Marea
Seafood shrine is a great catch.
- Cuisine: Coastal Italian
- Vibe: Breezy fine dining
- Occasion: Business or bargain lunch, romantic date, dinner for an occasion
- Don't Miss: Lobster with burrata, brodetto di pesce, garganelli with sausage ragu, zucchini torte with frozen yogurt
- Price: Appetizers, $11; entrees, $18; dessert, $9
- Reservations: Recommended
- Phone: (212) 582-5100
- Location: 240 Central Park South, between Broadway & Seventh Ave.
Chef Michael White is either really confident or completely out of his mind. These days everyone is scaling back and lowering prices. Everyone, that is, except for White and partner Chris Cannon, who just opened Marea, a haute seafood restaurant on Central Park South.
The main dining room is furnished with high-gloss rosewood, chocolate leather banquettes, silver-coated seashells and roaming silver trolleys lined with liqueurs. And what's most compelling about Marea's dining room isn't the decor, it's that the seats are always filled with guests.
White and Cannon established themselves as serious restaurateurs at Alto and Convivio, prominent Italian restaurants in Manhattan. And instead of downsizing during the slump, they've expanded their empire with a new 150-seat restaurant.
White's always been known for rustic, hearty cooking and his way with pasta and meat. At Marea, he's venturing into seafood and delicate crudos with an extensive seafood menu that rivals the selection at Milos and Le Bernardin.
So do the prices. When you're serving seafood, you really can't afford to cut quality. Marea's menu is filled with astoundingly fresh fish — lobster and zucchini-filled squid with roasted tomato, sea scallops with orange and arugula, and rigatoni with shrimp ragu and seppia. The menu is divided into crudi (teeny bites) antipasti (small bites), pastas, fish and meat entrees, and whole fish sold by the pound.
I think every table should start with the lardo crostini smeared with sea urchin, an unexpected and clever combination of flavors. There's a lot of originality here, especially in the pairing of fish and cheese, like a phenomenal antipasti of burrata and lobster with eggplant funghi and a basil-seed vinaigrette. My favorite pasta dish is the house-made spaghetti tossed with garlic, crab, sea urchin and oven-dried tomatoes...
Ever slurped the sea? I don't mean an accidental mouthful of salty ocean water. I mean the briny fruits of the sea before being plucked from their underwater habitat and tossed on the grill. I imagine it would taste like the seafood stew, called brodetto di pesce, at Marea. Michael White's version is a big bowl filled with sweet langoustines, scallops, spot prawns, clams and striped bass.
The essence of brodetto isn't seafood, it's broth — a mix of tomatoes, onions, garlic, olive oil and fish stock. I'm not sure which was more intense, the briny fragrance or the flavor, but heads turned as the dish made its way to our table. It's a $45 bowl of soup, one of those outlandish purchases you're certain you'll regret. But it was the best soup I've had in years and could be an entree for two.
Unfortunately, the wild striped bass with salsa verde tasted surprisingly generic, as did a dull entree of grilled halibut marinated in seaweed. And the only truly remarkable dessert was a zucchini torta with a lemon crema and refreshing frozen yogurt.
If you're worried about money, avoid the amuse-bouche-size crudi, the entrees (except for the mind-blowing brodetto) and definitely skip fish by the pound, since the price is anyone's guess until the check comes. Marea's $34 lunch menu — which nearly mirrors the dinner menu — is one of the best bargains in town.
There's tons of talk about how fine dining's dead, but the crowded dining room at Marea suggests otherwise.
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