Coquina

Well hello!
I am kicking myself for not visiting here before. Delicious, excellent service, great interior setting. I will be back again and a gain.
The house-​made potato chips and Brussel sprouts were amazing. I loathe truffle oil and was completely disappointed when I learned that there was a little tossed in when it was served to the table. However, upon the urging of my partner, I tried a bite. I tried several more bites until the bowl finished.
Next to the table was the burrata. creamy, smooth, delicious, and hard to find in Ashland.
The celery root soup was perfect. We devoured it in a minute.
The crème brûlée was delicious as well. crispy on top and the custard was still cool and creamy inside, unlike bad crème brûlée that has chunky custard and is too warm.
Thank you, for being such a delicious, accommodating, and welcoming place to be. I will be back.

This is a gem in Ashland. A community of this size is blessed to have a restaurant where the ingredients are first class and the preparation is perfect. Stunning, but not fussy. I was even surprised by the courses that I thought for sure I wouldn’t care for. Highlights: brussels sprouts, beet salad, carrot salad, «pork & beans» (pork belly & cannelinni beans), fanny bay oysters (only oysters my wife would eat), steak, & chocolate torte. The flavor pairings and textures were playful in a delicious way. Who would have thought that sea urchin ice cream would be amazing (subtle flavors)?
If you are lucky enough to be there when the vichyssoise custard is on the menu (with caviar & sea urchin &…) you have to have it. The flavor combinations match perfectly and no one flavor overwhelms. It is a great treat.
If you love good food, beautifully prepared, treat yourself to a dinner at Coquina.

In 15 years of choosing restaurants this is the first time I’ve ever left without tipping. The menu sounds wonderful but is poorly executed. The owner is argumentative and rude. I was so disappointed and a little angry.
Out of hundreds of restaurants Coquina has set a new low bar for me. The other servers seemed to be really trying but the owner sabotaged them repeatedly.

Exceptional! We were not expecting to find good food, much less great food in little Ashland, Oregon, after all I’m from Los Angeles and my travelling companion was from Atlanta, both home to some pretty good grub. We were wrong. Coquina was superb. The Alaska Halibut was cooked to perfection and that pistachio crust was heavenly. The scallops were in a league all to themselves, some of the finest we have ever eaten. The beet salad was a perfect starter and the lemon tart for dessert was terrific. The restaurant was not noisy so we could easily have a nice conversation. Devon was our waiter/​bartender and he could not have been nicer or more attentive. Yes, the place was expensive, but worth every penny. Enjoy!

Been meaning to eat here for about 3 years, but demurred due to price. I’m pretty sure Coquina has most expensive menu in Ashland. Well, I finally caved last Friday and the exquisite meal my wife and I enjoyed easily justified the price. Wife had dined here before and highly recommended the halibut. It was not easy to steer me away from the ribeye, but figured the ticker would thank me. Wow, by far the best piece of fish I have ever enjoyed unless I was adjacent to the ocean. Words don’t really do their pistachio encrusted halibut justice. Fantastic!
First courses were cheese tart (fab pastry) and fig/​brie appetizers and they exceeded expectations. 542 cocktail and voignier by the glass were great too! Service was great without being fawning.
Perfect spot for a special occasion or fat wallet!

The atmosphere, service, and prices at Coquina do not do the food any justice.
Atmosphere– We came to the restaurant on a Friday night and were one of the only few parties in the place. The art on the walls was random and didn’t add anything interesting. The music was too quiet to hear or enjoy.
Service– We had five different waiters/​bussers come to our table throughout the night but only saw our waiter a couple of times. Everyone was extremely nice but definitely to inexperienced and unprofessional for what they charge here…
Apps– The Fried Brussels Sprouts and Beet Salad were DELICIOUS and you get a lot of food for the price.
Entrée– The Scallops were very tasty and very overpriced for how small the plate is. Just be aware that there’s only three scallops and the dish is tiny so you are going to want to order apps with this one.

Seriously amazing food! Always perfectly cooked, seasoned, and prepared! Highest quality and freshest ingredients. Beautiful setting great waitstaff and extremely personable owners whom we know by name now. We’ve been coming here since they opened (relocated from Bandon where we made sure to eat whenever we were there).
Scallops are sweet and perfectly cooked, tender and delicious! Halibut very nice you won’t be disappointed. The mixed greens are awesome perfectly dressed and delicious. A definite treat and love love love the consistency and beautifully prepared food that tastes out of this world, from one foodie to another this is a must!

