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Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend. My parents were up to visit this past weekend for Father’s day which was a good time. We ended up checking out a couple new places to eat along with the usual staples of Fish Market and Abuelos. One of the places we went to was Marcellas. This place just opened recently on High in the Short North. I have always been a big fan of the Cam Mitchell places so I thought that we should check it out.
The menu is rather simplistic but nice all around. There is a wide variety of pizzas and pastas for everyone to choose. There is also a cheese and sausage menu that you could pick from. All in all there is a good variety that shouldn’t limit anyone from going here. The restaurant is more of a tapas kind of Italian diner. We didn’t realize until after we were done eating that the dishes would be rather small which allowed you to do more of a family style sharing kind of meal.
The pizzas looked good but were more of the flatbread style so I went with the pasta Arriabatta, my mom had a meatball dish, my dad had the lasagna. The arriabatta was very good and had a good amount of flavor to it. The only major concern I had with it was that there was nothing in it so I asked for some mixed vegis to put in. I was extremely glad that I asked for them because otherwise the dish would have been extremely simplistic. My mom’s dish had a single meatball and instead of the usual marinera sauce, it mixed a white sauce in with it also providing a very creamy flavor to it. My dad’s dish was a block of lasagna that tasted much different from any other lasagna dish I have ever had. The dish was more of a creamy based tomato sauce with a load of cheese on the top of it. I thoroughly enjoyed trying it and so did my dad. However, he complained that the portion size was too small. I somewhat agreed with my dad but we made up for the difference with a salad and lotsa extra bread.
It was nice to finally leave an Italian restaurant without feeling that overloaded carbed feeling. The portion sizes were good for the prices of $10 for pasta and the experience was very favorable overall. I would definitely recommend this for a pre-bar/spice trip or a nice night out with friends. If nothing else the prices are what should bring you in. The three of us ate with wine, salads, and a main dish for under $55. Thats a pretty damn good deal to me. Especially for a cam mitchell joint.
Went there a couple weeks ago.
Very nice aesthetic inside.
Was the best serice I’ve ever had at any restaurant.
Pizza was delicious.
Highly recommend.
I sense this becoming a very hot spot in the Short North.
Nice photo from RetroMetro
This place reminds me of Bon Vie in many ways. Except I found the paper placemats with Italian things all over it kinda cheesy. The sangria, a spanish drink, should be left to the spaniards to make because theirs was bad. Went to a carafe of wine which was better.
The calamari was a little too crust ladened from my taste, Oscar’s continues to dominate calamari in Columbus! The veal meatball was very tasty, but, light and fluffy, not very dense. The best dish of the night was the house specialty, lasanga. Fantastic, don’t know what they do, but, it was perfect. The veal chop, was unfortunately, bad, breaded and fried to the bone with a little sauce on the side. Don’t treat veal like that!!!
All in all stick to the house specialty pasta and pizza, and you can never go wrong with a good Italian wine.
Appetizers-Main course great. Great ambience. Great Wine! Sambuca and espresso!
Went last night and loved it. My recommendation: reservations.
We waited 45 minutes on a MONDAY night!
Had a reservation for 4 – and still waited 45 mins!! Went to lemongrass instead:)
went back another night and the apps were served during our meal… I thought those usually came before- but I ‘ve never been a waiter.
Apparently the staff was hired for their looks as they were confused about the order of which to bring things out and by what a reservation was….
the bar and the floor to ceiling windows are super cool and great alternative to not having a patio.
Due to the multitudes of ppl that seem to flock there- it seems as if Cameron Mitchell new concept is a hit.
hmm, that’s not good. i always thought apps should come first b4 main course, otherwise what’s the point being ‘tizers. i had a waiter brought desserts to the table while my dinner companion and i were still working on the main course. this happened once in Restaurant Hama and twice in Cuco’s. and this Cuco’s guy, geez, as if he doesn’t get it that desserts come after main course. just the other day, he handed out the bill without even bother to ask if we want to have some desserts. when we said yes, an order of churros, please, his reply was “ok, just let me know” (???). later, he came back saying that they’re out of churros. good thing for them their food’s good.
sounds like holywood to me :D
This practice is the norm for any Mom & Pop Italian restaurant/corner pizza joint in Philly, Jersey, NYC, etc. It tells me that CM actually did some market research for this place, which is nice.
