Club street is full of restaurants, pubs and cafes and since a few years back, the government has decided to close Club street road on Sat evenings to make it a pedestrian walking street. Restaurants start putting out tables al fresco style and the whole street feels like an alley in Europe. The Merci Marcel is located at the corner of Club street just before the road closure.
From the outside, the restaurant looks extremely cosy and quaint. The inside is quite small and the tables are all quite close to each other. We were shown to a very small table even when we had a party of 3. I wished we were given a bigger table.
The menu was colourful and remind me of a cafetoria more than a up class restaurant.
There are about 6 items for starters , 8 dishes for sharing and another 8 dishes for mains. Regretfully there is another a handful of dishes suitable for non beef or non meat diners. A lot of the items were beef dishes which I could not take.
We ordered 3 starters to share, the first is the ravioli which came in a cream sauce. The ravioli is very well done with the pasta slightly al dente but with very soft cheese filling. The sauce is like the carbonara cream sauce which is creamy yet light on the palate.
Next we had the aged ham platter which had a bread basket and a small pot of gherkins to complement the ham. The ham is very fresh and of a good grade.
The duck rillettes came on top of a sour dough and melted cheese and a slice of green apple. The apple and cheese created a great balance with the salty duck rillettes.
Our mains was the grilled Catalonia Octopus with fried Kale on a bed of mashed sweet potatoes. The kale was very crispy and nice but a tad salty while the mash was very sweet and smooth. The grilled octopus was slightly over cooked and rubbery to chew on.
Our last main was the duck confit on a potato pancake with fresh salad. We had expected the dish to be the entire duck leg but was surprised it was the shredded duck confit.
Overall, the food is quite nice but with some dishes a bit salty or over cooked. The only thing is that the price is very high for the quality of dishes offered and the service was mediocre. The table we were seated at was too small to accommodate our dishes comfortably and we felt hurried to finish our food to make space.
Address: 7-9, Club St, 069403
Operating hours: 9 am to 12 am
Bear Travels . Bear Eats . Bear Cooks 