Marrow West Village — Restaurant in Detroit

Well HELLO YOU new Amazing Restaurant! OK so I know this has been open for several months but WOW! It's new to me. First of all don't WALK....RUN!!! If you haven't tried this restaurant it is a MUST! The atmosphere is amazing, the people are amazing and OH did I mention the food is amazing? I highly recommend if you are a Marrow virgin like we were to go for the tasting menu. Uuuuunnnnbbbbeeellllliiiiieeevvvvaaaabbbbllllleee. We sat at the chefs table which was so much fun. We had the honor to watch all the magic happen. We also had the honor of sitting right next to the sous chef Phoebe, who educated us, guided us and was part of our unbelievable experience.What a beautiful person she is. As was Stephanie who was our culinary representative (I don't believe a waiter/waitress/server is a great title anymore. A culinary representative is much more descriptive of what they do and know!) and did a fabulous job recommending a yummy cocktail and the tasting menu. She was sweet, made sure we were OK and approached the evening with a big beautiful smile! We watched Annika in the kitchen and Emma too and they were both so sweet and pumped out some amazing food, again with big smiles. We really felt like we were a part of the preparation process. Actually everyone that is a part of this team had smiles on their faces. I told Phoebe this was the most Zen restaurant I have experienced. There was no yelling (in the kitchen) the staff all really respectful of one another, no side eyes and NO ATTITUDES! WOW even if the food wasn't amazing I would go back just to experience the well oiled machine they have going on. OK the FOOD? The FOOD I really can't say enough about the FOOD. Since we did the tasting menu we were able to try so many different dishes. The scallops.....I don't even like scallops and I would have eaten a dozen. (do you order scallops by the dozen? I don't know but I certainly would have! lol) The rice dumplings; so so good, Citrus radish slaw....light, hint of mint, crunch and wonderful. OH...who needs to wait for a cider mill donut? Not me when I can have a slice of kabocha squash dipped in tempura and given a very hot oil bath dolloped with chutney, cheese OK just try it! Last night the meat offering was a lamb kofta! So flavorful with yummy potatoes with a herby mix and a tzatziki sauce. There was more; the food just kept coming! It sadly had to end but not without a bang of sour cream ice cream with a little almond soft cookie/cakey madeline looking piece of deliciousness! Amazing the whole experience. So many restaurants have great food, or great people, or a great ambiance but very few are able to do it all great; Marrow does! I enjoy great food with a friendly team behind it and that is why I loved this experience at Marrow. Thanks you to the Marrow team! You all should be so proud! We...

I didn't try too much here, I really only got one plate and a dessert, but the one plate was fantastically impressive. I got corned tongue, and as someone who doesn't really eat tongue, nor is typically fond of corned meat, this stuff was fantastic. It wasn't too tough like you might expect tongue to be, and the flavor was nice and balanced. The additional food put around this place (carrot mochi, and some fried carrots, if I'm remembering correctly) were great complements to the meat. I then got this simple pot of chocolate dessert. It was good, that's about all I can say about that, and how can you really go wrong with a dish like that?

Aside from the food, I enjoyed the ambiance. The place looked very upscale, yet they had a sort of butcher shop in back. Sitting at the bar I managed to see most things from the menu as others ordered them, and everything had an enticing presentation. It took a lot of willpower not to order the roasted marrow so as to save my wallet from going down a rough trip of food sampling, that stuff looked amazing and from what others said, it was really something to go for.

Additionally, the owner, Pei I think she said her name was, was walking around, and she seemed happy to talk with the patrons and explain the inspiration for this restaurant. Essentially taking less considered meat cuts and foods, and also avoiding waste of any kind. It seems like they're keeping to their mission because their menu had a variety of flavors and many ingredients I don't typically see served, which is refreshing. I can appreciate the work and risk running a restaurant like that must present, especially because you have to convince people this stuff is going to taste as good if not better than what they're used to eating, and this place definitely achieves that kind of presentation and demonstration. It's the kind of cooking I'd like to see more of.

Just another note, their menu lists a "chef's selection" option, which seems to be at a much more affordable price than the typical ones I see elsewhere, and I'll likely be coming back to try that out, so I'll be updating this review with details whenever I get around to that.

I cannot recommend this place...

My wife and I ate at Marrow for dinner the evening of 1/24. We were offered the choice of a tasting menu or ordering off an a la carte menu. The tasting menu didn’t speak to us that night so we decided to order off the a la carte menu. My wife ordered the duck breast with a kimchi caesar salad appetizer. I asked the waitress to describe the “chef’s choice” steak of the night which was a 10 oz NY strip. I ordered the steak and paired it with a wedge salad. Drinks and salads arrived shortly after ordering. Both the cocktails and the salads were delicious so we were off to a good start. When the main entrees arrived, I was surprised to see the steak was served with a fairly large salad and french fries. Had I known this, I likely would’ve ordered a different appetizer. I really felt the waitress should’ve mentioned my entree was coming with a salad when she was describing the option for me. As far as the food itself goes the duck was wonderful but the steak was fairly mediocre which is surprising given this restaurant’s butcher shop gimmick. Firstly I’d say that while it was described at being 10 ounces, I think they must’ve left at least half of it in the kitchen. The plate when it arrived had about 4 strips of cut steak each about 4” long. Seasoned with salt and pepper it was fairly comparable to what you might find at most steak chain restaurants but nothing like what you’d receive at other high end eateries. Then the bill came. The steak was $100! On the entire menu, there were no items even approaching that cost with the exception of the $90 tasting menu. I knew it would be more than the other menu offerings but the highest a la carte item was $45. Pairing this with the fact that NY strip steaks in most high end restaurants (Grey Ghost, Prime&Proper) tend to fall in the $60-70 I just figured we’d be in about that range. I have paid $100 for a steak on a handful of occasions and generally these meals have blown me away with their unique flavors and presentation. In this case I felt like I got suckered into paying $100 for a meal I could’ve duplicated myself with a trip to the grocery store and an hour or so in my...