Marco Paulo

Back in January, I reviewed the excellent Frank’s Speakeasy in Mount Edgecombe, and had plenty of good things to say about their wide range of beers, super-cool waiters, and epic burgers. Of course Frank’s is only half of the story, and is separated from the more upmarket Marco Paulo bistro by only a colourful stained glass window.

Marco Paulo itself actually has quite a lot of glass, with a semi-circular floor to ceiling glass wall forming the front of the venue, providing views into the bustling depths of the single space restaurant that holds 20 or so tables. Sadly the view from inside the restaurant looking out is only of the parking lot, which tends to be a bit annoying when SUV headlights are flicked on and glare inside.

On the night that we visited, it was unusually cold for Durban, and the first table that we were seated at felt cold and soulless, being placed directly against the glass wall, with the bright lights of the parking lot spilling across the table, and the cold air from the open doors whistling past us. Happily, after making our unhappiness with the seating arrangement known, the manager very smoothly relocated us to a table deeper inside the room, which suited us much better. The more exterior tables are probably a great place to sit at during the day, but definitely not where you want to be for a romantic dinner.

Speaking of romance, many of the reviews of Marco Paulo mention that it is a very loud space, which is true – not necessarily a bad thing, but the atmosphere is more bustling than intimate. In my review of Franks I mentioned the great 90’s soundtrack of Counting Crows and Third Eye Blind – unfortunately on this visit, the same 12 songs (Counting Crows featured prominently again) were on repeat, meaning that we heard each song twice by the end of our meal. When one can fit almost 500 songs onto an ipod shuffle, this is really inexcusable, but it has happened at two of the restaurants that I have eaten at recently.

Technically, a ‘bistro’ like Marco Paulo is a small, modestly priced restaurant that serves simple, homestyle meals. In recent years, however, (or is it perhaps just in South Africa?) the term seems to have taken on the opposite meaning, evoking an upmarket, fine dining atmosphere. Perhaps 9^th Avenue Bistro is to blame here. Anyway, Marco Paulo is on the upper end of Durban restaurants, with main meals generally between R120 and R180.

Marco Paulo styles itself as a ‘world food’ bistro, which is kind of misleading, as the thrust is very much Italian, with pizza, pasta and risotto sections on the menu. Throwing in a Thai red curry afterthought doesn’t really make you world food. Actually, an international vibe would be nice, as the menu choices, while tasty sounding, are rather traditional (fillet with red wine reduction or peppercorn sauce, spaghetti bolognaise, Hawaiian pizza and so on).

For starters I opted for the snails – there were nine of them which was enticing, and they weren’t served in one of those weird little artists palette plates, which was also nice – those always make me feel like I’m in a pub. The snails came three ways; in a champagne butter, a more traditional gorgonzola and a fairly unusual tomato and red pepper sauce. All of them were good, although the gorgonzola was probably my favourite; I guess sometimes the classic options are just the best.

Our other starter was the camembert spring rolls with a chilli, tomato and ginger relish. The spring rolls were delightfully bite-sized, a little stack of seven or so, and made for great finger food. The cheese was good and strong, although the relish was a little uninspired, without much bite provided by either the chilli or the ginger.

I had read a review that particularly praised the peri-peri chicken, so despite not normally ordering chicken out, I decided to give it a try, and was glad that I did. The bird was deboned, which makes eating so much easier, and the sauce was wonderfully fragrant and spicy. It was served atop a pile of shoestring fries, which soaked up the extra sauce in a very satisfying half crunchy, half juicy kind of way. Apparently not everyone likes it served in this fashion – the waiter offered to serve the chips on the side – but I definitely recommend it as is.

Seeing as there is a whole risotto section on the menu here, we assumed it would be safe to order a beef fillet with risotto side (underdone risotto is my pet peeve). The beef fillet turned out to be excellent, one of the tastiest, tender-est steaks I’ve enjoyed in Durban. The risotto, sadly, was underdone – not terribly, but definitely more crunchy than creamy, so that was disappointing. The red wine reduction was alright, although thin – a little more reducing could have been done while the risotto finished cooking. Strangely, a few large chunks of unadvertised butternut and some green beans were hidden underneath the risotto, almost as if we were children that had to be conned into eating our veg.

Desert – expect to see crème brûlée (we were offered espresso flavoured) as well as chocolate fondant and some old school classics including an apple crumble. After enjoying the fondant when visiting Franks, I stuck with the tried and trusted and found it just as good the second time around.

Verdict? Vibey atmosphere, good service, generally good food (and an interesting wine list). If I had to summarise my issue with Marco Paulo, it’s simply that the food is not as adventurous as I would have expected. That, and the underdone risotto.