Cafe Marquise on Marco Island

Our friend, Jaybird, had visited Cafe Marquise with his wife who was away babysitting. Barb and I invited him to join us for a spontaneous dinner. He recommended this place. The menu looked somewhat limited and a bit pricey, but he assured us the portions were sizable and shareable. We took him at his word. We brought our own wine and paid a reasonable corkage.

**When we dine out with Jay, we bring the good stuff, knowing that he will reciprocate.**

**When we arrived we were greeted by Achmed, the evening manager and very gracious host.**

**The pita bread here was thicker than most, a perfect dipper for the many tasty appetizers.**

**We started our meal with Carrot Tarator. A carrot ribbon sauté with walnuts, dill and yogurt. Quite delicious.**

**Slow roasted baby Beetroot with ritz crackers, green onions and Arugula.** **Very nice.**

**This is the Gem Lettuce Greek Salad that was covered with a large slice of feta cheese. It was very good and perfect for sharing.**

**This dish of roots featured celery, carrots and grated cheese. Very unusual and quite enjoyable.**

**This dish featured Shishito peppers. Some were quite hot, a normal quality of shishitos. We enjoyed it.**

This plate of Monti was elevated by its Yogurt dressing. Monti is very common in the Russian restaurants we frequent in and around Philly. We also get it at a Turkish restaurant, Aspendos, in Princeton. **These Monti were smaller than we are used to, but remain meat filled dumplings. One of my favorite dishes.**

**The Shrimp Casserole was very nice. I enjoyed the tomato sauce which had a subtle spicy bite. The shrimp were just slightly overcooked, which occurs commonly in seafood stews and Paella.**

**The Leeks and Calamari dish was served in a nice sauce and covered with fried shredded leeks. It was a nice presentation of a vegetable served two ways.**

The Baklava at Cafe Marquise came as a Double Pistachio or Chocolate. Both were outstanding. Richly flavored and perfectly crisp.

**The meal ended with some Turkish Delight.** **It was a perfect finish to a very enjoyable meal.**

We met the chef and owner of the restaurant who was a charming and very warm gentleman. He offered to make specially requested dishes if given enough notice. The servers were all very attentive and pleasant. Our entire experience at Cafe Marquise was charming and delightful. They have a lovely outdoor seating area.

I recommend this restaurant, especially for a group of people who would enjoy some culinary exploration.

Jay and I returned twice for breakfasts. We agreed that the service and quality of food were excellent. Both times we split a veggie omelette. We had pancakes once and found them a little heavy for our liking. We shared veggie crepes the second time and found them much more to our liking. We also shared Eggs Benedict and requested lightly cooked eggs. They came out a little more done than we wanted. Our waiter went inside and had the cooks make new eggs which came out perfectly.