Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Mar-Shay

The Dinner

That night we ventured to Marche at the Curve in Damansara. There, they have a "market stall" concept: different stalls serving different kinds of food. Among others, they have steak, lamb chops, salad, curry laksa (they just HAD to throw in some sort of local dish), pizza, etc.
A peek into Marche

Here's how it works:
1) Everyone who goes into the restaurant gets a "food passport",
2) You acquire a table,
3) You see the food you want at one of the stalls and order it,
4) The chef at the stall will stamp your "food passport" and pass it back to you,
5) You wait for your food while the chef cooks it,
6) Chef gives you the food and you take it back to your table,
7) Eat,
8) Repeat Steps 3) - 8) as often as needed,
9) When you leave, you will have to pass your "food passport" to the cashier - they will calculate how much you owe Marche and make you pay.

Simple?
:)

Anyway, we started off the night with some Sauteed Mushrooms:
The mushrooms

The mix of button and shitake mushrooms (about RM9) were lightly sauted with a herb sauce. I didn't like it though - the strong taste of the shitakes was overpowering, and didn't go very well with the sauce.

For the mains, we tried the the Black Pepper Steak, Lamb Shank and the Rosti with Sausage:
Clockwise from top left: The Steak, the Lamb Shank and the Rosti with Sausage

The Rosti is Marche's specialty - it is basically chunkily julienned potatoes, panfried into a sort of potato pancake. There are a variety of different styles to choose from. That night, we tried the Mushroom Cheese Rosti with the Black Pepper Sausage. It is tasty but everyone agreed that it is much too small a serving.

The Black Pepper Steak was TINY for the price (about RM30). SooJ doesn't mind his steak on the rare side, so to him, it was ok. Jo has a big bone to pick tho - she sent her steak back and it still came back too raw.....
(tsk tsk)
Anyway, it tasted ok, as far as steaks go, but definately not great.

The Lamb Shank, served with mash potatoes, was also only ok (about RM28) - it was cooked in a simple brown sauce which was quite tasty but the meat was not very tender. You could also tell that they hadn't really put that much effort into slowly cooking the dish as the carrots in the sauce were still crispy (indicating that they had only just been thrown into the pot).

Seeing as the steak couldn't fill up his tummy, SooJ ordered a Seafood Pasta for Round 2:
The Seafood Pasta

He still regrets it.
(The sauce was runny + tasteless and the green peppers were overpowering)

For dessert, we had the Waffle with Banana Cream, the Waffle with Ice Cream and the Banana Cream Crepe:
Clockwise from top left: The Waffle with Banana Cream, the Waffle with Ice Cream and the Banana Cream Crepe
Ah, the desserts....
They SEEM relatively affordable... but you have to be careful.
A plain waffle costs RM6.50 but if you want any toppings on it, you'll have to pay extra. So, it's another 5 bucks for the banana cream topping (tastes pretty good) and 10 bucks for a scoop of designer ice cream (eek), etc.
Oh, the waffle tastes quite nice, by the way - crispy and light (although just a bit starchy)

The Banana Cream Crepe I had was quite enjoyable (about RM8) - it was very simple: Panfried bananas, chilled, mixed with whipped cream and then wrapped in a light crepe with a healthy dose of chocolate powder on top.

Overall though, I found the food very disappointing.
*sigh*
In it's defence, the ambience is nice: Nice chill music in the background and 6 restaurant sections with different themes, all comfortably seating large groups.... Nice ambience or not though, I don't enjoy walking out smelling like a steak.
(The smoke from the stalls tend to waft over to the main table areas due to bad ventilation)
Marche Interior

So it's: Ok taste, nice desserts and nice ambience BUT overpriced (small servings), bad ventilation (you will walk out smelling like steak/ sausages/ etc) and hmmm, being charged service tax even though you have to line up, wait and take the food back to the table yourself. There. That's enough, I guess.

