the marc

it was me and my girlfriends anniversary so off to a nice restaurant we go. and the marc was first on my list. haven't been back to this place in ages (way before days of reviewing) so 'twas the perfect time. had a reservation for 7:30 on a wednesday night and it was pretty packed. no sign of a economic downturn from the looks of it, people are still willing to shell out $100+ for food haha. i got a table in the far back of the restaurant, just how i like it. our server was very pleasant and knowledgable throughout our meal.

for appetizers we went with theirsteaktartare and escargot. theirsteaktartare was delicious, the meat is a bit finer as i personally prefer a little more chunky but you can taste that it had been seasoned right (nice amount of worcestershire in there). chunky, soft and smoothsteaktartare with toasted crostini makes for a wonderful texture. next was the escargot which is served with bone marrow. the combination of snail, marrow and the sauce on toasted bread is divine. for the mains i went with their 10oz ribeye with frites (fries) and fois gras butter.steakwas cooked perfect medium rare and the fries were perfectly seasoned. goes well with the truffle aioli. but the real star of the plate was the fois gras butter sitting on top of my steak. ever so slowly melting away. it added the perfectly mellowness of flavour to every bite with just a hint of nuttiness. overall it was very satisfying. my girlfriend opted for their duck, which she enjoyed throughly. cooked perfect medium and it was moist and very flavourful. but everything else was underwhelming. the corn, mushrooms and shaved fennel were fine but the quickly charred green onion is what threw me off. not really acceptable as a side, it's not palatable enough to warrant 5 charred stalks of green onion on a plate as "veg". we finished off dinner with their creme caramel and their lemon tart. their tart had a nice lemony sharpness to it, nice for waking up the palette. my personal favourite creme caramel. nice and soft with just the right amount of firmness. overall very sweet and i would say savoury.

overall it was a very satisfying meal. ambience is busy but not too loud and there's ample space between the tables for the diners. my girlfriend and i left very full and happy.

last friday, craig and i were in need of some serious grown up alone time, so last minute (two days prior), we got holly to watch fitz and booked a reservation at the marc via open table for dinner. known for itssteak(the marc has won avenue's best steak four years running) as well as it's polished, tranquil environment; first-rate service; and beautifully french style cuisine (also selected as avenue's best french restaurant 2016), i've been dying for an opportunity to give it a try (even given my reservations about french cuisine, mind you my cooking versus a chef's... well, they'll obviously do a better job).

beignets. they are little know here, but undeservedly so. these fried bits of heaven are paired here with creme fraiche and caramel sauce for dipping. doughnuts from a certain famous chain cannot quite measure up.


-----02 may, 2011-----

fries with garlic aioli. naughty food at its best. crisp on the outside, steaming and tender on the inside. the garlicky aioli adds extra kick.


-----02 may, 2011-----

steak tartare. don't be alarmed at the prospect of nearly-raw beef. think of it as bovine sushi. it's steaky, peppery and well-suited to crisp slices of baguette.


-----02 may, 2011-----

seared scallops with peas. earthy, vibrant peas paired with juicy, milky scallops. a perfect means to whet one's appetite, for this dish carefully balances salty and sweet.


-----02 may, 2011-----

mahi-mahi. it isn't a regular menu item, but is well worth sampling. the mahi-mahi is very meaty and adorned with a sweet tomato relish. nutty barley risotto and crisp asparagus accompany this fish.


-----28 apr, 2011-----

on your mark, get set.... when i dine out, i prefer to go in without bias, so i avoid reading reviews. with the marc, however, i was literally bombarded with feedback from others who dined there, and this feedback was overwhemlingly positive. hence, the precedent was set. going in with high expectations - as opposed to no expectations - meant that i expected to be wowed. and i was. beefsteaktartare, seared scallops, and fries with garlic aioli were bursting with flavour and pleasing to the eye. our mains, mahi mahi and lamb, were fresh, juicy and accompanied by interesting sides like barley pilaf. dessert included beignets (tim bits will never again be sufficient) and chocolate cake with dark cherries. excellent service and a personal visit from marc owner patrick saurette were the icing on the proverbial cake. their patio will open in a few weeks and i, most definitely, will return.

