French Missed-Connection

Last week, we went out for a Saturday night couples dinner out at a French place, Marche Moderne. It had opened nearly a year ago, but we weren’t going out much back then so we missed it. But it came to our attention again when we read a month ago that the chef, Florent Marneau, was a James Beard finalist.

We met our friends at their home for a quick cocktail, then headed to Costa Mesa to South Coast Plaza, a mall that overwhelms us with its suburban sprawl and materialistic spirit that we rarely go there even for shopping.

Much less for fine dining.

We actually had dined in the space where Marche Moderne took over. It was a place called Troquet, and while we thought the food was fine, it was…in a shopping mall.

Now understand, we are Orange County converts. We know a good friend who loathes eating in restaurants in malls and shopping centers, but in Orange County, that’s about all you have. And mall restaurants have come a long way. Look at Per Se, Thomas Keller’s  place in New York’s Time Warner Center.

We were up to give this place a shot. We’re foodies, first and foremost.

We arrive and park and walk quite a distance to get into the mall, then go up an escalator. They take us right to a table, and we notice that the layout feels the exact same as it did when it was the blah Troquet.

No matter. We have brought two great bottles of red, which the waiter opens and decants for us after our friend D. asks him several times. One of us orders a sparkling water, and it arrives….without gas.

We order a tart to share as a starter, and while it was good, it was more like a doughy pizza than a flatbread or tart.

The food mostly was great. Foie gras, steak frites, salad, fish…Excellent.

But the server wasn’t the best. He seemed young and a little snobbish to us. It was a slow meal. A much older crowd.

And worst yet? When we left the restaurant, the magical buzz of a wine-filled, French-food filled evening vanished in a blink.

We walked down the escalator that had stopped running, past all the shuttered mall stores. We went out to the deserted parking lot, feeling as if it were very, very late. Maybe we overstayed our welcome?

We think this place would be so much more successful if it were in a great intimate location. Say at the old Le Quai spot right on the water on Lido Island. The food was fine, good even.

But it was very difficult to get past the feeling that we were breaking and entering.