My Lunch With Lady Marmalade

by Brian

So I have to confess that I actually hit this place last week.  I wanted to take a drive on the coast road and I remembered my friend Jack recommending the veggie omelette at Marmalade Cafe.  (P.S. – Have fun in China buddy.  Let us know about the food)  Now, we do have a Marmalade Cafe in Westlake Village, but what’s the fun in going to a place that’s right around the corner when you can take a mini road trip instead.

Plus, the Marmalade Cafe in Malibu has the added benefit of being right next door to one of my favorite bookstores.  It’s called Diesel, A Bookstore.  I highly recommend checking them out when you get the chance.  Anyway, here’s my latest omelette experience…

Marmalade Cafe – On PCH, south of Malibu Canyon, in Malibu

So after taking a few minutes to peruse the shelves at Diesel, I went next door to grab some lunch.  One of the great things about Marmalade is that they serve breakfast into the afternoon.  In fact, the guy next to me had a short stack of pancakes that was making my mouth water, and his guest was having fried chicken.  I told him he should have gotten the waffles so I could have a total Roscoe’s flashback.

I settled into a spot along the wall and waited for my server.  As it turns out, she had about 80 tables, so I read a chapter of my new book while I waited.  When she did get to me, she was very friendly.  But then I asked her what vegetarian options they had, and she got a little flustered.  Then she came back at me with the classic “we can make anything vegetarian” answer.  I had to stop myself from asking for the vegetarian fried chicken.

I gave up on finding a vegetarian lunch and gave in to my omelette craving.  I ordered it with mushrooms, bell peppers, tomato and spinach.  It came with home fries and toast and was plenty of food.  Here’s what it looked like:

So the place was packed, and I was pretty surprised that my omelette got out so quickly.  Considering that it took 10 minutes to get a glass of water, I was impressed with the turnaround.  The only problem was that in the rush to get my omelette out so quickly, somebody forgot to put in the spinach and bell pepper.  Or maybe they just ran out?  Still the waitress didn’t tell me, and I ended up hunting through my omelette for bell pepper like a pirate looking for buried treasure.  It was a little disappointing, but the tomato and mushroom were really good, so I decided to let it slide.

The toast was interesting.  It was rustic and hearty, with whole grains and seeds you could taste.  Also, because there was a ton of tomato, the bread was great for sopping up the excess moisture from the omelette.  I usually don’t eat much of the toast, but in this case it pretty much served as an extra utensil.

The star of the meal was the potato.  These home fries were pretty freakin’ awesome.  I guess that’s where all of my bell peppers went.  The fries were crisp on the outside and perfectly seasoned with a soft center.  The onions and peppers were reduced to the point that their flavors melted into the potato, but they still had enough texture to provide a little contrast.  Overall, they are the best home fries I’ve encountered so far.  Sorry, Country Harvest.

As far as the omelette is concerned, ehh… I’ve had better.  But it helps when you can walk your omelette off by taking a stroll across the street to the pacific ocean.  Like I said before, this place was super busy, so they must be doing something right.  I’d definitely go back, just probably not for the omelette.  If any of you guys want to weigh in on what I should get on my return visit, please do so in the comments.