Marco’s New York Italian in London Bridge unveils its brand new mouth-watering menu…
In all honesty we didn’t expect great things from Marco’s. All evidence pointed toward a diluted brand clinging to the Marco Pierre White name (but possibly shrugged off whilst he makes more Knorr stock cube adverts).
The website does the franchise no favours, bundling all 14 restaurants in amongst Marcos many other ventures. Even Bella Italia’s website does a better job of hiding the fact that your visit is to but one of many many venues.
So as you can expect we weren’t surprised to find Marcos’ tucked between drab buildings near London Bridge like a disappointing AirBnB booking. The balcony we were seated on felt more like it was hanging out of the back of a building rather than overlooking the front of the hotel/restaurant.
This is all quite negative we know and we totally expected to find disappointment after disappointment as we dined but you know what? All that is bad about Marcos starts and ends with their branding. We can excuse the location of the franchise and actually the astroturf balcony wasn’t all that bad on a warm London evening. If you took the chunky ‘casual’ logo off of the front of the building (leaving just the slick MPW name carved into the concrete) then you have a restaurant worth stumbling upon. Somewhere that looks like it has substance. But it’s the cartoony Jamie Oliver style menus and approach that lets Marco’s down. They are trying to push that it is casual affordable dining which is perfectly fine but are creating a barrier by coming across like TGI Fridays.
The staff were all very professional and informative with a slight formality that doesn’t make you feel uncomfortable but, instead, makes you feel that your money is being well spent. Totally the opposite of how the design of menu or the entrance to restaurant has you feel.
We went for the Monte Cristo sharing board to start, along with some olives on the side which made for a perfect, relaxed introduction to our evening. I’d go back just for that and their Chianti which was superb – a great way to wind down after work with a friend.
For our mains we ordered the Seared Sea Bream with Caponata, one of the new additions to the menu, and a fillet steak. Both cooked to perfect, fresh and full of flavour. Again, looking at the menu you could be deceived into expecting a thawed out microwave meal with a two-for-one special.
We ended the evening with Bourbon and espresso and felt in no rush to leave. A great relaxed dinner that we never expected. I think if we came back we’d definitely love to try some of the classic like the Baked New York Italian Meatballs or the Lasagne Bolognese Al Forno.
Located at Mercure London Bridge Hotel on Southwark Street, Marco’s New York Italian is a concept that combines quality with comfort, allowing guests to enjoy traditional American Italian cuisine in a modern dining environment. A restaurant within a hotel can be a hard sell we know, let alone one that is part of an extensive chain under the name of a celeb chef. But the Restaurant Manager here is clearly making a strong effort to bring people in and remove any misconceptions about what they do there. He has started a great steak evening along with cocktail masterclasses and both offerings are affordable – so with their great service and food you can’t go wrong. As long as you ignore the squiggly writing on that ugly menu!!