From start to finish, this place was amazing! The Brussels sprout appetizer was superb. My husband had the ribeye and I had the scallops. Both were perfectly prepared and presented. Staff was attentive but did not hover. Would definitely recommend! Pricey but worth it.

Food preparations were innovative and delicious. Wine list was excellent and service was timely.

They have a lot of work to do. Service was not up to their supposed quality of food. Here are a few suggestions for ownership:
1. Two things create energy; lighting and music. Lighting was excellent. Music was non-​existent. Add music and please, when you do, add the appropriate mix.
2. Team service needs a team leader. Really, I saw my waiter three times (1) order (2) first check to test for acceptance (3) after I complained. Then nada.
3. Training. I felt like the team player (food server) was the only one that cared. She was nice, young but very inexperienced in a fine dining restaurant. Reading a table isn’t something that comes easy. Clueless was more of how I can describe her.
4. Food. Well, a sold 8 for sure. But, when a one pays $ 41 for a steak it better be hot. Temp (MR) was perfect. But, it was actually somewhere between cold and warm. When the waiter check in, all he could offer was «hot sauce» or «warm up the steak». Both options were unacceptable.
It was delicious but still, he was not solving a problem and never came back to the table. Gez!
The wine selection was good. My companion enjoyed her Halibut. First rate cut and flavor profile.
I rate this restaurant a solid 3 stars. Better service, better attitude, better problem solving and MUSIC. would bring them to a 4.

Food and drink were absolutely spectacular! Lovely cocktails to start; one with numbers for the title (542?) was fabulous… Bombay Sapphire with pomegranate, lemon, lime and soda with a single giant ice cube.
For starters, the leek and celery root custard is a masterpiece of subtlety, with fried shallots and peppery micro greens as a counterpoint. Rogue blue cheese tart rich and intense and lovely.
Wine list sufficiently extensive to find a soft enough Tempranillo to not overpower the duck breast or Bechamel-​wild mushroom lasagne while still almost completing the gnocchi with pork and beef Bolognese.
Good dessert and coffee and after dinner drink options… multiple. Clear Creek pear brandy with pound cake and sorbet was quite refreshing.
With all that talent in the kitchen, service was uneven and not on par with culinary quality… Or even close. Waited quite a bit too long for cocktails, and then the bartender started opening wine and requiring we sample it only 3 sips into our cocktails! And just after starters arrived! Ummm… Dude, that’s to go with our main course? And waiter went missing so we went to his station to refill our own water glasses… atypical of fine dining.
Would return in a heartbeat!

Coquina is Ashland, OR ‘s kindred spirit to Sonoma, CA ‘s Café La Haye. A small, intimate restaurant showcasing the best of organic, locally grown and raised products, perfectly prepared and delivered with service that is impeccable, knowledgeable and attentive. In short, both establishments are professional, and both rival anything that can be found in larger, urban centers like San, Francisco, Los Angeles or New York.
Try the Pea Shoot Tendril and Carrot salad to start. With shaved carrots and a carrot purée, it’s subtle, fresh and clean flavor paired well for contrast with a more robust 2012 Troon Zinfandel.
The Seared Scallops accompanied by tiny citrus sections, baby heirloom tomatoes, artichoke and onion tendrils flash fried to perfection was another divine flavor combination. Save a bit of citrus for that last bite of scallop with the light sauce and you are in heaven. Pair with a complex and nuanced glass of the 2011 Ayres Pinot Noir.
This was easily the best meal I’ve had in Ashland or anywhere in a while. Did I mention service was high class and professional? In my book that’s the clincher to a guaranteed return visit and being able to evangelize a place to anyone who will listen :-)

Great food. Thoughtful waiters — well aware of food allergies and careful with everything. Good wine list. Nice environment. This is the best restaurant we’ve been at in Ashland and it compares well with great restaurants in San Francisco and New York. Love it!

So far the best dinner we’ve had in Ashland! We got the Burrata app, steak main course and also the halibut main course! The morels in the Burrata app tasted like steak! Amazing!!!

