Open in a touristic area, Maruxina is not a restaurant that has done a proper market study. Black, dark, dimmed with no windows, it feels like dining in hell. Handled by a waiter that doesn’t understand English -again, in a touristic area- lunch felt bizarre. It’s a personal feeling after seven years of experience; the place feels good from the minute I walk in or doesn’t at all. Yesterday night at Decadente, I walked in with a smile on my face which accompanied me during dinner time. Anyway, let’s wait and see.
Back to the place, it’s dark, so dark that it makes you forget the beautiful weather outside. Black walls, black tables, dimmed lights and some red fabrics here and there make it feel like a super nightclub. The place is called “lounge,” so it’s probably better to visit at night. We were having lunch alone; it means something doesn’t it when the neighboring restaurant was full.
The things I hated:
- The black decor.
- The cheap nylon fabrics used to decorate the table and for the table napkins. Imagine cleaning your mouth with curtains!
Lunch starts with a yellow cream of bell pepper served with toast. A creamy thing that needs more taste and more intensity; it sticks on the teeth. Spread it on the square toasts to open your appetite before lunch arrives.
My kids had the infant menu: meat chops with 60% bones, 20% fat and 10% meat, and this for a kid. Pasta with French fries and a third plate of escalope. My wife’s goat cheese salad looks like a massacre. My salmon tartar is way too salty to be edible, and it only tastes onions. Even the French fries are undercooked. OMG, the fried croquettes are disgusting! So gooey, and so salty, they felt like chewing gum.
Even though the orders came wrong, the meat plates turned out to be good enough; tender beef, tender, and juicy venison, a tender filet but over salty like the rest of the food. I’m not sure how this place got a 4,3/5 on google maps.
Lunch at Maruxina Lounge is not something I’ll repeat. It’s expensive and not worth it.
