck slice had been salted and sauced with honey and was nicely cooked. There was no livery flavor at all and the sauce was good.
It was served alongside an open taco with confit duck covered with black mole and topped with onions. The tortilla and filling were both really tasty.
Lastly was the pickled foie gras with fresh mango in a briny broth that totally cut through the fattiness of the foie gras. The mango’s flavor was not strong enough to make much of a statement in the piece but the other parts blended so well that it wasn’t missed. It was good. The server indicated that the pickling idea came from chef’s mother.
Lacquered suckling pig with confit pork chop and saam of creamy pork hand was the last savory course. Starting on the left of the plate was the confit pork chop that had been finished on the grill. It was nice but the dullest of the 3 offerings.
In the middle was the lacquered suckling pig which was incredibly tender and served with really crispy delicious skin. It was best when you could pair a bit of skin with the meat.
On the right of the plate was pork stew made from the feet and face meats. It had a little spiciness and was to be eaten by hand. It was nice.
Dessert was chocolate and orange sponge cake alongside financier with violet sorbet Granny Smith and Chocolates. There were 4 separate plates.
An anise cake was covered with a violet sorbet and a crispy violet slice. The cake was delicious but the violet flavor was too strong for me in the other parts.
The Granny Smith apple was a frozen and creamy mix of things inside. It was fun.
A bread was coated with a yummy chocolate ganache and crumbles.
The largest plate was inspired by the pink panther with pink cake and pink white chocolate. It was okay but I loved it’s interaction with the plate.
Last was a moving carousel of treats. Chocolate sticks were covered with crunchies. A rounded bon bon was chocolate covered apple jelly. The crescent shaped chocolate was filled with strawberry gananche. A green fruity jelly was the last stuffing on the little sculptures.
