Marea has been a reliably good Italian seafood restaurant over the years and is one I don't hesitate to recommend to friends for a nice meal out (to splurge on).
I appreciate that the menu of options is extensive and differentiated, whether it's the crudo, antipasti, pastas, or secondi. This most recent visit, we had the polipo (grilled octopus), cavolfiore (roasted cauliflower), and tonno candito (confit tuna belly and razor clam) for antipasti. The polipo was good as always, but the roasted cauliflower surprised on the upside -- great balance in both flavor and texture between the cauliflower, mushrooms, apple, capers, and almonds. The tuna belly was good, but I think I would've liked it better raw (as opposed to confit) to better appreciate the quality of the fish.
The pastas are always cooked perfectly al dente, but note the sauces tend to be on the heavier side. I personally quite like them overall, but my mother-in-law thought the pastas were all too salty. Anyway, as noted earlier, the pasta offerings are sufficiently differentiated from other Italian restaurants to make them standout and memorable.
Finally, we also tried the salt-baked branzino (for two), which was nicely prepared. They brought out the whole fish before cooking to show us our prize, although it was directly filleted and plated in the kitchen before serving, so we didn't see the whole fish again.
For dessert, we had the crostata di pere (red wine poached pear with mascarpone semifreddo) and affogato. The crostata di pere, while beautiful and good, was sadly not an entire poached pear. It was brought out beautifully shaped like a pear (covered in chocolate), but when we broke into it, we realized it was only shaped like a pear but actually had very few pieces of poached pear. It tasted good, but we ordered it wanting poached pear, and not chocolate and mascarpone and cream.
I appreciate that the menu of options is extensive and differentiated, whether it's the crudo, antipasti, pastas, or secondi. This most recent visit, we had the polipo (grilled octopus), cavolfiore (roasted cauliflower), and tonno candito (confit tuna belly and razor clam) for antipasti. The polipo was good as always, but the roasted cauliflower surprised on the upside -- great balance in both flavor and texture between the cauliflower, mushrooms, apple, capers, and almonds. The tuna belly was good, but I think I would've liked it better raw (as opposed to confit) to better appreciate the quality of the fish.
The pastas are always cooked perfectly al dente, but note the sauces tend to be on the heavier side. I personally quite like them overall, but my mother-in-law thought the pastas were all too salty. Anyway, as noted earlier, the pasta offerings are sufficiently differentiated from other Italian restaurants to make them standout and memorable.
Finally, we also tried the salt-baked branzino (for two), which was nicely prepared. They brought out the whole fish before cooking to show us our prize, although it was directly filleted and plated in the kitchen before serving, so we didn't see the whole fish again.
For dessert, we had the crostata di pere (red wine poached pear with mascarpone semifreddo) and affogato. The crostata di pere, while beautiful and good, was sadly not an entire poached pear. It was brought out beautifully shaped like a pear (covered in chocolate), but when we broke into it, we realized it was only shaped like a pear but actually had very few pieces of poached pear. It tasted good, but we ordered it wanting poached pear, and not chocolate and mascarpone and cream.
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