Lunch at Marche--what a deal!

Marché has just recently begun serving lunch again, after a hiatus of a couple of years, and what a deal! I've always thought Marché was a little overblown, personally preferring simpler, more traditional bistro fare, but dang! They have a prix-fixe at lunch now that is hard to beat. You get an appetizer, main course and dessert for $18.95, with many selections of each to choose from (except for dessert, only about 4 choices there.) Basically anything on the fully-loaded lunch menu is fair game, including daily specials. Our server implied that if you didn't want dessert, you could get two appetizers and a main instead. And yes, the portions are generous, at least in my limited experience thus far. I went with a friend, and this is what we had:

french onion soup-I didn't taste it, but it looked and smelled the way it ought to and my DC loved it
chicken pot pie with morels, served with a frisee salad-delicious, and frankly could have been my main course

sea bass served over couscous with a lemon butter sauce-very nice, skin-on preparation, not too "fishy"
"macaroni d'adulte" which was mac and cheese with truffle oil and chunks of pancetta, I believe, it tasted great but was NOT LIGHT. Stupid name, though, frankly.

We could only fit in one desert, a round of mint chocolate cookie ice cream which had obviously been prepared with fresh mint leaves.

They also had a decent list of wines by the glass, as well as a more impressive beer list that included several belgian and french beers.

Total disclosure: I went with a friend who works for KDK so we didn't pay full price, but even at the full price of $18.95 per person, it was quite an amazing spread.


This is not the best, most authentic French food you can get in Chicago (Istill prefer Le Bouchon and Bistro Campagne) but if you're near the West Loop and feel like having a swanky lunch at an unswanky price, check it out. They are definitely going for the business lunch crowd, so I imagine service is usually fairly quick. (We were there for longer than normal, chatting with the staff.) The carnival manqué decor is still a raging eyesore--YMMV--but luckily what's on your plate will keep your mind off this annoyance.

Their lunch menu isn't up online yet, but it probably will be soon:

www.marche-chicago.com

Marché
833 W Randolph St
Chicago
(312) 226-8399

in case this hasn't been posted...if you sign up for the frequent diners club on their web site (free to sign up), they'll mail you a free $25 gift certificate (which doesn't seem to have any real exclusions from when you can use, etc).

...you can pick for it to be a $25 cert @ any of their restaurants (marche, opera, red light, giocca) .. http://www.marche-chicago.com/ClientFil ... rForm.aspx

I had a very disappointing dinner here tonight. I wasn't too hungry so only ordered a french onion soup, steak tartare and frites. The soup still had unmelted cheese, which can easily be forgiven as a few more seconds under the broiler would have solved that problem. The main problem was in the broth. It was watery and had barely any taste to it. It's been so long that I've had a bad meal out, that when the waitress came back to ask how it was, I was at a loss for words. Do I lie and say that it's good? Do I say that it had no substance? (I do realize that the steak tartare will be coming next, and, if an indignant chef chooses to spit, it won't be partially "de-germed" as it won't touch a flame in it's preparation.) I mumbled out a "it's okay?" and she left satisfied.
The tartare was actually quite good, the hits of parsley were sharp and complemented the tang and spice of the mustard. The frites were limp and tasted like old oil. I suspect the temperature of the fryer was too low. I did tell the waitress about the soggy fries and she offered me a new batch, but I declined the offer.

While the apple wood smoked chicken may appeal to some people, I'm not sure the owners throughly thought out the concept of an open kitchen with a constant flame on, giving out smoke. If I'm going out to eat "french food," why would I want to come back smelling like I was at a campfire cookout? It would be okay, and maybe expected, if I went to eat ribs, but I can't imagine people going for lunch there and returning to the office smelling like that.

There was no campfire smoke smell when I was there for lunch, maybe it's not something that they use during the day...

I am a Marche supporter, the one or two times a decade I go. I find their take on bistro food pretty good.