So how does this stack up to Martinis a few blocks south? I’ll have to try this place someday on an off hour when it’s not too crowded.
I’ll confirm that. As cheesy as it is….it’s authentic Jersey Italian.
unfortunately, they failed to develop a menu with good food. though i found the small portion sizes refreshing, my risotto tasted like a sand mixture and the meatballs were gross. i dont plan on eating here again anytime soon, and i can get a peroni at 10 other jam packed bars.
unfortunately, they failed to develop a menu with good food. though i found the small portion sizes refreshing, my risotto tasted like a sand mixture and the meatballs were gross. i dont plan on eating here again anytime soon, and i can get a peroni at 10 other jam packed bars.
Nothing worse at an Italian restaurant than to find out that the mealballs suck!
Marcella’s is a carbon copy of a place in Chicago called Quartino. Almost everything is stolen, from the design of the interior, to the stacked side dish plates, to the quartinos of wine, to the appearance of the menu. Even the skate wing entree is lifted. But it’s not the lack of originality that bothers me (in fact, I remember explicitly stating that we needed a place like Quartino in Columbus when I was there last year). It’s the one glaring difference between the two establishments that’s the problem: the food at Quartino is made entirely from scratch and is incredibly delicious, especially given its simplicity, whereas most of the the pasta at Marcella’s tastes like it came from a box of Barilla.
http://www.quartinochicago.com/
reSourceRyan wrote:
joshua wrote:
Except I found the paper placemats with Italian things all over it kinda cheesy.
This practice is the norm for any Mom & Pop Italian restaurant/corner pizza joint in Philly, Jersey, NYC, etc. It tells me that CM actually did some market research for this place, which is nice.
I’ll confirm that. As cheesy as it is….it’s authentic Jersey Italian.
Exactly, cheesy. Who goes it jersey for Italian food. Let’s give Rome, Florence or Venice a try.
Exactly, cheesy. Who goes it jersey for Italian food. Let’s give Rome, Florence or Venice a try.
Well, we’re not all as well-traveled, so for the best authentic Italian in America, we’re forced to venture into Jersey occasionally. Although I much prefer Philly & NYC…
Um, just the person who opens the “Italian” restaurant needs to be well traveled. If you want to open a “Jeresy Italian Restaurant” all you have to do is label it as so. Don’t try to pass it off as authentic Italian.
most “italian” restaurants in the US aren’t authentic.
ouch!
Dispatch (Jon Christensen) pretty much rips on Marcella’s:
Pretense, inconsistencies mar ‘Italian’ experience
Thursday, August 16, 2007
By Jon Christensen
Marcella’s is a happening space — packed tight with patrons and staffed with people who work well together.
But it’s a themed restaurant in which the theme is a type of Italian restaurant that doesn’t exist in Italy.
From the fake worn typeface and grammatical carelessness of the menu to the misspelled Italian sign for the restrooms, it represents an imitation of a big-city American imitation of a rustic Italian dive.
READ MORE
http://www.dispatch.com/dispatch/content/weekender/stories/2007/08/16/9A_JON16.ART_ART_08-16-07_T15_J67JTI3.html
I’m hardly one to rush to the defense of a chain restaurant, but IMO this review was done WAY too early.
The Dispatch should know that a new venture will have growing pains and give it a few months to work out the kinks.
Re: my “chain restaurant” comment, I am well aware that there is only one Marcella’s, but Cameron has crossed over to the dark (corporate) side, and all of his restaurants remind me of going to a more upscale Applebee’s.
Marcella’s is modelled to be a franchise/chain concept…not an homage to Joisey Italian.