Marvito — Restaurant in West Hollywood

Let’s say Marvito is NO Marvin’s. I’ll give a small break as it was only week #3 but many of the issues had nothing to do with how short they’ve been open. It brands itself as a hipster bar with Mexican food sort of as half the menu Italian and American. Head scratcher. Let’s start off as we made reservations for 2 people in the dining room but was told that wasn’t guaranteed. Head scratcher #2. The couple after us had a patio reservation but dropped someone’s name and got the one of the empty two tops. Head scratcher#3. We finally sat down on the patio and the service was deplorable to say nothing much about the food, which I’ll get to in a moment. The server took us through the menu but recommended the chicken piccata and cheeseburger so I had a feeling that we were in store for a food disaster. We asked what of the median dishes he’d recommended and said the hard shell tacos , ny strip tacos , zucchini , shrimp enchiladas and rice and beans. We ordered which took forever to arrive .We finally decided to order exactly what he recommended and then the journey got even crazier. We noticed everyone around us who orders after us were getting there drinks and appetizers. We finally waved down our waiter whom we haven’t seen for 20 minutes. He orders to tell us that the hard shell tacos take 20 minutes but I showed him around the Kario that 4 or 5 couples who ordered 5 - 10 minutes after us are all eating tacos, etc. plus where’s our drinks. The sister was nowhere to be found this entire time then proceeded to tell us that they’re understaffed , no food runners or bus boys. Jews scratcher #4we finally get our drinks after a 20 minute wait but still no tacos. Our tacos finally showed up 10 minutes later and they were just grease soaked hard shell tacos with little or no meat or cheese or lettuce, etc. just a greasy shell. Head scratcher #5! Yes we sort hrme back. Soon after like a one minute later, our entire order showed up all at once. I’ll spare the hyperbole but simply put the shrimp enchiladas were all corn tortilla snd you guessed it with little or no shrimp or cheese. I showed the waiter who who sort of shrugged like he knew it. I will say the green sauce was delicious so chalk that one up in the win column. Of course we sent this tweet me back too. Now on to the NY strip tacos The temp was basically rare to medium rare so in short raw / I love my steak medium rare but this was a bloody mess. I showed the waiter who said the chef has been preparing it quite rare since the opening. I said I love medium rare but this was to much. I said why can’t the patron choose the temp since it’s a nice piece of meat that most restaurants offer a choice of temp for my strip since it’s basically a steak. He offered to remake it but we declined. Sent back item number 3. By this time we are starving so we ate the beans , rice and zucchini which were all quite good. By this time? The waiter couldn’t apologize enough about the poor food or service. When I went to sign the check , I noticed they added a 20% surcharge for service that was never mentioned by the waiter. He said management had just installed that a few days earlier. I said that’s fine but usually the waiter would say that there’s a surcharge. That was final straw. Maybe Marvito is a cool hipster place to grab a drink, eat some chips and watch a game. It’s not a foodie restaurant. Marvin should be ashamed that they’re associated...

Honestly, I’m super pumped this place has finally opened. It’s gonna quickly become the intimate “iykyk” spot that this part of West Hollywood desperately needs. And what a vibe!

The Instagram says it’s a “day dive bar meets psychedelic Honkey Tonk” but honestly there doesn’t seem to be anything “divey” about it. It feels more like if your neighbor opened up a speakeasy bar in the basement of their Mexican ranchero style house from the 1970s….complete with wood paneling, pendant lighting, and overpriced sound system(there’s a retro record player behind the bar, and it looked very expensive). And while Marvito could probably survive on this vibes theme alone in LA(at least for a little while) this place actually brings it.

The menu isn’t solely Mexican, but rather Mexican-Americana…complete with burgers, a steak, and, oddly, a chicken piccata! 🤣 And what a chicken piccata it is! Probably one of the best I’ve ever had. Why is it on the menu?! No idea. But I’m glad the powers that be had the foresight to put it there. It is chef’s kiss.😘

Mexican dish standouts include ALL the tacos, the chile relleno, mushroom and chicken tinga quesadillas (they look like tacos and aren’t huge, but the flavors! 🤩) and the oysters. If you’ve never had Mexican style oysters before, start with these.

As for the drinks, l’m in my mezcal era, so I tried a specialty cocktail, the “Semi-Mojo”, with passionfruit and jerk seasoning, and loved it. It’s the perfect combo of spicy, salty, smoky and sweet. My friends also enjoyed their cocktails, but I forgot what they were. The wine list, like their sister restaurant Marvin’s, is matched by few other restaurants in the area. I’m not a big wine guy, but it looked very legit.

While a touch on the spendier side, I think you really get what you pay for here. I’ll definitely be coming back 1-2x a month for dinner and/or 2-3 a month for drinks and apps to soak in what LA and Marvito do best…envelope you in that distinct blend of high/low, Mexican/American, elevated/casual.

Welcome to the hood...

Welcome to the neighborhood! I think this restaurant probably deserves a 3.5/5, but I want a business to succeed so I will round up to 4.

Food: my party of 4 sampled a lot of the menu, which has a lot of options. We had chips & guac, tortilla soup, Caesar salad, macho salad, shrimp cocktail, shrimp enchiladas, carnitas tacos, and crispy beef tacos. Everything was delicious. I loved the shrimp enchiladas in particular. However, I will note that only two tacos come per order. At the price of a plate starting at $17 and going up to almost $30, this is highway robbery. $15 per taco is wild and greatly reduces my desire to return to eat here again. The chips & guac portions were also quite small, and rice & beans cost extra.

Drinks: the martini was fantastic, the margarita was just fine, and the wine list is great! I appreciate all the chilled red wine options; you don’t often see a lot of chilled reds. I would absolutely return to Marvito in the future just for drinks.

Our entire meal was $280 for four people, before tip. Again, it’s supremely easy to run up a huge bill here but not actually eat that much food.

Atmosphere: this restaurant is NOISY. We were four adults seated at a (small) booth and despite being basically shoulder to shoulder, you could barely hear the person sitting next to you. I would recommend the restaurant add some sound dampening squares or something to absorb some of the noise. By the end of the meal we were really itching to leave just to escape the noise and I had a headache from having to scream for over an hour just to carry a conversation.

Service: great staff, very friendly. They were welcoming, helpful, and did a great job!

All in all, enjoyed this spot, and happy to have it in the neighborhood. I hope it does well. I’ll likely return, but probably only for drinks and I’ll request a seat outside so that I can actually talk normally to my...