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Marazul – Yet another new restaurant in Seattle

1 March 2007 No Comment

Marazul is the new Asian-Latino restaurant opened in South Lake Union, on top of the Whole Foods Market on Westlake Ave, next to the Pan-Pacific hotel and Live 2200 condos. They just opened last Thursday (Feb 22nd), and when we decided to grab a quick bite out on Tuesday night, we had no problem agreeing on the restaurant for a change. The description of their cuisine – a fusion of Cuba, the Caribbean islands, and Indo-Asian territories – sounded very appetizing to us, and the menu looked amazing, so it was a very quick and easy decision.

So we ended up at Marazul around 8:30 pm on Tuesday, the parking is the same as the Whole Foods Market parking, in the garage under the building, and is validated by the restaurant. The restaurant is pretty big, and the theme is very island inspired. The walls are bright blue on one side, and an earthy brownish-orange on the other. There are these huge light diffusers on the ceiling, that kind of look like huge banana leaves/palm trees. And the entry wall has a floor to ceiling waterfall. Overall, I like the decor and the ambiance. We dined at the restaurant, the Rhum bar looked pretty cool too, but we didn’t go in there this time.

The service is just what you would expect from a place that’s been only open for 5 days, the waiting staff had not much idea about the drinks, and had to go back to the bar multiple times to answer our questions. Also, there were only about three or four table full of patrons that night, and the staff were just standing around, staring at customers. Just waiting to grab your plate as soon as you are done! But overall, they were very friendly and attentive if not a little too attentive for my choice.

Their drink menu looked too good to pick just one drink. But it was a weekday, and we didn’t really want to drink in the first place, so we decided to pick just one each. It was a tough choice to make, with all those different types of Rhums (Latin for Rum?) and Martinis and signature cocktails, but finally we settled on two.

My drink: Los Angelinos – Kettle One Vodka with Lychee & Guava juices and Coco Lopez (Cream of coconut blended with equal amount of sugarcane juice) and decorated with an edible flower. This not only looked amazing, but it was just like a fresh island drink… I could close my eyes and imagine myself in a Caribbean beach.

His Drink: Samba Lips – Jose Cuervo, fresh chilies, lime and demerara (raw cane sugar) – It was so strong, I just took a sniff and got drunk! Really, it was just straight up tequila in a martini glass with a piece of chili in it, I couldn’t taste any lime or sugar!

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In the food menu, they have a small plates section with ceviches, sushi, tapas, soups and salads, and a large plate section divided by sea and land. Everything is meant to be shared. We decided to get a soup and a tapa and two of the large plates, and that was just too much food for two people. Here is the run down on the food.

Codfish Croquettas

I liked these, even though these were more potatoes than fish. There were two croquettes served on pieces of green tomatillos and in a coconut tomato sauce. The texture was deliciously soft, and went really well with the sauce and the tomatillo, but other than a small fishiness to the sauce, I failed to notice any fish taste at all! But it was a great dish.

Curry Potato & Leek Bisque

We had two options for the soup, a cup for $3.50 or a bowl for $4.50. Naturally, we went for a bowl and big mistake, the bowl was huge, too much soup for two! While the soup was flavorful, it was a little too watery, and just lukewarm. But there was a distinguished curry taste to it that I liked.

Char Sui Beef Short Ribs with Orange-Vanilla sauce and cassava boniato(a Cuban sweet potato) mash.

The short ribs were really yummy; those were cooked till the meat was almost falling off the ribs, so soft. But the combination with the orange vanilla sauce was just not right. The sauce was too candy-ish for our taste. I loved the cassava mash, it reminded me of a dish my mom used to make back home. So we kind of skipped over the sauce and just had the ribs, and it was pretty good.

Lemongrass Chicken Lollypop with Sweet Tamarind sauce, Coconut Sticky rice, mustard greens and mango pickle.

This was the biggest disappointment of the night. Chicken Lollypop is a famous Indo-Chinese dish made with chicken wings, and does look like small lollypops. Since Marazul is supposed to have Indian influence, we were so sure this dish is at least kind of based on our traditional Indian version. But boy, were we disappointed! This was nothing but a very bland breaded chicken breast cutlet served on top of very bland rice and mustard greens. The side of mango pickle, with mangoes and ginger was pretty good, but the tamarind sauce was kind of blah too. Overall, a dish to be avoided completely!

I think for a new restaurant, they did a decent job. Food is not the best out there, but for the prize, it is not all that bad. The most expensive large plate (short ribs) is $16.75. They only serve dinner now, lunch will start pretty soon. We will definitely go back, but maybe we will sit at the Rhum bar and try some more of the amazing drinks and make a meal out of the small plates.

http://www.marazulrestaurant.com