Good choices: Grilled, roasted vegetable terrine; warm artichokes with lentil salad; Caesar salad; roast chicken with broccoli rabe, risotto; horseradish-crusted tuna; roasted lamb and braised lamb shank; pork chop with sweet potato gratin; apple sorbet; Persian shank; pork chop with sweet potato gratin; apple sorbet; Persian spice cake.
Hours: Lunch, Monday-Friday:11:30 a.m.-4 p.m.; dinner: Monday-Thursday, 4 -10 p.m.; bar menu until 11 p.m.; Friday, 4-11 p.m.; Saturday, 5-11 p.m.
Credit cards: MasterCard, American Express, Visa, Diners.
Access: Fully accessible.
MARQUEE
200 High St., Boston
(617) 345-5500
Restaurant reviewed 02/03/97 by Alison Arnett
Viewed through one prism, Marquee suggests the high-flying '80s are back. This financial district restaurant sports a luxe interior with lots of masculine dark woods and glittering glass. The menu is packed with offerings of caviar and champagne, foie gras, lobster and game. There are copious portions of "guy" comfort food - potatoes mashed with cheeses, many meats and plenty of the new alternative, risotto. The food by chef Lee Skawinski is very good; at times, even inspired, leaving one hungry for more of his expansive, extravagant way with ingredients. The wine list is pricey but diverse and interesting. The service can be erratic in pacing, but extremely solicitous.
Viewed another way, though, this is a strange place. What must have a been a large rectangular space has been cut on the diagonal so that the bar side looks huge while the tables on the dining side have an odd lack of symmetry, almost as though they were scattered about as an afterthought. Seated at a table in the front window, one is treated to a view of the Expressway and a side view of the rather ghostly facade of International Place. A bulldozer digs right in front of the plate glass window while workmen in yellow hard hats mill under the glare of floodlights that gleam right into the diner's eyes. Someday, when the Central Artery project is completed, the elevated Expressway gone and the digging and blasting over, this will be a prime location, but now one feels it's imperative to eat quickly before the dozer turns to take a chunk out of the restaurant.
And then there's the cigarette and cigar smoke drifting in from the bar, rising in blue wisps in the high-ceilinged room. I know cigars are the rage, but a restaurant's ventilation has to be mighty effective not to mar the experience for the nonsmoking population. This one falls a bit short.
Distractions aside, we've come to eat. Chef Skawinski's approach seems to be to follow a simple description with a fanciful presentation and some intriguing layers of flavor. He and several members of his staff worked for Four Seasons hotel kitchens and this skill in saucing and in getting details right shows. Caesar salad is copious and well-prepared, the kind of salad that relates well to this businessmen's luxury ambience. But then there's the straightforward-sounding terrine rustica of grilled and roasted vegetables. This turns out to be a tower of vegetables, each piece of eggplant, zucchini, pepper and tomato perfectly done, and the whole laced with a gutsy-flavored sauce. The lobster with salsify and potato Parmesan fondue sounded mysterious but actually the fondue most resembled a delicious potato dauphinoise (or firm version of scalloped potatoes) sprinkled on top with chunks of lobster. The clear tastes of warm artichokes with salad of tiny French lentils belied its rather drab browns. The salad was one of those revelations of winter, something both soothing and yet, with its musky trace of truffle oil, vivid.
The lushness of the appetizers certainly carried over into the entrees: Each dish was not only generous in portion but had a lot going on, sometimes so much that the point was obscured. Consequently, the stronger the flavors of the dish's centerpiece, the better the overall effect.
So horseradish-crusted tuna with caramelized onions sparkled, distinctive and gutsy. One only needed a few bites of its accompaniment of a roast potato cake laced with boursalt cheese to offset the flavors. Roast chicken, its skin crisp and brown, its interior moist, was wonderful with added bite from accompanying broccoli rabe and a soothing backdrop of an herby risotto.
But a panroasted red snapper's lovely moist flesh seemed drowned out by too much basil linguini scattered with artichokes, fennel and peppers. And the most memorable tastes of a brimming bowl of bouillabaisse with lobster, scallops, mussels, clams and salmon was the strident notes of aioli slathered on long pieces of toast. A more assertive broth and a little less aioli might leave a cleaner, lighter impression with the diner.
A gingery sweet potato gratin was actually the star player in a dish of giant grilled pork chops with a fruit chutney. Beet risotto propped up a huge braised lamb shank and rounds of lamb loin. But the risotto, stained a winey red, was glutinous, doing nothing for what was otherwise my favorite entree. The lamb itself melted on the tongue, especially the braised shank, with a dark, slightly vinegary sauce that brought out the best elements of the meat. Tiny cubes of crisp turnip and thin green beans added to the beauty of the dish, making one wish to edit out the risotto right at the beginning.
Risotto is the broken record of the menu, with artichokes as a minor theme. A special of risotto with nuggets of braised duck and artichokes was carefully done and made the grain a virtue. But splashed all over the place, and as in the case of the beet risotto, possibly made too early, risotto lost its delicacy and exotic appeal rather quickly.
Desserts, brought out on a tray, showed sparks of innovation. Of course, the ubiquitous deeply chocolate cake made its appearance, but more tempting were such offerings as a brightly-flavored apple sorbet in a big slice of papaya and a sharply-spicy Persian cake studded with walnuts, underpinned with a sugar syrup and topped with cardamom ice cream.
Marquee, owned by Ron Mochi who also owns the Tall Ships Lounge and Galley, shows a move toward a livelier scene in downtown. With some editing of basically good food and a more powerful ventilating system, this restaurant could be a player.
Tips & hits
