marcello's wine market cafe

'chicken arristitto' is amazing! juicy well seasoned chicken with rice that is just as good..

sat at the bar for a quick lunch and i had the shimp pasta that came with a side salad. it was so good. at first i though it had sliced mushrooms in the pasta but it was roasted garlic, it was so sweet !! i can't wait till i come back to town, i will make sure to stop in again for a good meal !!

marcello's is a gem of a find. the owners are from sicily (palermo and messina) who have brought with them the tradition of true sicilian openness in welcoming you as part of the family rather than a customer.
the menu capitalizes on italian/sicilian dishes expertly prepared fresh in their kitchen and with true authenticity of what italian and sicilian cuisine is to taste like.
my sister who is quite hard to please when it comes to dining at supposed italian restaurants, offered marcello's the highest of her praise when she exclaimed that the food was just like 'mom' used to make (mom was from castrofelippo sicily).
the ambiance is warm, filled with many photos of the owner and from sicily. the service is superior and attentive compared to most restaurants as your water glass is filled constantly without having to flag down your server and your table is checked often

the desserts are delicious and one specialty desert you should consider ordering is the "spumoni ". it is limited in offering
dining here is more than worthwhile.

one of the best italian restaurants in lafayette. the good news is that there are some real showstoppers on the menu, like the mussels, the tritone and the bolognese. the bad news is that they sometimes run out of the best items on the menu. either way, there are other good options.

the past few months have been filled with birthday celebrations. our friend tara celebrated her birthday a couple of weeks ago. the ladies and i were anticipating this birthday dinner at marcello's. we arrived a few minutes early, but we were seated fairly quickly. this was my first time at the marcello's. i am always excited to eat at restaurants that i have never had before. marcello's has been around for quite some time. but we have never made our way there, but tonight was the night.

i'd say lafayette's best italian restaurant. i personally think they sometimes they go a little heavy on the sauces on top of the fish or veal dishes. but that's an easy fix for me - just get the sauce on the side. great wine selection in addition to really good food. great place for a nice night out.

my fiance had been wanting to go to marcello's for a while, because he heard it was the best italian food in lafayette.  the reviews i read and the fact the place was packed on a wednesday all seemed to point to this being true.  it's a nice atmosphere.  if i hadn't read online to ask for bread, i would have just thought that our waiter - a nice enough guy who lingered a little too long and reeked of bo - just didn't like us.  but, i knew you had to ask, so we did and no feelings were hurt.  just my nose's. we had the mozzarella impanata which we agreed was the best fried mozzarella either of us had ever had.  i ordered chicken parm and he ordered the veal.  we both agreed the pasta that came on the side was pretty good.  that's where the good vibes stopped.  while i did get a large portion of chicken, it really didn't matter as it didn't want it.  it was all nice and toasty.  very toasty.  when i mentioned this to my fiance, he said his veal parm was burnt too and that he couldn't even taste the veal which was disappointing.  all he could taste were bread crumbs.  sadness :(

fish was perfect! our whole family lived dining her on wednesday night.. we were gathered with family from in town and out if town and chose marcellos because it has all the components for a great dining experience; attentive, friendly staff, inviting atmosphere, and wonderful food. we were not disappointed. our server was lauren and the managers on duty were jay, kat, and thessa they were very good at making us feel welcome. gene the owner was also there to greet everyone. nowhere else in lafayette can you find a better dining experience.


-----19 feb, 2015-----

we love coming to marcello' s!. weekly visits are a must for us, we love the food, the servers, bartenders, and managers are terrific, and the ambience is great.
we've been coming for years and it is by far our favorite restaurant in lafayette.

every time i return i know why...it's so good! this is definitely one of if not my favorite italian restaurants in the area. great atmosphere and wine! we will be back!

great food, great service and an even better atmosphere. cozy little restaurant, perfect for valentine's day dinner lastnight. we started with a fresh order of calamari, the batter was plain but the marinara sauce was delicious. i had the veal and my gf had the red pepper crusted tuna, med-well. both dishes were very good and expertly sizes portions. i didn't leave too full or hungry either.

poopr service and horrible manager. first off, i would like to say that their food is great. tonight, my fiancee and i went to there, and as expected they were on a wait, so we chose to sit at the bar and wait for our table. while wating at the bar, my fiancee and i ordered our drinks. our bartender, later to find out was management, took our order then disappeared for nearly 20 minutes to come back to the bar reeking of cigarettes to finally make our drinks. it only took 20+ minutes to get our drinks. when my fiancee asked him why we waited so long for our drinks and that he did not before we ordered, and now after we were waiting to receive our drinks, he reeks of cigarettes, his response was, "my name is jay and i'm the assistant general manager and bar manager and this is how marcellos runs". we were so angry that we were about to leave until an itialan/sicilian gentlemen named georgio?(spelling)walked up and began talking to us. after we told him what had happened, he immediately had our drinks refunded and then somehow had us a table within 10 minutes. on a good note, service and food was great. only posting this review in hopes that the owner gene(whom we have not had the pleasure of meeting yet) reads this and understands that you now have lost 2 customers that were so appalled at the service we received from your "assistant general manager/bar manager", that we will not be going back anytime soon, we have never been treated like that anytime ever dining there before. it's saddening that a "assistant manager/bar manager" would treat a customer like that, especially with competition like ruffino's and pamplona's(in which we have never been treated as bad while dining there!). our overall rating of our dining experince last night is, food was 8.5 out of 10, server was 8 out of 10, bar experience was 2 out of 10.

excellent food, excellent service! the tuna was superb. everyone had a great time!

literally, our favorite restaurant in lafayette. the management and staff kick ass the atmosphere is perfect! love the fact that gene doesn't jack up his wine and champagne like most others. perfect date night place. call and make a reservation bc they do get busy!

used to be my favorite. i have always spoken glowingly of marcello's. in the past, all the meals my wife and i and other assorted friends shared were magnificent. but this valentine's day, i reserved a table for four and when we were seated a truncated menu was offered up with no variations available. none of the dishes we had expected to eat were on this cutesy excuse for dinner fare. it was heavily seafood oriented, (i'm allergic) and therefore my choices were limited to 3 items, one of which was lasagna...lasagna...really? i can get lasagna at pizza village. i was not told of this when i made the reservations and coupled with the restaurant's stringent adherence to what was obviously a bad idea, it made for a horrible dining experience. daniel, our waiter, did his best to make the best of an awkward situation, given our distaste for the options dictated to us. the manager made matters worse by trying to offset our complaint with some positive feedback from another imaginary table. too bad. i talked to a couple of chef friends and they said this is common when a restaurant takes itself a bit too seriously and decides it can jerk its clientele around and be lazy at the same time. never again. to all of the people i've sung marcello's praises to...i recant; and trust me, i have a big mouth.

great atmosphere, food pretty good. lafayette doesn't have many good italian restaurants and marcello's is almost always busy. we like the atmosphere -- it's a dark, romantic place that feels soothing after a long day -- and the service. the food is pretty good and consistent, but i wish they would change the menu up a little more. some of the dishes are too oily. the wines by the glass are not that great and hardly ever change -- strange for a restaurant that started out as a wine store. overall, it's a good spot for a date.