Cover Coquette by Miko Calo, a new pop-up at Casa Buenas
Coquette by Miko Calo, a new pop-up at Casa Buenas
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Playful, relaxed, but with the creativity and confident precision Tatler Dining’s Chef of the Year 2022 is known for—Coquette is Miko Calo on a plate
While best known for her strict, classically French culinary style in Metronome, those who know Chef Miko Calo well would know that she is a true lover of food in all its shapes and forms. Growing up at her grandmother’s house in Butuan, she watched her aunts roast cacao to turn into tsokolate batirol and snacked on sea salt with her nanny. When she moved to Manila for high school and university, she picked up a guilty pleasure from her half-Kapampangan cousins—eating petitian (chicharon or fried pork rind) with rice and a side dish of hand-crushed tomatoes and fish sauce. Her aunt, the late TV host, actress, and writer Susan Calo-Medina, introduced her to the wide, fascinating world of gastronomy. Her Tita Susan, according to Calo, was not only her inspiration but also an ardent supporter of her future career in food.
Calo’s current pop-up, Coquette, in the beautiful Casa Buenas at Newport World Resorts, is truly cuisine d’auteur or author’s cuisine—a style of cooking that refers to the chef’s personal culinary vision, making each dish an expression of their creativity, background, and influences. This fully allows Calo to showcase her interesting and diverse perspective on food, fashioned by her training and the food she loves, while applying the finely honed skill set she has developed working in Joël Robuchon’s kitchens on both sides of the world, and then running her own restaurants in Manila. The Coquette menu is divided into cold starters, hot starters, proteins, and sides. There is also a five-course set menu—“for those who would rather not think,” winks Calo—composed of favourites from the à la carte menu.
Above Coquette by Miko Calo, a new pop-up at Casa Buenas
Above Coquette by Miko Calo, a new pop-up at Casa Buenas
Coquette by Miko Calo, a new pop-up at Casa Buenas
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“That’s my favourite kinilaw,” she says of the shrimp kinilaw flavoured with coconut juice, kabayawa, and tabon-tabon, and then dotted with cucumber, radish, marigold, and coriander oil. When asked when she had the dish for the first time, she shrugs, only knowing that it has always been there. Ox tongue is also a familiar ingredient, but instead of the typically Filipino creamy mushroom sauce, the tender cubes of meat are coated in a calamansi gastrique and served with grilled kailan. And because this is no longer traditionally French, there is rice, but still luxuriant in typical Miko Calo fashion—redolent with cured tuna roe steamed into the grains, and then baked in stoneware to achieve that flavourful crust.
Coquette by Miko Calo, a new pop-up at Casa Buenas
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Still, Calo’s followers will spot her signature moves, such as an artisanal bread basket—this time packed with an airy brioche and a shallot fougasse—and fine French butter served at perfect room temperature. Save space for more brioche, but this time fried in olive oil to accompany the pot de foie gras topped with congealed chicken broth and santol confiture. Her duck breast is always highly recommended, this one with the now-famous foie gras “Mang Tomas” sauce and some batons of pickled ampalaya to cut through the richness. But what truly exemplifies the cuisine of Coquette is the roasted pigeon—presented in generous breast fillets and their legs, shiny with a sticky kamias caramel. Indulgent, well-executed, and yet deeply and confidently personal—it is quiet luxury served on a plate. Whatever protein you choose, the potato purée side dish will not disappoint.
See also: First look: El Gato and Cattery, two new bars by the award-winning Fat Cat team
Coquette by Miko Calo, a new pop-up at Casa Buenas
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Pastry chef Ginno Hernandez, who was part of team Metronome, is also back on the roster, and the desserts are surely not to be missed. A small group can share all four over some coffee or tea, but the top two will surely be the soufflé-like amaretto sabayon with a sweet cherry centre and pistachio, or the chocolate Cloud Nine, which is a nostalgic nod to the classic Filipino chocolate bar.
Calo admits that since they started setting up Coquette, working with the team at Casa Buenas has been a dream, and truly the service is just as refined yet unpretentious as the food. Coquette only runs from 2 September to 29 November 2025 at Casa Buenas, presenting a fun, relaxed, and unfiltered side to Miko Calo. “I think it’s the happiest I have seen her in the kitchen,” says a reliable source, and based on our preview, we tend to agree.
Coquette by Miko Calo, a new pop-up at Casa Buenas
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Jaclyn Clemente Koppe is a food and lifestyle writer, as well as a consultant to some of the country’s beloved food and beverage brands. Her passion for food and drink is only surpassed by her devotion to her family, most especially to her soulmate, Pepa the poodle.
