This month’s Culinary Club visited marjorie, a tiny, tucked-away little restaurant toward the north end of Belltown.
If you’re not looking for it, you might walk right by and never know you passed, but if you keep a sharp eye out on 2nd between Bell and Battery to the west, you’ll spot a tiny restaurant, whose entrance opens into a tiny alley, where patrons sit for hours enjoying the (purposefully?) relaxed pace of service, gentle evening breezes, white lights tucked in trees that stretch over tables and forty feet into the air, and candle light once the sun goes down. Caveats: marjorie is not a restaurant to visit if you’re in a hurry. Our meal took about 2.5 – 3 hours in total from start to finish. They could speed it up for you, most likely, but why hurry? Also, this is not the place for large parties. Outside seating cannot accommodate more than 4, and indoors looked pretty tight as well.
marjorie was, in my opinion, probably the best restaurant we’ve been to so far in the 8 months Culinary Club has been going on. So let’s get to the food! The cocktails were refreshing and tasty, but pricey. The margarita (Ciara’s choice, and the drink for which the restaurant is most famous) rang in at $12, and the mojito (my selection) was $10. Both were served in short glasses.
The “Trenchtown,” served in short glass as well was also good. Although it was never clear what the actual alcohol in that drink was, it was described as a being made from sugar cane, and as a sweeter version of rum. It tasted very much like a mojito, with a slight and mysterious scent of tequila.
Our table ordered 2 $30, 3-course, pre-fixe meals (one vegetarian, and one “meal-lovers”) and two $45 “Chef’s whim,” 5-course meals that change nightly to the Chef’s, well, whim. Last night he/she was on his/her game! Each course was very small in volume, but absolutely packed with flavor. We all shared a half-order (plenty!) of plantain chips (sort of like long thin potato chips) with an avocado, onion, pineapple, lime, and herb dip. So flavorful and light!
The 3-course pre-fixe meals:
Course 1: Simple Salad; field greens in a light balsamic vinaigrette, which was just a bit salty (not in a bad way).
Course 2: Polenta (vegetarian – this course and selection received the lowest rating of the evening with 6 out of 10) and tri-tip (carnivore) (cooked medium rare, as ordered!) with asparagus tips (which I usually don’t like, but here even they were great!), and golden potatoes
Course 3: Rhubarb tart; fantastic – flavorful, delicate crust, with a sort of lemony ice cream/sorbet on top.
The 5-course Chef’s Whim taster menu:
Course 1: White salmon; incredibly tasty. (Cooked medium-rare, so if you like your salmon cooked through, you’ll need to specify…)
Course 2: One scallop. One very tasty, tasty scallop with a delightful honey sauce of some kind
Course 3: Pallet cleansing mango sorbet
Course 4: Lobster over lentil ragout. The lobster had a bit of shell still on (no biggie) and the ragout was surprisingly flavorful.
Course 5: Creme Brulee with rhubarb atop.
Everything was wonderful, and we would all go back again (and can’t wait to!). Bottom line? Go to marjorie – it will not disappoint.
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