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 CrepeAh, 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:Food, Blog, Weblog, Malaysia, Restaurant Review, Restaurant Reviews, Damansara, Curve, Marche, Movenpick, The Curve, Kuala Lumpur, KL