marc | kitchen
40 Adeline St., 613-695-9739, marckitchen.ca
Open: Monday to Wednesday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursday and Friday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 5 to 9 p.m., closed Sunday
Prices: most lunch items $17, appetizers $15, mains $24 to $30
Access: steps to front door
If Marc Behiels were a luckier chef-restaurateur, he would have thrown out that citrus cornmeal cake before a shockingly substandard piece of it arrived at my table.
Instead, at marc | kitchen in Little Italy, the finishing touch on my so-so lunch earlier this month was a dessert with several spots of mould on its underside. I don’t normally flip my desserts over and inspect them, but it seemed like the right move after I detected some of that green stuff on my cutlery and fortunately stopped short of eating it.
the mouldy underside of a piece of citrus cornmeal cake at marc | kitchen
Here’s how Behiels handled the culinary crisis. He apologized, called the oversight unacceptable, told staff to throw out the rest of the cake, and comped the whole lunch for me and my friend.
During several visits this month, we’ve experienced varying combinations of regrettable lapses and well-intentioned, personable service at marc | kitchen. The inconsistencies have been all the more frustrating because the casual eatery, which Behiels opened for weekday lunches in mid-February before adding three nights of dinner service in early April, is a place you would, honestly, like to like.
For one thing, it replaces the Rex, a cosy, well-regarded place that chef-owner Cody Starr closed late last year due to his health issues. One would have hoped for good culinary karma to carry over.
There is also the admirably personal effort that Behiels has put into his eponymous place. In a phone interview earlier this year, Behiels told me that his concise menu consists largely of mostly-from-scratch, Korean-influenced dishes because his wife is Korean-Canadian and he’s simply bringing his family’s fare into an eatery setting. That includes each meal’s complimentary bowl of kim chi, made according to his mother-in-law’s recipe.
Kimchi at marc | kitchen
You might also want to root for Behiels given that his restaurant represents a third act of sorts in his working life. After running a small design and web development shop in Ottawa for more than 15 years, Behiels opened marc | kitchen in a return to his roots, as he had worked in Ottawa’s restaurant industry during his teens and 20s. At marc | kitchen, the amiable aproned owner frequently leaves the kitchen to chat with guests.
However, even before I was served mould-spotted cake, I had gripes about dishes here. My dinner began with two shared appetizers that were lacklustre and overpriced. (In general, dinner prices have struck me as high here, while lunch prices were more reasonable.)
A bowl of Mexican corn salad ($15) lacked grilled-in goodness and fresh, vibrant, contrasting flavours. Thanks to their punchy sauces, Korean chicken wings ($15) had more impact. But the wing-count was meagre for the price, and if you’d hoped for the crisp exteriors of trendy Korean fried chicken, you’d have been let down by these flabbier examples.
Mexican corn and chips at marc | kitchen
Chicken wings at marc | kitchen
That night, one main course, a plate of moist miso-glazed trout ($28) with buttery green beans and a block of rice, was clearly the winner, although this month I also sampled a comparable trout dish at a ByWard Market restaurant for $11 less.
Miso trout at marc | kitchen
Flank steak, flavoured appealingly but not that powerfully, with lemongrass and lime leaf, had been cooked sous-vide, Behiels told us that night. But the steak had also been over-seared after its water bath and it was tough, dry and in need of sauce. For $30, we expected better meat, plus some sides that were more interesting than fingerling potatoes and sautéed bok choy. Bo ssam ($30), the great Korean pork-based lettuce wrap dish, came with dry, tough pork belly.
Flank steak at marc | kitchen
pork belly bo ssam at marc | kitchen
That dinner’s highlight was its desserts. Smooth, big-flavoured and beyond reproach, pot au chocolat and pot “au key lime pie” ($10 each) were the best items that I’ve had at marc | kitchen during my three visits.
Key lime pot and chocolate pot desserts at marc | kitchen
Also enjoyed was a hearty lunch-time serving of mac and cheese ($17, with a side dish), made with double-smoked bacon and four kinds of cheese (Emmental, Gruyère, cheddar and parmesan). It had more of the depth of flavour and complexity that we sought in other dishes here, and a server told us the dish had benefitted from tweaking that followed repeated feedback from a customer who knew her mac and cheese.
Salad and mac ‘n’ cheese at marc | kitchen
Also at lunch, I ate more flank steak and pork belly, with both meats starring in sandwiches ($17, with a side dish) made with buns from Nat’s Bread Company. The flank steak in the sandwich was juicy but also too chewy, while the massive slab of pork belly was, relatively speaking, the kitchen’s red-meat triumph — succulent and assertively spicy, if also fattier and drippier than I liked.
Mushroom coconut soup and flank steak sandwich at marc | kitchen
Pork belly sandwich and Asian slaw at marc | kitchen
I’ve also tried Behiels’ kalbi (Korean beef short ribs, $17 with a side dish) and while it was pleasantly salty-sweet, it was also tough, all the more so because it was thickly sliced.
Beef ribs at marc | kitchen
Last week, at my second lunch here, I again ordered the cornmeal citrus cake ($10), checked its underside — phew! — and even found that it tasted fresher and better, more orange-y and almond-y, than its notorious predecessor. The crème fraîche on the plate, however, tasted exceedingly and even off-puttingly tangy to me.
Citrus corn cake (second slice) at marc | kitchen
This week, I spoke to Behiels on the phone about some of my concerns. He said there had been no other incidents of mouldy food being served, but that he and staff were going to be “more fastidious about checking things.”
When I told him I thought his dinner prices were high, he said: “I’m trying to bring in high-quality materials and across the board I’ve seen those prices jump.” He noted that the trout for his $28 main course, which was designated a “market price,” cost him $9. Following the restaurateur’s rule of thumb that a dish’s price should be three times the cost of its ingredients, that dish’s price now seems less out of line.
Behiels on Monday said he was still ironing out the details of his June menu. I’m hoping the new month brings not only new dishes to marc | kitchen, but also lower ingredient costs, improved food storage and more consistent cooking.