In the year of the California-French bistro, chef Marcus Jernmark’s Marée has emerged as a top contender, hovering over sister tasting menu restaurant Lielle, which earned a Michelin star mere months after first opening in February. Marée strives to be
more casual (the final bill may beg to differ, however), with an approachable wine list — no cocktails here — and polished French dishes like mussels “gratin,” grilled Caledonian prawn cocktail, and grilled pork chop dressed in herbaceous Cafe de Paris sauce. The fairly spartan room, which used to be beloved Peruvian restaurant Picca and then the fancy Michelin-starred Manzke, has soaring ceilings that contribute to an increasingly rowdy scene as the evening progresses. Warmth comes from the weathered hand-drawn menus on the wall mirrors, as well as the open kitchen that churns out grilled hamburgers au poivre — about 25 per night, to create just the right amount of fervor around them. Marée may be the freshest bistro in Los Angeles, but it already feels lived in.
What to order
- Cute, creamy mussels au “gratin” are the ideal starter, slurped up like warm oysters and amplified by a basket of plush baguette slices, anchovies, baby radishes, and softened butter. A proper bistro meal needs some bite-building interaction to get you in the mood.
- Grilled Caledonian shrimp “cocktail” comes with an adorable metal bird lemon squeezer to dab on acid to every bite. The kitchen brushes the shrimp heads with a green sauce so that you get a splash of herbaceousness when you invariably suck out the juices (which you must). A classic red cocktail sauce comes on the side for the plump, lightly grilled shrimp.
- A yellowtail and tomato salad might be out of season by the time this comes out, but when it’s there, it shows the kitchen’s range with pristine produce and yuzu pepper. Some veg helps balance out the heavier entrees.
- Spaghetti vongole arrives in a small tin bowl, intensely tart with lemon and garlic and balanced with the sweet, saline bites of shucked clams tucked into homemade spaghetti strands. Don’t tell an Italian that it might be better than their nonna’s version.
- Pork chop is a glorious entree with 9.0-level Rate My Chives, smothered in a pale yellow Cafe de Paris sauce — essentially an herb-butter-mustard sauce — that contrasts the melt-in-your-mouth slices of grilled pork.
- Squab a la ravigote will be the impressive French main worthy of your Instagram feed, arranged on the plate with a thin ravigote sauce — a tangy caper-herb flavoring that brings the best out of the sweet but scrawny bird.
- Chocolate mousse, built sky-high on a silver cup, would be saccharine if not for ample salt and crunchy candied hazelnuts that makes each bite a ravishing mix of rich and bitter.
Insider tip
The hamburger au poivre is listed as an addendum on the menu and can be ordered earlier in the night. The $42 price tag is eye-watering, but remember that the kitchen makes every element from scratch, including the bun. High-end beef from top ranches goes into the patty, which is encrusted with coarse black pepper, then reinforced by a thin pool of au poivre sauce on the bottom of the plate. Inside, crisp maitake mushrooms and onion rings take the texture to the max. Fries don’t come with that price, which means including their $16 price, the after-tax-and-tip price for a burger and fries runs $70-plus. If you want something truly special, you gotta pay sometimes, and I would argue it’s worth it.
Best for
People who think L.A. doesn’t have good French food and need to be convinced that this might be better than a lot of bistros in Paris; burger fiends who need to try the latest and greatest; fans of Bicyclette, Walter and Margarita Manzke’s bistro, which used to be downstairs in the Lielle space.
The takeaway
Meant to be a casual complement to the more ceremonious Lielle, Marée evokes a classic Parisian bistro with fine dining touches, a varied sauce game worthy of Escoffier’s best, and a standout burger that should silence doubters. At the end of the day, after wine, tax, and tip, you’ll end up spending around the same as Lielle, which doesn’t really make it a weekly meal for most budgets. But sometimes the splurge is more about choosing your adventure than surrendering to the chef, which is the wonderful game you get from Marée.
