Marche

Hello everyone! (:



Before I start rattling off about Marche, I want to wish Singapore a very Happy 44th Birthday! (: I've heard and read that this year's national day performance is going to be fantastic so I'm looking forward to watching the parade with my family later tonight!

I decided to do a post on Marche because I think it's a great place for family and friends to get together! Not only can one find a wide variety of (Western-ish) food at Marche, the overall atmosphere is lively yet at the same time laidback and relaxed. Initially, I was pretty upset when the "original" Marche outlets at Heeren and Suntec City terminated their lease a few years ago because my family and I enjoyed the food and had great times at these two outlets. Naturally, I was pretty excited when the "new" Marche outlet at Vivo City came into the food scene! My first few trips to the new Marche outlet were disappointing, to say the least. While the concept of using a card to purchase all your food items and paying for them only before you exit the restaurant after your meal was kept the same, the food items were different and less suited to our liking as compared to those that we used to have at the afore-mentioned Marche outlets. In addition, we realised that the prices of food items at Vivo's Marche outlet are comparatively higher! As such, we stopped visiting Marche for quite a while in hope that the quality of their food will improve over some time.

I think it was sometime at the beginning of this year that I started visiting Marche again. So far, my trips to Marche with my family and different groups of friends this year have been nothing short of enjoyable. My parents even commented that the food at Marche tastes much better now compared to when it first opened! =) I shall now attempt to review some of the dishes that my family and friends have ordered during our recent trips to Marche so that you can get an idea of what the restaurant has to offer.

Marche's signature bull(s). The other two Marche outlets used to use (cute) cows as their mascots. If you've been a patron of the other two Marche outlets, you'll get the same-same-but-different feeling when you dine at the Marche outlet in Vivo City.

Unique table reservation system. Marche uses a flip-card system to indicate whether a table is taken (or "reserved" as seen in the above photograph) or free. I think it's a pretty ingenious system because it allows patrons to buy their food without worrying that others will sit at their tables.

For starters, you may wish to get a bowl of creamy mushroom soup topped with crunchy croutons! (: If you like mushroom soup, I'd strongly recommend that you try the mushroom soup served at Marche because it's one of the thicker and tastier mushroom soups that I've had.

An alternative starter would be Caesar Salad topped with Smoked Salmon. I think a plate of caesar salad is just nice for two or three people to share because the caesar dressing is pretty creamy so you may get sick of it after a while.

If you're a fan of bread, you can try their pizza bread. I guess there are different kinds of pizza bread but the thing is that you can't customize your own pizza bread (i.e. you can't choose the toppings for your pizza bread). You can do that if you opt for their thin-crust pizza though! (:

If you're not feeling hungry, you can opt for a piece of sausage and a clump of mashed potato. There are a few kinds of sausages for you to choose from and I think most, if not all, of them taste nice so if you can't decide, just choose anyone! You can't really go too wrong (:

Meat lovers won't be disappointed when they visit Marche because they've a counter specially dedicated to different kinds of meat! For instance, you can choose to have a piece of steak,

or a piece of grilled chicken with a small clump of mashed potato by the side, or

if you're feeling particularly canivorous, you can have two sausages and two pieces of lamb thingies (pardon the bad description, I've no idea these two juicy pieces of meat are called).

Oh if you're a crepe lover like me, you'll definitely LOVE the savory and sweet crepes available at Marche! (: My parents, siblings and even Jeffrey have tried the savoury crepes served at Marche and all of them gave thumbs up for their respective crepes!

As you can see from the above two photos, there are different fillings for savory crepes so it's up to you to mix and match. Savory crepes are served with generous portions of veggies so they're pretty "healthy".

If you're craving for something warm, you should try their cook-on-the-spot pasta dishes! (: They usually have a "pasta of the day" which means you don't really get to choose the condiments that go along with your pasta. However, you can choose to have either cream or tomato base =)

Cream based penne pasta with seafood and vegetables

A cup of hot chocolate. One of my friends/colleagues ordered this wonderfully warm and chocolatey drink on a cold and rainy day and she commented that it was great! =)

Sweet crepe with strawberries. Usually, I would request for crepe with strawberries and an extra scoop of icecream because I think sweet crepe tastes better with icecream. I think sweet crepe is quite versatile in the sense that you can choose your fruit topping as well as icecream flavour! (: They used to ask whether I wanted chocolate filling or custard filling for my crepe but I'm not too sure whether they have this option anymore. Personally, I prefer custard filling because the chocolate filling tasted a bit more like chocolate sauce and it was too runny and thin for my liking.

Okay, here comes the deja vu part of almost every meal that I've had at Marche. Whenever I leave the dessert option to my fellow diners (i.e. I tell them to choose anything they like from the dessert counter because I'm fine with anything), the particular diner who's in charge of buying dessert for that day will almost always come back with this:

Devil's Chocolate Cake. If I'm not wrong, that's what this slice of cake is called. As you can see from the above three photos, the three pieces of chocolate cake are essentially the same apart from their different presentations. I don't particularly love Marche's devil's chocolate cake because I find it a bit too dry. I would prefer if the chocolate sponge portion of the cake was a bit more moist. Nevertheless, if you want to satisfy a chocolate craving, this cake will most probably not fail you.

Apple Pie. When this piece of apple pie/crumble was placed on the table, I was just fascinated at how its contents could stay intact! It's practically packed full with slices of apple and bits of pastry! I especially loved the fact that the apple slices were thin because this made the apple pie easier to eat. Also, the thin slices of apple also means that you'll definitely taste apple in every bite, and that, in my opinion, is what makes up a wholesome apple pie.

If you're an icecream lover, you'll be pleased to know that Marche serves Movenpick icecream! (: Movenpick's vanilla and chocolate icecream rock! I'd highly recommend Movenpick's chocolate icecream because it contains chocolate flakes! The combination of good quality chocolate icecream with chocolate flakes is simply divine. (:

Lastly, if you, like my brother, have just read a book on desserts and you want to try something that was mentioned in the book such as Chocolate Mousse, you can also try sourcing for it at Marche's dessert counter! =)


Alright! That's all for now! (: Since it's national day, I shall leave you with a photo of Marche's red bull. Heh. Happy National Day everyone! (: