Marseille

StB, the lost Bear (ok, she’s not lost, I know where she moved to, it’s just far enough that I only see her once every few months instead of once or twice a month now), returned home for a weekend and made a point to have dinner with the former FC… which I forced myself to go to because I wanted to see her, even though I had an exam the next morning at 9am.  (And it was a good thing I did; I received a 104 on the exam.  I didn’t even realize you could get over 100 on an exam in college.  Hehe.) 

Originally we had plans to hit Xie Xie on that Friday night, but it was so packed that we wandered up and down 9th Avenue until finally stumbling into Marseille, which wasn’t worryingly completely empty, nor “45 minutes to an hour wait!” full.  We were seated almost immediately. 

StB, as is her habit, ordered two appetizers to comprise her meal.  This was bruschetta topped with some stuff… I know she enjoyed it, though I didn’t get a chance to ask her more specifics.  (We were busy catching up!) 

Her other appetizer, escargots, which I’m sure she liked because she dipped her bread into the sauce, which means it was good.  I’ve never seen the girl eat anything that didn’t taste good, because her philosophy is “Why waste calories on something that doesn’t taste good?” 

The real and only reason I’m posting about this place is because I felt the place was a sleeper hit.  9th Avenue on Friday night was packed, and many restaurants had people lined up outside the door just to get in to ask for a table, while this place was only about half-full. 

And my dish (which HB also ordered) is the sole reason I felt it was a sleeper hit.  Honey glazed duck breast with creamy polenta and endives braised in orange.  I don’t really like sweet main dishes, but this did a good job of not being sweet, just a hint of sweetness playing with all the flavors so well.  The polenta was so good, I almost ate half of it before I even started on the duck.  Everything was just really, really good.  HB agreed that it was really good, though she said it was hard to eat the duck… I had no such problems, biting easily through each medium rare piece.  Wonderful.  Mmm. 

To cap off our lovely meal, we ordered beignets, since these aren’t the easiest to get in NYC, and good ones are even harder to find.  Unfortunately, these were not good ones… they were only alright.  Doughy – just the edges crispy but not well-developed in terms of flavor – I ate one or two before deciding to stop wasting calories on it.  The chocolate dipping sauce included was nice enough, but overall, this is not what I expect nor want from a beignet.  Ah well.

Yvo says: A really lovely space with some delicious food, I would definitely go back for a quiet night with girlfriends or even a cozy date.  Prices were not expensive, and they did not rush us nor try to upsell our tab.  I really enjoyed myself here, and the cozy banquets were nice to sit on as well.
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