escargot,steaktartare, grilled octopus, pork belly, cornish hen, arctic char, entrecote frites, beignets, chocolate cake and lemon tart

there is some tasty dishes here that are worth eating. the escargot is served in bone marrow, persillade, horseradish, and pickled shallots. love escargot, and the combo of bone marrow is good shit.steaktartare had cornichon, pickles served with crostini. it was pretty standard tartare, good not great. grilled octopus was pretty good. served with chorizo sausage, peas, kale, grapefruit, pommes fondant and salsa verde. this dish not only looked good but tasted good. the tentacle on the plate looked great and it wasn’t too tough. pork belly had manila clams, cilantro, celeriac puree, pickled apple and fennel. the crackling on this dish was unreal, so crisp and delicious. nice that the dish had clams too. cornish hen had green tomatoes, arugula, couscous and roasted pepper emulsion. hen was not bad, but the couscous was pretty dope. arctic char was delicious. cooked well and had good flavor on the skin. would get again for sure. entrecote frites was pretty good. it was a grilled 10oz. ribeye steak, foie gras butter, frites & truffle aioli. pretty goodsteakand had added flavor with that truffle aioli. out of the 3 desserts we had, the beignets were the best. chocolate cake was pretty good, and the lemon tart was ok too, but the beignets were bomb. fluffy and light and 2 types of dipping sauces.
the marc is just south of jasper on 106st. not right on jasper but worth a walk or drive. atmosphere was kinda plain to me, nothing really stood out except for the french cuisine. the service was great and the lunch menu looks just as good as the dinner menu. gonna have to eat here again for lunch.

sal says: just eat it (4/5)

#yeg #yegfood #food #foodie #foodporn #foodgasm #foodpics #foodstagram #instafood #delicious #hungry #yummy #dinner #lunch #yegdt #french

nice place, simple decor, open atmosphere which could get loud if dining amongst large groups.steakwell cooked add a little foie gras and it's super buttery and tasty. well thought out menu with focus on quality of food prepared with the right complement of sides. dessert menus matched well and equally pleasing the the palette.

went here about 7 months ago but i just started my food blog recently so i'll be writing about a few memorable places. i highly recommend thesteakif you're dining at the marc! the duck leg was alright but nothing special.

greeted by the owner upon arrival. sat down around 745 and ordered an appy and 2 main courses pretty quickly. thesteaktartar was quite good but warning for those who are scared of eating raw food as this is completely raw. i think we waited for over an hr after we sat down until we got our main course..the wait was quite long and cold as the ac was quite strong and cooled down my tea quickly. our waitress jenn was quite nice and checked in on us occasionally. my partner ordered the steak+frites which was good. i ordered the cornish hen which came with cabbage+bacon and potatoes (its nice for those who want something light). we ordered beignets for dessert - it tasted good but its similar to a chinese dimsum dessert and i think  i find that one better. i'll prob come back...but hopefully the wait isn't as long next time

i really enjoyed this restaurant. at first i thought it was too small which makes restaurants harder to be intimate. but the crowd was a loud bunch so i didn't feel like everyone was listing in on our conversation. the tables are kinda close together and i felt really far away from my date. (boyfriend). but once we had our wine and complimentary bread and butter we settled in quite nicely. our waitress suggested a pinot grigio ($14) which was nice and i tried a bubbly (the cheaper of the two, $10) it was a nice crisp bubbly. we tried the escargot which came with a bone marrow centrepiece and crisp bread. it was very delicious, and it was flavourful enough that we shared it and we were happy with what we got. we each had steak, my boyfriend had the entrecôte frites and i had the grilled bavette. the pictures on this app show exactly what they look like. mysteakwas a little too red for my liking but i honestly ate everything. my plate seemed small but the flavours are so powerful that you were full by the end of it. spaetzle, green beans and spinach came on my plate with some gingery grainy mustard. it was a very yummy combination. my boyfriend really enjoyed hissteakand fries. he was really happy with the portions! we tried their donuts for dessert (which came with a sparkler for my boyfriends birthday) they were hot and delicious and light. we would go back for sure to try their other interesting dishes. service was wonderful too, constantly checking in but also gave us our space. i'm very happy i chose this place for a celebratory occasion.

average, sadly. valentines day 2015 - table of 4

have to applaud them on not overbooking for the occasion and they staggered the seating perfectly to not have a rush on the kitchen or have people waiting to be seated. nicely done!

service was quite good. food not so much...

soup was quite nice and the highlight, really.
escargot was bland.
pate was also quite tasteless.
rib eye was more like a minutesteak- they tried to prepare it med-rare but, you try doing that with a 1/4 inch piece of meat. and, served with fries? at least try, yeah. substituted the sides from the flank entre, though the vegetables were bland there as well and they hid quite well on the plate.
tiny donuts for desert were quite nice.

overall, the food was not what it had been even a few months ago, though the service was still top notch.

hope they bring back the quality. wondering if they changed chefs?

a gem. char croquettes - just seemed to be full of fish, great sauce, beautiful and delicious dish.
escargot - solid
ribeye - perfectly cooked, greatsteakflavour that was perfectly seasoned, fries were a bit over salted - though i kind of like that on my fries. beststeaki've had in edmonton.
flanksteak- perfectly cooked and tender.
beignets - just had some a few months ago in nola and unfortunately i thought the ones at the marc were a little undercooked in the middle.

atmosphere was subdued, romantic.

service was fantastic - there only when needed.

look forward to going back....

