Marble Restaurant — Restaurant in Gauteng

A Johannesburg fine-dining institution. Probably one of the most popular places to see and be seen.

This is an upscale restaurant with the decor, lighting, setup, cleanliness reflecting the high standards and the high prices.

Has a great bar area which overlooks Northcliff so a great spot for sunset views and sundowners.

When it comes to food, the focus is on grilled dishes with wine pairings of both South African and International origin.

Went there for a company event as a group of 30 people and was surprised to see the restaurant being packed on a Wednesday. They have very limited parking on the street and an under construction building’s parking area also being used, but I am sure if you go there at peak times you will struggle to park.

The cocktail selection is extensive and looks good. When it comes to food I had a prawn/avo salad for starters and a sirloin steak for mains which was served with a side of eggplant and some other veggies. In my opinion the food is average, the meat is not seasoned so you have to add extra salt, sauce on top which defeats the joy of a good steak. The dessert menu looks delicious but unfortunately didn’t get to sample it.

Service was not the best but we were a big group on a busy night so will not hold it against them.

As other patrons have mentioned the bathrooms are beautiful. And they have these outside areas where either you can sneak in a smoke or an Instagram/Tiktok reel.

Overall the restaurant is great for the views, drinks and the decor but in my opinion the food doesn’t match up to its standards and prices.

Off-course their other patrons might disagree as I could see from the crowds but I wonder if “the seen and be seen” mentality also plays to that.

I read a restaurant reviewer mentioning the term “tinder date restaurant” when reviewing a restaurant and I think it’s an apt description for Marble as well. If you are trying to impress your date, take instagram pictures or maybe having a business meeting, this is a good place, for food I think there are many other...

We are not familiar with the Johannesburg restaurant scene, so I can only compare this restaurant to other places in South Africa, especially in Cape Town, the winelands, and Pretoria. I am making my comparison based on the reviews (very good), the price (rather high), and the general atmosphere of the place, which is very classy and modern. Also to say that our service was great, and our criticism felt noticed and appreciated (no other reaction beside the shift manager, I assume, dropping by and asking for our feedback.

The main criteria for a restaurant, the food, was overall disappointing. The starters were good, but not particularly noteworthy. For the mains, we had the fillet, the game, and the pork belly. For all dishes the compositions were weird. It felt like the sides were not really connected to the protein and the sauces were watery. The pork belly was dry. The game was particularly disappointing, it was bland and tasted like something that you can buy at a supermarket deli counter. While the description read nicely, the game ended up being a skewer of meat, not particularly seasoned, a bland casserole, one roasted carrot and two islands of carrot salad. For half the price, maybe acceptable, but not for 340 rand. The texture, taste, and look were soft, mushy, and boring. As I wrote before, we expressed this feedback to the waiter and the manager and it was acknowledged, but nothing more.

The desserts were fine, although not outstanding, except for the Pavlova, which was creative and combined several interesting tastes and textures. We had the desserts that came specifically recommend by our waiter, so I assume that these were the best ones they had. My recommendation would be to always choose the Pavlova.

At the current price point, I cannot recommend this restaurant, and we would not return. This is unfortunate, because it's a trendy place with good service and a nice atmosphere - if only the food...

Service was very good but felt rushed. Started with a Don Julio Reposado cocktail from menu, felt a little light on tequila so ordered another shot of Don Julio to add and was told that they use Espolon...that's very sneaky, naming a brand on your menu that is almost twice the price of the brand you actually use in your cocktail.

Ordered Marble Bites and Snails for starters. Came out within minutes of ordering. Snails were bubbling hot and marble bites were all room temp, not expected as they are a sausage roll, wings and game skewer. There was not sufficient time passing between us ordering and food getting to table for cooking, so this must have been pre prepared. Disappointing at any time especially when you are paying this price point. Snails were excellent, fat juicy snails improved by the additional of a tomato and onion relish rather than standard cheesy garlic snails found widely.

For mains we ordered Tsitsikama fillet which was not available so had the ribeye medium and a seafood platter (fish and seafood) for 1. The fat on ribeye was not rendered well so inedible in places and steak was medium rare not medium, hasselback potato accompanying it was undercooked so went uneaten. Sauce was very good. Seafood platter was huge...excellent calamari, rice that was very unique and delicious, fish and prawns cooked beautifully. A seafood bisque that accompanied was bitter, luckily tasted it before putting on anything.

Decided to skip dessert but were given a macaron as it was one of the parties birthday, this was hard and overcooked...a dry meringue masquerading as a macaron.

It was a special occasion and we looked forward to our dinner at Marble but left feeling like we'd wasted our money. Food was hit and miss at best and felt very rushed. Little touches and attention to detail could make the food excellent...I will...