Ristorante Marco in Greenville Center on the lower level opened almost a year ago last June. Its sister location with the same name opened two years in the Sunset Station Shopping Center below Bear.
On May 13th, the Divas visited Ristorante Marco. Earlier excursions into ethnic cuisine included Spanish, Malaysian and Japanese. By contrast, nowadays Italian is often ho-hum - sort of mainstream - in American cooking. However, to decide whether to recommend the Divas visiting Marco, I had done a preliminary stop by and picked up the carryout menu. It included dishes I’ve never seen before and also new twists on traditional dishes. So I recommended it and we finally went on a Thursday evening.
The restaurant is cozy in size with handsome dark wood and furnishings. The bar is small and just inside the door. You go through it to get into the main dining room. It had no loud music and the acoustics allowed easy conversation. This Thursday evening the bar and dining room was not crowded.
The Wines
We started the evening by perusing the extensive 10 page wine list heavy with wonderful Italian offerings and Californians, many available by the glass. Nancy had arrived early and ordered a Chianti Classico at the bar, which she liked and recommended. I ordered Montepulciano D’Abuzzo: Zaccagnini, which was very full bodied and smooth. Nanzie described her wine, the Valpolicello: Venturini, as smooth, fruity with an edge and very clear flavor notes that she could recognize. I mentioned that when wine’s written descriptions list these notes, I can never actually taste them. She said that had been her experience too- but this wine was different. We all tasted her glass, and decided it was very fine. For our second glasses Nancy and I switched to the Valpolicello. Lorraine had started off with a white chardonnay and then she switched to Nebbiolo: Veglio, which she said was very good and exactly what she expected. The wines here were a real adventure for us, not the ordinary French, Australian or Californian merlots etc. that one usually encounters. Both Lorraine and Nanzie said they hoped to find their wines locally and buy them for home use.
Service and Set-up
Casey, our waitress, was very pleasant, helpful and unobtrusive. Along with the basket of good bread she brought out a dish containing three vegetable spreads: tomato, mushroom and eggplant, which were very tasty. Our favorite was the tomato, then the eggplant.
The Menu, and our choices
Appetizers
From the Antipasti Caldi group (hot appetizers) we chose Cozze alla Marinara (cozze being mussels). The waitress said we could have it with a white wine sauce instead of the marinara sauce and we opted for that. Our second appetizer, from the cold selections was Antipasto Cilentano. It contained small portions of grilled eggplant and zucchini, roasted peppers, mushrooms, Parma prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella and shaved Parmigiano Reggiano. The menu promised mixed salami as well, but that was not on the dish.
The mussels were a clear favorite. A couple of us actually rate restaurants based on how well they prepare mussels. These mussels were perfectly cooked, tender and plump, with great flavor from the white wine, abundant garlic and fresh leafy parsley. The garlic was sliced rather than crushed, which Lorraine said produces a lighter taste, and is why it wasn’t overpowering even though very plentiful. The portion size was fine as an appetizer for the four of us, probably around two dozen mussels.
The Antipasto Cilentano was tasty. The grilled zucchini was far and away the favorite. The mushrooms and eggplant may have been marinated - this wasn’t mentioned but was suppositioned as we talked about the flavors. Again, there was a plentiful amount for small tastings for the four of us.
The Main Course
After our delicious experience with the mussels we figured, “this restaurant knows how to do seafood,” and Nanzie decided to order fish. She was disappointed to hear that only salmon and tilapia were on the menu. Neither of these were favorites, so she decided to choose something else. The restaurant does have as a specialty Bronzino al Sale- fresh Mediterranean bronzino encrusted in rock salt, baked and carved tableside. However, this wasn’t mentioned, and is an expensive dish.
Nanzie ordered the Ravioli all’ Aragosta (lobster filled ravioli) instead. This dish had several large raviolis, probably enough for 2 apiece. They were covered in crabmeat. The menu said, “…served in a cream sauce and crab meat.” I felt there wasn’t much sauce. Everyone felt the dish was too salty and rather dry. We didn’t finish it.
I was a contrarian and ordered a soup and salad instead of a main course. The two dishes I chose were completely new to me and part of the reason to try the restaurant. The soup, Ceci e Gamberi (Chick peas pureed with shrimp) was creamy with small chunks of shrimp and was redolent with rosemary. Three of the divas pronounced the rosemary flavor too strong, dominating the soup and diluting the shrimp flavor. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and asked whether it was the invention of the chef. The waitress checked and told us that is a very typical soup of Campania in southern Italy where every household has its own version. An online search brought up about ten pages in Italian including a posting on You Tube. Here’s the link to the video. You don’t need Italian to understand it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQVZOrT5oOo
The salad, Insalata Arrosto, was one-half head of Romaine lettuce grilled and topped with shaved Parmigiano Reggiano, and bits of salty pancetta, then drizzled with a balsamic vinegar reduction was also a winner.
Nancy ordered the Pollo alla Marsala with mushrooms. There were several small thin perfectly cooked tender chicken breast cutlets. We also perceived the dish as too salty and without a pronounced Marsala flavor.
The last entree, ordered by Lorraine was the best of the main courses. Risotto alla Pescatore is listed as a specialty, and it came with more whole seafood than I have ever seen in a risotto dish. It was ringed with mussels and clams in the shell and topped with shrimp. The rice was perfectly cooked, a bit al dente. The mussels weren’t as good as those we had earlier, and this dish was also too salty- but less so.
Dessert- we shared the Tiramisu, which was good size and cake like. It lacked much coffee taste, and we didn’t finish it - perhaps because we had already eaten abundantly.
Bottom Line: We were disappointed in the main dishes because the cook has a heavy hand with the salt. There are some new and intriguing dishes on the menu, and a good wine list. The surroundings are classy and refined with good acoustics. Would we go back? For sure. But we would definitely request that less salt be used in the entrees.
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