3333 Bristol St., Costa Mesa
(714) 434-7900
www.marchemoderne.net
Chefs: Florent and Amelia Marneau
One of our favorite restaurants in Orange County is Marche Moderne located in South Coast Plaza. Not your typical mall food at the husband and wife run French restaurant. This quaint and charming restaurant serves up some of the best French food in Orange County and has one of the best prix fixe lunch specials around. For $20 or $25 depending on what's on the menu, you get an excellent 3 course meal that could easily cost $40 to $50+ elsewhere.
Charcuterie: homemade duck terrine, salame rosa, la quericia prosciutto, chorizo sarta, saucisson sec, tast, pickled vegetables, mustard cream - 13
Love the presentation of this beautiful charcuterie plate. An excellent assortment of hams, saucissons, and a terrine. This plate has it all with cornichons, wonderful meats, and nice little baguettes. Always a great way to start off a meal.
Selection of breads for the day.
Pencil asparagus and shaved zucchini salad, wild argula, buttermilk-mustard vinaigrette and shaved parmesan.
Reading the description of the salad, everything sounded wonderful and I was sure this would be another excellent salad. This could have been and would have been if not for the saltiness of the salad. The buttermilk-mustard vinaigrette with the combination of the shaved parmesan, made this salad too salty for me.
Braised Korubuta pork shanks, couscous, mint emulsion, cilantro, almond, garbanzo beans
Pefectly braised and fork tender korubuta pork shanks. The shank was so flavorful, moist, and delicious. Normally not a huge fan of couscous or garbanzo beans, I really enjoyed how the perfectly cooked couscous complemented the pork here. The mint emulsion did a fantastic job of cooling and lightening up the stronger flavor of the pork and the jus. Great dish.
Roasted seared albacore, ponzu, enoki mushrooms, crispy yams, cilantro and scallions salad.
This dish was definitely an Asian accented dish. A bit of a surprise coming from a French restaurant. This dish displays the skills of Chef Florent into other cuisines. The seared albacore was perfectly seared with just the outer layer being cooked and the inner still raw. I enjoyed the use of the cilantro and scallions in the dish to add a herbiness and brightness to this dish. The ponzu was perfectly executed with just the right of flavoring, not too salty, acidic, or sweet. I really enjoyed the freshness of this dish.
Lemon semolina cake, strawberry mousseline, vanilla stewed blueberries
The presentation of this dish was simple yet masterfully done. Desserts at Marche Moderne are created by Amelia Marneau. Loved the light flavors of this dessert. Slight but present flavor of lemon on the semolina cake with the concentrated flavor of vanilla stewed blueberries and the light airy strawberry mousseline. Great way to end the meal.
Another great meal at Marche Moderne. I would not hesitate to return and never do hesitate. There is a reason why Marche Moderne is considered one of the best in Orange County.
2 comments:
How did you get such nice photos from Marche Moderne? I remember that place being quite dimly lit.
Anonymous - The pictures were taken in the patio area during the day. Marche Moderne is one of our favorite restaurants but sadly we have never eaten dinner there.
Post a Comment