I have not been to Bistro Campagne, but I find Marche to compare favorably to most other Chicago bistro-nauts, which I mostly dislike, btw, becase they tart up the food and end up with something that is worse than the classic.

Le Sardine ain't bad.

But I am sad to hear about improperly cooked fries and watery soup - sounds like a big kitchen problem. Out of curiosity, what day of the week was it, and how busy were they? Wonder if the chef had the night off...

I was there on a tuesday, and it was less than 1/4 full. It didn't seem like the chef had an off night, it seemed they were sending out food without tasting it first, or perhaps everyone in the kitchen had a bad cold and couldn't taste to save their lives (or jobs).

JermAngela wrote:I was there on a tuesday, and it was less than 1/4 full.

Maybe that's because folks considering going there early in the week would be more likely to do so on a Monday or a Wednesday, the two days of the week when they offer their three-course dinner for $25.

Went to Marche today to celebrate a friend's birthday and while he enjoyed his lunch, mine was really fairly badly made. I've always liked Marche so I was quite sad and disappointed in both my food and the service and thought I'd relate them both.

We went at 12:30, so it wasn't that busy -- they had one party with maybe 20 people and basically 3 or 4 tables of two outside. So not so busy but we were belatedly served by maybe 4 people all tolled. 2 waitstaff, one who seemed to be more management oriented and the hostess brought our food out. It was an odd configuration -- and not a very attentive one.

First weirdness -- in a lunch fraught with weirdness -- was that my club soda and my friend's Coke had no bubbles. When I asked for it to be redone, they said it must be a problem with the nozzle and so we had to live with no bubbles. Okay. Fine. No fix and then no refill on that or water for the rest of the meal. It was as if we weren't really there at times -- and I have to say it didn't make me happy but not overly upset.

Apps were french onion soup and escargot. My friend enjoyed his escargot although he thought they were a bit too lemony. My soup was some of the worst "broth" I've ever had in this town -- no salt, no seasoning, barely any onions and a very light color. The gruyere was melted well -- but there was no crusty crunchy cheese, which I do love in a french onion soup.

Entrees (and their prix fixe is a good deal) were a salmon in a saffron sauce with baby vegetables and steak frites. My friend's salmon was very well prepared and the bright yellow sauce was tasty and made a lovely pool around the pink salmon and orange carrots and little onions and peas. My steak frites was done very rarely -- as I asked, but it was soaked in a red sauce that was sweet and very unappetizing to me. It totally ruined the whole meal for me and I was really bummed because the meat was obviously done perfectly -- just the purply red and a little warm. The menu item says nothing about the sauce -- it just mentions bordelaise which was served on the side and might have been good but the steak was so sweet and already so oversauced so I didn't hvae any of it. The frites were old and tired and not at all crispy and also fairly soaked in the nasty red sauce -- it was definitely a bad steak frites incident. I probably should have sent it back to be prepared sans sauce but i was with my friend and it was his birthday and I had already whined about my soup...so I just shut up.

Banana bread pudding with cinnamon ice cream was a nice finish and only slightly banan-y, which worked for me. My friend had creme brulee which was WARM. He liked it -- but I found it odd. Why warm? The sugar cracked well..but Warm? I just didn't get it. Custard was tasty enough but warm custard sauce for me should be poured over something...not in a creme brulee.

Coffee was weak and they gave me warmed up skim milk instead of cream. And at that point, i was so disheartened by my whole meal that i just grinned and bore it and decided that tomorrow would be another day.

It makes me quite sad, actually. I have fond memories of this place and now I will not venture near it again for quite some time. The disinterested service was perhaps very French but not very Chicagoan. And that steak...what a crime. I can't imagine anyone finding that sauce tasty -- it was like someone had put sweet french dressing in a pot and had tried to reduce it. Really unappetizing.

So i can't say everybody run to Marche to try out their lunch prix fixe. It's too bad too because it really is a good deal in this town. But a deal is only a deal if you actually like the taste of your food...and this girl...just didn't.

Looking for snacks now...

shannon