On a lighter note: Here are some pics of Pat and Ken fooling around with the Marche cows in front of the restaurant:


Mooooo... ! (The cow says: "Crazy humans - I'm outta here!")

That's all!
:)


Restaurant Review
Summary Sheet:

Marche @ The Curve, Damansara

Taste: 5.5
Ambience : 6
Service : WHAT service?
Price** : RM55/++ per person
Parking: OK

** Approximation - 3 course meal, excluding drinks
Telephone No.: 03-7728 9200
Opening Hours: 11am - late

NO PORK SERVED


TAGS:, , , , , , , , , , , ,

15 comments:

  1. i love marche as well - first time i went was at the singapore outlet and the whole concept was so interesting!

    btw, just out of curiosity - what is the scale of your ratings? (ie it is a scale of 1 to 10?)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good review. I've been there and it's not like the one in Singapore. Guess the Marche QC is not strictly followed here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. to laksa:
    Yup, it's on a scale of 1 to 10. So far I haven't encountered anything on the lower end of the scale (thank goodness).
    :)

    to hungryox:
    (Cute nick btw)
    Thanks!
    Yeah, that was pretty much my thoughts exactly - the Msian Marche is definately not as nice as the one in Singapore.
    :(

    ReplyDelete
  4. Next time when you're in Singapore, try Marche at Suntec City.. personally I think the ambience there is better than the one at The Herren. :)

    Psst....The Junk's lambshanks are definitely more yummy.. hehe

    ReplyDelete
  5. We tried doing this in Marche Singapore once: We tried to charge as much food as possible to the Marcha 'passport' and then lose it (and pay the SGD100 fine). But we decided we were too honest to do it.

    I love rosti.

    ReplyDelete
  6. everyone seems to prefer marche singapore. will try there one day.

    ReplyDelete
  7. to Merv:
    Who'd have guessed? - You have a conscience, after all!
    (I just knew there was a big, warm, good heart under those layers of dry wit and cynicism)
    :)

    (Oh, I love rosti too)

    to ah beng:
    Yes, I found that the Singapore one was much better when I ate there (and also not Halal, apparently).
    I haven't been there for quite a while tho, so I can't say for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  8. to amelia:
    Oh, there'a a Marche at Suntec? - didn't know that.
    Will try it the next time I can.
    :)

    (If you think that the Junk's lamb shanks are good, then you should try the one at Cafe Cafe - the serving is not as large but the meat is definately more tender)

    ReplyDelete
  9. i dun like it there too, never stepped in since i went there a few months after their opening esp after one been to their Spore outlets. vast difference in terms of the quality of taste

    btw, i thot i saw an advert that sometime tis month they have an all you can eat for less than rm40 but i doubt you would wanna go there again right? :p

    ReplyDelete
  10. to babe:
    Yeah, there's some Tuesday Dinner Buffet thing for RM38.88++ now (excluding drinks and ice cream).

    Now, for that price it would be a good deal but I'm kinda trying to avoid buffets altogether now - the temptation to overeat is too great...
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yeah, I think it's overpriced and yucky the food - been once when it opened and then much later to test it again. Coincidentally someone SMSed me tday and asked my opinion abt the place and I told them no pt wasting their $$$$ there.

    ReplyDelete
  12. to Boo_licious:
    It's sad though, isn't it?
    It could have been so much better...
    (with Singapore as a point of comparison)

    Hopefully they will improve in the future (but I think I personally won't be going there again anytime soon).

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hmm Marche's food quality at The Curve had dropped alot. I just went for it recently(4th visits)...and it was a let down.

    ReplyDelete
  14. to che-cheh:
    Yeah... it's a real pity considering the price they charge and how good it SHOULD be.
    :(

    Still so many people eating there though....

    ReplyDelete
  15. Surprised you didn't mention the buffet they have on Tuesdays! Totally worth it with so much to choose from.

    ReplyDelete

Appreciate your thoughts, opinions and feedback. :)