Villaverde - Casa Marcos

Started by SoCal, April 17, 2014, 00:46:50 AM

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SoCal

Location: Villaverde, on the west side of FV-101.  Essentially across the road from Restaurante El Horno (which is on my to do list), but up a little driveway.  The car park was full of cars. We had to make a reservation.

Atmosphere: you are not here for the view which primarily looks onto the car park. Covered patio, though essentially everyone eats indoors. We sat in one of the inner rooms. It is an old rustic farm house like building with older wooden, table and chair, yet still comfortable.  Very interesting , very cool.

Food: could be described as experimental tapas, though we Californians would call it international fusion. With the possible exception of a beef dish, nothing was of a traditional tapas offering.  We had five selections. One was an "award winning" egg dish which seemed to be a giant cooked egg, primarily the albumen, with potato and a bit of pork in a mustard sauce.  Very light and tasty.  The honey coated squash like dish had enough sugar to make any kid eat his or her vegetables.  Yummy. There was a full fish, served Canary style, i.e., with garlic, that was tasty, but not memorable. This was followed by  a serving of sliced beef with potatoes. Though this was the best beef I have had on the island, and I know they were probably very proud of it, frankly it was mediocre  – no rib eye nor fillet mignon.  However, the goat dish (again with potatoes and tomatoes), was rich, fatty, and very flavorful.  I was pleased to bring the remainder home. Four of the five dishes were unique, though if you include the volcanic based sulfur flavored salt that accompanied the beef, then all five were unique.  The three dishes I would definitely eat again are the huevos, the vegetable dish and the goat. I forgot to get the name of the Canary based after dinner liquor we tried, but it was very rich and added to the meal. Better than the "honey rum" most places serve. The two homemade desserts were excellent – sweet but not overwhelming.   Recommendation – stick with the house white wine for the early dishes as vino tinto will blow out the softer flavors. Switch to red for any beef or goat. (If I had any complaints, I would say some of the dishes are underseasoned for my taste buds.)   The house white was excellent and a fair price.

Service: very impressive. Our Spanish based server spoke 95 million languages; or at least the English, German and Italian that was spoken in the room.  I give them high marks for handling the request of cooking half the beef as well done, and half medium rare.  We were attended to, but never felt rushed. Completely unacceptable by American standards, but I appreciated it. The prices are fair. For 5 dishes, 2 bottles of wine and 2 desserts, the total with a reasonable tip was about 100 euros.  They recommended 4 dishes, which is perfect for 3 people, but I wanted to try more and was happy to bring the extra home. Again, like everyone else on the island with the exception of one local Cotillo establishment, they had no problems handling strange credit cards. They are closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Overall: I will try to be back. Normally I visit a restaurant twice before commenting on the forum, but I thought with 5 dishes, my sample size was large enough.  I believe they are open only for dinner.  The food is unique and flavorful; for me, it is the most unique I have experienced while on the island. It also looks like they vary the menu frequently - chalk board menu.  An excellent choice for a large group of people since you should find something worthwhile for everyone in your party. And since it is served family style, you can try everything.  Appeared to be popular with all nationalities.

(Note, this review is being written after several glasses of wine and a digestive or two. It will be cleaned up later.)
Biking and beaches - total freedom

KWC

Another very thorough report SoCal and thanks for sharing your experience.

I had tried this establishment last September and at that time I didn't like the Tapas they served up to us. Bit wacky and tasteless for us.

You should find El Horno a bit more likable, if our experiences are anything to go by.

kenny

SoCal

#2
After further reflection and even before I read your comments, I came to a somewhat similar conclusion about Casa Marcos as you did KWC. Everything about the restaurant is very good; the meal was unique because of the choices offered and the wine was quite tasty, but none of the tapas were a culinary masterpiece or equivalent to gastronomical euphoria. And yes, I have had several meals in Fuerteventura where the tastes were simply memorable. The best fish has been in La Pared. There have been several dishes at Azzurro's which made my whole body smile. The last one was a beef and mushroom dish in a wine reduction sauce that is not on the menu and they were testing it out for a new menu. And a recent meal of simply garlic prawns at a beach bar was heavenly.

There are so many other places to try. It may be a while before I get back to Casa Marcos.
Biking and beaches - total freedom

SoCal

Forced to abandoned El Horno on Wednesday due to a bus full of tourists, I revisited Casa Marcos. Sadly, the food was less impressive than I remember. Yes, the salad was pretty crisp, but the cabriti friti (fried baby goat), was dull. Where is the seasoning?  I commend them for trying to be different, but none of the dishes impressed me.
Biking and beaches - total freedom

TamaraEnLaPlaya

Visited Casa Marcos for the first time this evening with Spanish friends - they chose the venue, said it was their favourite. I have to agree with previous posts, venue is great, presentation of food is lovely, service was spot on but somehow I was left feeling unfulfilled by the food. It all sounded and looked great, fantastic choice, but nothing apart from my desert had a lot of flavour. The cabrito frito was particularly disappointing, couldn't find any meat on the bones. We also had hot cheese balls, fried aubergine with palm honey, open mushrooms filled with tartare sauce and little peppers filled with cheese.
Deserts: our friends both had polvitos (I think that's how it was spelt) and I tried a small piece, quite a nice flavour but a typical Fuerte soggy quasi cheesecake is how I would describe it! My partner chose a 'tower' of blueberries covered in white chocolate - very tasty but better described as a 'bungalow'! Approx 2 and a half inches across and 1 inch high is being generous. I chose a desert that consisted of dried fruit and nuts soaked in something nice, possibly honey rum, and then covered in white chocolate - 5 little teaspoon sized dollops on my plate, but it was so rich that was enough.
We were there for about 2 hours and the food was served one dish at a time for us all to share. Not particularly generous portions for 4 people but having said all that we probably had plenty to eat. Price for the 5 tapas dishes, 4 deserts, 2 large bottles of water and 1 glass of wine came to 85â,¬. We thoroughly enjoyed the evening and would probably go back again to try some of the other dishes.

TamaraEnLaPlaya

Casa Marcos closed down a few months ago.
When I drove passed yesterday it looked as if a new restaurant has opened in the premises. Does anyone have any info?