wife and i came here for the first time for a saturday date night. we arrived about 15min early for our reservation (at 6pm) and were seated right away. we were immediately given a drink menu and a set 3 course meal menu and were told that as soon as two regular dinner menus were free they would give use some to review as well - which was a bit odd but not really an issue. in the meantime we ordered drinks. after about 10min we got the regular dinner menus and decided on arctic char croquettes to start, braised pork cheeks and encrote and frites (ribeyesteakas fries) for me and my wife to share as we both wanted to taste each of the entrees. the arctic char croquettes (2 per order) were small in size one being about a bit smaller than a medium sized egg but they tasted good and the sauce and greens it was seved on was good as well. the pork cheeks were tender and had little to no fatty parts plus the peas and cabbage served on the side were delicious and really made the whole dish. i would have loved more of the sauce it came with as the fingerling potatoes left my mouth dry while eating this. thesteakand fries was amazing with the expectation of the large amount of fatty gristle - now i order ribeyes almost whenever i can so i know it is fatty but this cut specifically had a lot more fat/gristle than i have ever had. the foie gras butter really kept thesteakmoist and tasty and the fries, truffle aioli and even the arugula parmesan salad were top notch! will definitley order again next time. we wrapped up with the beignets which were good and actually reminded me exactly of a fresh chinese donut (the sugar coated ones you can get at dim sum). the whole bill came to just under $100 (before gratuity) for two drinks, one app, 2 entrees and dessert - which to me was well worth it. will definitley be back the next time we get a craving for french fare done well!

good food, reasonably priced, generous portions.. had dinner with friends around christmas. orderedsteaktartare and house special of sausages. taste of food very good, price was reasonable considering the portions.

2 home runs, 2 strikeouts and some olives.. the marc has been at the top of my must-do dinning spots for a long time. them being closed sundays makes it quite tough to make it in.
we ended up getting a reservation on a friday for 7 people with no reservation and at the very end of the night. however or whoever made that happened, thank you, it was very much appreciated.
since it was quite late, we ordered mostly appetizers. one couple split a salad and one of us had the cornish game hen.
the absolute highlight was the cornish hen. cooked perfectly, seasoned just right, the veggies matched the protein nicely and the pan jus brought everything together in perfect harmony. thesteaktartare was the main reason we went. a few of us love tartare and they did not disappoint. a classic done just the way it should be. the escargot was nice as well, very nice presentation, but i felt it lacked the richness i enjoy with escargot. that might just be a personal opinion though.
on the other end of things the rillette did not impress. there really wasn't any balance. the texture was something like rendered fat(i know it contains rendered fat) and canned tuna. the flavour wasn't much different. the port figs just felt like heavy on heavy and provided no reprieve to the fatty rillette at all. needless to say, it was quite a let down. the other dish that didn't make the cut was the octopus. the spice on the octopus was a pasty flour texture, so much so that i couldn't taste much else. this stung a little as we really enjoy octopus and most of the meat remained untouched.
two things other i wanted to address, firstly, the wine list is small, but awesome. we had a spectacular wine with supper and that always makes for better meal. the second is the service. our waitress was to say the least very accommodating to us, even though we were a bit of a handful. her knowledge of the menu was perfect and it wouldn't have been the same meal without her. one more mention to whoever got us the table, that went a long way with us.
overall, you really can't get much better service and the food, although maybe a little inconsistent, had some really really good dishes. i wouldn't hesitate to recommend this place, but i'd likely hint at passing on a few dishes.

one of the best meals in edmonton. my husband and i wanted to try something new for our anniversary...after reading some reviews on the marc we decided 6pm on saturday would be perfect...from the time we sat down to the time we left we were treated like we were the only people in the restaurant...service was outstanding...i love french wine so the wine list was great...i chose the chefs special a venison sausage to die for very rich well it's a french restaurant so it's to be expected... my husband true to form ordered the rib eyesteakwhich was amazing also...i have to give a shout out to the bartender his gin martini was probably the best i've ever had especially here in edmonton...we were stuffed but had to try their special beignets...worth the wait mmmmmmm....it's not cheap but you get what you pay for we will be back this time...

awesome!. you know i'm one of those who is completely guilty of using this site, always trying new restaurants and never writing reviews myself. well the marc has finally got me to write one! my husband and i booked here last minute saturday night and it was soooooooooo worth it! we had both thesteaktartare and the escargot to start. the tartare was awesome, and the escargot were good as well. we like thesteakbetter. my husband also had the ribeye which he was very impressed with (that means a lot coming from asteakman like him) and i had the seared scallops which were to die for! prices were also reasonable, by no means is it a 'cheap' restaurant, but hey if you are a foodie it was well worth the money to us. you pay for what you get! best meal i've had in awhile, came out nice and hot!! will be back soon, as i was craving it as soon as we left!