| rev:text
| - Great food at a great looking restaurant, just the service is a bit lacking...
Went here for Summerlicious on Sunday for dinner with a group of friends, and I had actually encouraged the choice because of how much I enjoyed the "John's burger" during my other visits at the restaurant (Winterlicious 2015) - as it was one of the top burgers in the city from an article I read a year or so ago.
From the outside, the restaurant had renovated to become much more accessible compared to its previous setup, and it looked like a nice place to sit and eat had it not been so humid this past weekend.
I ordered the Mezze Platter to start, followed by the John's burger, and ending with the Dark Chocolate Brownie. I decided to pair my burger (or at least I thought I'd be able to pair it together) with one of their craft beers on tap (forgot the name, but the server recommended it as I was looking for Creemore...) This is where the experience starts to go downhill for my group.
The appetizers arrived fairly on time - within 10min or so of ordering, with the drinks coming a bit earlier. The platter with its flat bread and humus were good - a touch on the salty side personally - but not overly salty. Two pieces were perfectly cooked, however the third piece of bread was definitely overcooked and much more on the crispy side, almost like a slightly overcooked thin crust pizza.
Then the wait. Oh the wait...
We arrived at 630 for our reservation, served with our appetizers by 650ish, but the mains did not arrive until almost 8PM! Almost a whole HOUR had gone by from when we finished our appetizers until we received our main dishes (which were all burgers by the way), and we were only told once, maybe 10 minutes before the food arrived, that "Sorry folks, your food is coming in a minute". The restaurant was not even close to being packed, as there were empty seats around, and there looked like only one or two other larger parties than us.
I mean the burger was amazing - juicy, cooked medium rare, soft with the right amount of toppings (if you hate pickled anything, DON'T skimp on them - they taste amazing!) and the fries were flavoured so nicely, but the patties seemed smaller than the last time I had them (during winterlicious). In addition, the wait just KILLED the whole experience! I wasn't even eating it slowly to enjoy the flavours anymore, I was just eating the burger because I'd been starving.
The brownie was nothing special either... it reminded me of those two bite brownies you'd get at Loblaws but with a slightly darker chocolate. The berries and the mint paste were a nice subtle addition, but it wasn't spectacular.
In retrospect one of my friends and I regret getting the Summerlicious menu, and probably should've just opted for the burger on its own (which is $19 if I remember correctly vs the $35 for the summerlicious menu) as we could've done away with our apps and desserts had we known they'd be a bit lacking.
My first visit - a non "Licious" day - was probably my favourite experience at Marben, and I'd like to give the restaurant another shot simply because of that experience alone. The last two licious visits have not been so kind - especially on the service side - but I'm hoping it can be turned around sooner than later.
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