Marea

Cuisine	Italian
Price	$$$$$ (over 100)
Rating	9/10
Last Visit	June 9, 2019
Location	New York: Midtown

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General Notes

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Marea is a two-Michelin star Italian restaurant specializing in seafood and homemade pastas. The restaurant experience is well-deserving of its Michelin star rating. The food at Marea is certainly more traditional than many other similar restaurants, but they execute their menu very well, and I really appreciate well-executed traditional restaurants. The menu is relatively expansive and the choices were nice, but not so much so that you would feel overwhelmed by the choices. I would recommend going all the way and getting the $122 four-course menu, although you could certainly also go for just an appetizer and a pasta. This was one of the best restaurant experiences I've ever had, and I would absolutely recommend giving this place a try!

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Positives

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> Perhaps this is normal for a Michelin star restaurant, but we received a lot of complementary dishes with our meal. We ordered the $122 four-course menu. The complementary dishes included the pea/anchovy tarts at the beginning, a free dessert (bomboloni), and tiramisu tarts at the end. It was a pleasant surprise and nice addition to our meal.
> The server was really kind and helpful! She was knowledgeable about the menu and gave us some great drink recommendations. I asked for white wine recommendations, and she actually brought three different white wines (one dry, one sweeter, one more mineral-y) for me to try. She explained the difference between the three to me and I ultimately decided on the Riesling (the sweeter one). A great learning experience and I even got a complementary wine tasting!
> The atmosphere of the restaurant is amazing. Obviously, being at the southwest corner of Central Park helps. But I really like the way the restaurant is laid out - the tables are arranged in a ring around the outside, with a wall in the middle. Even though the restaurant is pretty large, it feels much more cozy and comfortable. Of course the decor is beautiful too.
> This is probably nothing out of the ordinary for an upscale Italian restaurant, but the bread is excellent! The servers will come and offer bread to you at an appropriate time (though you can always request more if you'd like). I highly recommend trying their rosemary sea salt focaccia. Their other options are solid as well, and there's a bottle of amazing olive oil at the table.

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Dishes Tasted

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• ★★★★ Rieisling, Barrel x Peter Lauer -- I typically don't include drinks in here, but this is mostly to remember what I ordered. (Saar, Germany) - "…a classic and complex off-dry riesling bursting with notes of stone fruit, wild herbs, and slate."
• ★★★★ Bomboloni -- Ricotta doughnuts, cinnamon sugar, apple jam, lemongrass cream, honey. A bit more dense than a typical doughnut, but also softer and chewier. I absolutely loved the textural component that the ricotta added. The lemongrass cream was ethereal, and the apple jam and cinnamon sugar added a nice touch as well.
• ★★★★ Cioccolato -- Dark chocolate mousse, hazelnut praline, passion fruit caramel. I didn't even order this (I just had a little bit), but it was absolutely amazing. Beautiful flavor combination and I love the contrast in texture. Looks kind of funny (like a poop) but I was pleasantly surprised by the different layers.
• ★★★☆ Semifreddo -- Lemon semifreddo, almond sable, coffee, cinnamon sabayon. My first time having semifreddo - it had a texture kind of like a frozen mousse. It isn't necessarily my favorite dessert, but I loved the flavor combination. The almond sable added a nice textural component as well.
• ★★★☆ Brodetto di Pesce -- Adriatic seafood soup, langoustine, mussels, clams, scallop, prawn, bass. Each element of the dish was cooked well. I especially enjoyed the scallops, which had a beautiful texture and had a nice sear on the top. It was served in an intensely flavorful seafood soup. I wasn't the biggest fan of the bread it was served with (a bit burnt at places). Otherwise a really solid and delicious dish though.
• ★★★★ Pansotti -- Squid ink lobster ravioli, coral bottarga. This was by far the best pasta dish I have ever had. The pasta was cooked beautifully and there was a lot of filling, so you could noticeably taste the lobster. The sauce was what made elevated this dish to another level - intensely flavorful of lobster, well seasoned, and a good level of acidity.
• ★★★☆ Polipo -- Grilled octopus, smoked potatoes, radish, pickled red onions, chili, tonnato. The octopus was cooked beautifully. The sauce was perhaps a bit underseasoned and could use a bit more acidity, but I liked the texture, which was quite grainy. The presentation of the dish was really cool though.