Yeah so we finally made it to Ashland, which is a really beautiful city. There’s definitely a redeveloped university town feel to it. Anyway, like all university towns, Ashland has plenty of places to eat within a small radius. Also like many university towns, Ashland’s food scene appears to have gone through an upscale-​ification in response to the the trend of the past decade for them college educated folk to eschew the dives and instant ramen of yore in favor of pretty places where you can get less food for more money. Coquina is definitely one of those pretty places.
It was a warm night and Coquina was right around the corner from where we were staying. After driving all day through Southern Oregon, which involved a wrong turn leading us through Klamath Falls, which despite the name, involves no falls, we were looking forward to some fancy eating. Things were looking good when we walked in. The place is pretty small, and there were a couple parties mulling around the door when we arrievd. The restaurant opens into a cozy and well thought out bar area, which, oddly, I noticed nobody was using. The ambiance is clean and simple, there’s a lower level with the bigger tables, and an upper level with a few two tops. We got brought to the upper level and were seated at the table farthest in the back of the restaurant, right next to the rear entrance. I have to say, I did not enjoy sitting here. Our table felt like an afterthought, as the lighting from the restaurant didn’t really reach the table. Also, being next to the door, which the servers were constantly coming in and out of because it goes out to their wine cellar, it was pretty chilly. Honestly, sitting back there felt like a totally different experience that the front of the house, which was warm and bustling with energy.
Their menu is pretty ambitious. Coquina clearly wants those worldly Shakespeare festival goers to know that Coquina ain’t no bumpkin joint. And it does a fine job with the food and wine (which definitely pushes the Willamette Valley). However, i was disappointment by the duck breast entrée I ordered. First, it was served to me lukewarm. Also, the duck just didn’t have much flavor and mostly tasted like fat, probably because they over cooked it, as it was completely white rather than the deep pink of a medium rare, which is how I’m used to duck breast being prepared. Anyway. Things could have been different had i ordered another entrée, as the appetizers were good and the dessert was delicious.

The food presentation and tastes here verge on qualifying as works of art!
We ordered the rib eye steak, which was prepared perfectly, and the raviolis which were divine! We also had the Sea urchin appetizer… this was pretty pricey for an appetizer delivered in a shot glass… but quite flavorful. The” Brussel Sprouts fried with house potato chips and Pecorino”, filled us up the most and is a must to order again and again!
I had a glass of the Sella Mosca Carignano 2008… smooth and dry… loved it too!
Service was very attentive and the atmosphere lively but intimate.

Meh.
New American cuisine at it’s most contrived. Concepts were clunky and flavor profiles too vast and unspecific.
What’s with the finely diced tomatoes (NOT IN SEASON) on EVERY. SINGLE. DISH?
The carrot salad appetizer was ill composed and lacked any flavor.
The ravioli entrée was OK. But the raviolis themselves were HUGE and hard on the edges.
Over-​priced for what you receive flavor-​wise — overall.
The custom cocktail was very nicely executed. The ginormo ice was a nice touch. The atmosphere is also trendy, chic, and honestly quite well done. The food needs to catch up.
The staff was efficient and friendly.

The Pros: The service was exceptional. High class, friendly, visited our table at the appropriate time. They allowed us to bring our own bottle of wine with a $ 15 corkage fee, which was great, as their cheapest bottle of wine was $ 35. The food was fabulous — including the Ribeye and the Foie Stuffed Whole Quail.
The Cons: Wow, was this über expensive! And portions tiny! The Foie Stuffed Whole Quail was the smallest dinner I’ve ever been served. I understand quail is small, but how about augmenting the dish with sides?
We enjoy other high-​end restaurants in Ashland, including the Peerless and Amuse. Sorry, but these other restaurants deliver a delicious meal that is more robust, equally delicious, at the same price.

Interesting menu really good food. The Brussels Sprouts with potato chips were out of this world and worth the trip alone.
Everything else was good, however, almost everything had some sort of dressing on it and all the dressings were too sweet. Service was pleasant but a little slow.
I’d definitely go back.

This is high end family fine dining restaurant. The table, chair and decoration are very cheap. Our table is created extra in the middle of the hallway. I can’t believe this place is so expensive!
We got foie gras. It’s one of the best foie gras I’ve ever had. It comes with fruity and sour sauce and peach, etc. it comes out super tasty. There are two types of cooking ways on this plate. One is simply seared. The other is bitter and added with alcohol. So heaven.
The lamb osso bocco is very flavorful too. I like the mushrooms a lot. But the lamb is a little dry and sauce too oily.
The sturgeon is very good as well. Not dry at all, very fresh, but I don’t like the sauce very much.
Their free garlic breads are soft but too oily. I asked it to be heated but they said it’s not possible to hear the bread. Why?
Dessert. We ordered pumpkin bread French toast. With eggnog and butternut Ice cream. This is the only special one. The others are pretty generic stuff like cream brûlée and cheesecake.