Marea Review: Fancy seafood lunch at Marea
Marea by Central Park South is a great option if you want to try something fancy for lunch without breaking your budget. Of course Marea is an Italian restaurant so you have to be in the mood for that. As far as whether it’s a deal… they have a ‘business lunch’ which is $45 and gives you two courses. The five course seafood tasting menu is $80. For a very classy restaurant that has fairly good star ratings, this is probably a fair price. I like to think of two course for $45 as paying $30 for an entree or a ‘secondo’, while your appetizer is $15. While not super affordable I think for the type of restaurant that Marea strives to be, it’s a doable deal that those who love eating should try at some point. We went with the five course tasting because we were treating ourselves a few months ago as a Christmas gift. That’s how long my blogging backlog is…
The meal started with crudo which I did not post a picture of because I just couldn’t take any good ones. It’s basically Italian sashimi with some tiny toppings. After that they gave us nova scotia lobster, burrata, eggplant al funghetto, and basil. On the appetizer list, this dish requires a $7 supplement if you order it on the two course, but on the tasting it’s just part of the game. So really it’s more like five courses for $73! I actually didn’t know this at the time, I’m only calculating this like five months later while looking at their menu online…
Pasta was strozzapreti with crab, seas urchin, and basil. This was really nice because up to that point, the meal had been all cold dishes. Crab and sea urchin is great for providing that briney taste of the sea, and the nice part was the bread crumbs on top because it was surprising to have crunch that lasted to the last bite of the dish.
Fourth dish was called capesante, which was seared sea scallops, potato puree, fried chickpeas, brussel sprouts, and golden raisins. This was very nice also, with the scallops and potato puree being warm comforting foods. The fried chickpeas were a really nice touch and it was evident that texture was a big deal for the kitchen. This capesante dish changes with the seasons though. During the winter we had potato puree and brussel sprouts, but now the online menu says it’s got oyster mushrooms and endives.
Dessert was strati di cioccolato which was dark chocolate crema, salted caramel, and pistachio gelato. The gelato sat on top of some cookie looking thing and that sat on top of some pistachio paste thing that was really good. It’s cool that what they use to stabilize the structure of the dessert actually taste awesome.
The service at Marea is pretty good. When we went, the dining room was like 85% Asian for some reason. I’m not sure if it was mostly midtown tourists or what, but it was definitely something that’s noticeable. In general I think if you want to try three or four NYTimes starred restaurants in New York, lunch is always a great bet. The five course makes a lot of sense if you want the lobster appetizer (which requires a $7 supplement) and add on a dessert because then $45 + $7 + $14 = $66, which means for $14 more you get to try two more dishes. Almost a no brainer. Should you go to Marea for lunch? Yes.
Marea230 Central Park South.New York, NY 10019212-582-5100
Posted by Danny on April 16, 2014 at 3:39 pm
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