Most Creative Tapas Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur – Coquo Restaurant & Wine Bar

From the former Spanish tapas restaurant and bar at The Intermark, Ohla, chef Toni Valero’s latest adventure brought him to Solaris Dutamas with Coquo Restaurant and Wine Bar. Coquo means “I cook” in Latin, and in this restaurant, chef Toni Valero and his team are the ones that cook relentlessly in order to serve some best tapas in town currently.

Since Cuquo is so near our home, we just walked over one evening in hope for something different for dinner, and we got just what we were hoping for.

Cuquo carries our favourite cider, Aspall, so we ordered plenty of those throughout the night. The menu was simple with only 2 pages, categorised under “To Bite”, “To Share” and “To Finish”. Appetisers start at RM22++, and the most expensive main, Prime Rib is capped at RM88++, and every else in between RM30-RM40++.

We started with some olives (RM22++) from the “To Bite” menu, and moved on to the most interesting dish of the night, Prawn Carpaccio (RM38++). This tapas is served with laksa/Sarawakian caviar and crunchy prawn crackers, to go with the thinly sliced prawn carpaccio drizzled with spicy oil. Cuquo intended the dish to be a “deconstructed Sarawak laksa”, where we had to break the prawn crackers, add some of the carpaccio and some caviar to top it up. Every mouthful was just simply a delight, and I loved every mouthful of it.

Next, Octopus (RM36++) was served up covered in wood smoke. It was such a fun dish to watch the Octopus unveiled right in front of us (just check out the video below).

We also ordered Mackerel (RM35++) and Salted Cod Fish (RM36++) as we both love fish. The deboned Mackerel was great with the tomato puree, while the Salted Cod Fish was firm and went well with the vichyssoise (a thick white soup made of boiled and pureed leeks, onions, potatoes, cream and chicken stock).

Last of our “To Share” dish was Cuquo’s signature 150 gram Prime Rib (RM88++), served with Malaysian Rendang paste. I loved this combination of flavour! The meat was lightly caramelised over the edges and raw in the middle, paired perfectly with the intense Rendang paste.

For our sweet ending, we had the Curry Leaf Ice Cream and Lemongrass and Pandan Pannacotta (both RM22++ each). The Curry Leaf Ice Cream was a bit strange to my taste with the strawberries in Szechuan pepper and jasmine green tea gelatin, as I’m a plain vanilla kinda girl.However, the Lemongrass and Pandan Pannacotta was definitely my type of dessert, with the smooth and silky texture mixed with macadamia nuts sprinkled on top.

Overall, it was a lovely dinner, although we spent way too much on the Aspall Cider. The final bill came out to RM512 (≈US$119), of which over 1/3 went to the drinks. I love Cuquo’s creative takes on fusion tapas, mixing Spanish and Malaysian elements in their dishes. I’d some of the best dishes in a long while here at Cuquo, and will definitely return for more.

Coquo Restaurant & Wine Bar Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/CoquoKL/
Address: D1-G4-6, Solaris Dutamas (Publika), Mont Kiara 
50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: +60362112822

Check out my other posts on Kuala Lumpur here.
Check my other posts on Malaysian Food here.
Check my other posts on Malaysia here.

Do follow my adventures on Facebook here and Instagram here.