9940 106 Street NW, Edmonton

Last week I finally had the chance to try The Marc for the first time. I’ve heard a lot of things about it, and I live like 5 minutes walking-distance away, so I don’t really have a great excuse for why it’s taken me so long to try it. I went on a nice Friday afternoon to give their lunch a try.

They are located right on 99th ave and 106th street. There’s a fair amount of street parking nearby, but this can get pretty full depending on the time of the day. Luckily, we arrived just as someone was leaving, right in front of the restaurant. For lunch, they usually have an omelette of the day, fish of the day, and a few features. On this occasion, I went with my cousin, Thomas, and we opted to get the braised short rib sandwich, and one of their features, smoked pork loin chop.

Each table was nicely laid out with utensils and each had a small dish of whipped butter. Shortly after we ordered, we were given some bread to start off our lunch. Our server was really nice and pleasant and gave us some shareplates which was really nice.

The braised short rib sandwich seemed like one of their more popular lunch choices. I saw a lot of people ordering this. It comes with braised short ribs with pickled red cabbage, roasted garlic and herb aioli served on an onion bun, with frites on the side. This was really nicely done. Pickled vegetables are one of my favourite things to eat on a sandwich or burger. Or just in general really. It gives it a nice flavour and crunch. Overall, I really enjoyed this sandwich. The fries that were served were also really well done. Perfectly seasoned, and went great with the sandwich.

The other lunch item we got was the smoked pork loin chop. This is a beautifully smoked and grilled pork loin chop served with German-style potato salad, arugula, and a nicely poached egg. This dish was definitely aesthetically pleasing and tasted really good as well. The pork loin had a lot of great flavours. It was really tender and easy to eat. I found it to be a little bit on the bland side, but overall, it was really good. My favourite thing of the night would have to be the German-style potato salad. This just had a lot of elements in it that went well with the porkchop.

Overall I enjoyed my experience at The Marc. I do have to admit that I was expecting a little bit more after I’ve heard so much hype, but that might be because it was built-up so much. I think I would prefer to go somewhere a bit cheaper for lunch and then go all-out on dinner. That being said though, everything we ate was really good. I definitely have to go back and try their dinner, and especially their steak! I’d recommend giving this place a try, and maybe opt for the dinner. If you’re going to go to The Marc, you might as well!