Marlon -- Restaurant Review

159 Rue de Grenelle, 75007 Paris
Metro: Line 8 (Ecole Militaire) 
Check website for operating hours and contact 
http://www.restaurantmarlon.fr/

Rating Standards: 5-Stars = Extraordinary; 4-Stars = Excellent; 3-Stars = Average; 2-Stars = Fair; 1-Star = Poor

€ = Inexpensive: 30€ and under; €€ = Moderate: 31€-49€; €€€ = Expensive: €50 -75; €€€€ = Very Expensive: more than €76 (prices based on minimum 2-courses)

1-Bell = Pleasantly quiet (less than 65 decibels); 2-Bells = Can talk easily (65-70); 3-Bells = Talking normally gets difficult (70-80); 4-Bells = Can talk only in raised voices (75-90); BOMB = Too noisy for normal conversation (90+)

3 - Star....................................................€€........................................................ 2 - Bell

My good friend from LA suggested we go to this restaurant for lunch. Interestingly it's a restaurant specializing in "Californian" cuisine. It's located in the 7eme, close to the Rue Cler which is a well known area for tourist as a result of Rick Steves review of that area. So, many in the area speak English and oftentimes we call it "Little America".  So, it's appropriate to see this type of restaurant in this area. Plus the 6 of us who went are all from California.

As you can see from the menu, it's very eclectic Californian cuisine. While we were perusing the menu, we had 2-orders of guacamole. It was actually pretty good. It could've been a little spicier for me, but the rest thought it was just fine.

Notice, this is a typical restaurant you would see in any California city. So, it was actually quite comforting to see a taste of home.



















The interior of the restaurant was quite nice and simple. Again, it looked like a restaurant that you would easily see in LA, with a bar as you enter the restaurant.

Our lunches were very simple.

Jeffe salad. I had this salad and this definitely reminded me of California. The chef used real (American style) bacon, what a treat. It reminded me of a cobb salad, except rather than corn, they used dried corn kernels. I had moist chicken, eggs and iceberg lettuce with a creamy blue cheese dressing. I thought it could've been elevated had they used chunks of blue cheese, but other than that, it was delicious.

Cuban Club Sandwich.  It was a good looking sandwich and came with french fries.  By making it a 'club' sandwich it lost some of its 'Cubanishness' but it was none the less tasty with chunks of pork and chicken.  Some Cuban sandwiches might be very moist but this was not.  I don't recall if there were any pickles (cornichones).  Tasty.












Other dishes. I forgot to take photos of the other dishes we had, but basically one friend had the shrimp tempura tacos, and he thought it was delicious, and very Californian. Some others had the quinoa salad that they thought was good as well.

Desserts. The table shared churros with warm chocolate and a sundae. Now I haven't seen any sundaes sold in Paris, so we all thought it was nice to see it on the menu. Both dishes were good, with the churros having an edge over the sundae.  There also was a Chocolate Mug Cake (lava cake) with mostly 'lava' and little cake, which is heaven, and which was so large it required a doggy bag.  Just Jack had the fruit bowl.

Louis Jadot - Bourgogne Couvent des Jacobins 2013. Sometimes known as the “ambassador” of pinot. It’s very light, with nice long-lasting red fruit aromas with some spicy touch.



















SUMMARY

If you're from California and missing our style of cuisine, then this is the place for you. The chef lived in southern California, in fact mostly in San Diego. So, he brought what he learned there to Paris. It's a great for lunch, and the food is very good, but nothing out of the ordinary from a typical restaurant of this caliber in California. Would I go back, ABSOLUTELY, especially if I'm missing California type of cuisine.  And, as usual for French restaurants, and unusual for Mexican inspired ones, the food was not very spicy (chili). 

For 2-guacamoles, 2-bottle waters, 1-glass of chablis, 1-bottle of red wine, 2-cokes, 1-jarritos lime drink, 6-plats, 3-desserts, and 2-coffees our bill came to 235€ or 39.16€ per person.