Finally got to try out Coqueta. The service started out uneven, the food was average to good. The menu has enough interesting dishes and there were enough hits that I would go back but I don't think I'll bother with getting a reservation or be in a rush.
We had an 8:45 reservation. When we got there at 8:45 we were told our table wasn't really so we could wait in the bar. No problem but then two different servers tried to give us food menus and when we said we were waiting for our reservation one of them said that we clearly had arrived too early. Then the host came out an said that our table was lingering and was there anyway we would want to eat at the bar. If I had wanted to eat at bar I wouldn't have made a reservation for a table. I didn't mind waiting but the lack of communication and snide comments weren't appreciated.
They did comp us two non-alcoholic beverages and a couple small bites.
What was odd was that once we were seated there were at least 4 two-top free and the chef himself was presenting dishes to some industry folks. That was the only time we saw him but it's nice to see a celeb chef in his restuarants.
From there the service was pretty good with our main server being informative and helpful. We also had three other people bringing out our dishes and drinks.
The dishes we had:
Pintxos-which are tiny bar snacks that are almost always free in Spain but are $2.50
1.Qual egg Diablo with Jamon was delicious
2.boquerones,anchovies also tasty
Cold tapas
3. house-cured Chiarello Manzailla olives $3-tasty and a good portion with a nice mix
4. Olive oil-poached Delta asparagus with idiazabal cheese and a sangria holandaisse $8
This was good if rather odd with the sangria holandaisse and it was only four spears of asparagus
Montaditos ie. open faced sandwiches although these were smaller than the ones common in spain and were more like canapes
5.Smoked salmon with queso fresco with truffle honey, $8 a play on bagels and lox but the salmon was overpowered by the honey
6.sea urchin with melted lardo with a slice of jamon iberico $14 this was an interesting combo but not exceptional
Hot Tapas
7. Potato Bravas $8 a dish that is literally at every place in Barcelona, the version here is nothing like what you get in Spain, instead of a creamy inside, it's shredded like a tater tot and the sauce is too sweet
8. Grilled Razor Clams with grilled wild ramps and meyer lemon $14 one of the best dishes we had, the clams were cooked perfectly, the ramps and lemon were excellent counterpoints.
9. wod-grilled octopus with fingerling potatoes, pimenton and olive oil $12, this dish was the most similar to it's inspiration. Perfectly cooked octopus and delicous potatoes, it was a bit heavy on the pimenton and the portion was tiny even for a tapas. In Barcelona it would have been twice the portion for a tapas.
10. Grilled Iberico Secreto $22 probably the most disappointing dish. I found the pork overcooked but the tximi-txurri was ok and the watercress salad was dressed very well.
11. Arroz cremosa $22 rice with scallops and english peas. This was a very satisfying dish with lots of flavour, a good portion and nicely seared scallops.
We finished with two desserts. The dessert come in two sizes with smaller single serving treats and larger shared ones.
We got the Sangria Poprocksicles $4, which was basically a sangria granita with poprocks through out the pop. It was very fun to eat but one note in taste not surprisely.
The other dish was a strawberry and rhubarb nitrous frozen ice cream with a rich deep berry sauce. The server had to crack it open and it went everywhere but was a ton of fun to eat and the texture of the frozen treat with the deep flavours of the sauce made it a really interesting dessert.
There is a wide selection of cocktails, a highlighted section of sherry cocktails as well as spanish gin based ones and there was nice selection of non-alcoholic drinks too.
When we got there the bar area was less than half full, during dinner the chef's counter was mostly empty and there were empty table in the dining room. On open table there was almost no reservations from 6-8:30 most night which makes me think they are holding tables for walk-ins or doing some reservations by phone only.
They also tack on 3% to your bill supposedly for Healthy SF so all the employees must have awesome health care with that much money being added to every single bill.
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