A world-class steakhouse from Novi Zagreb
Marble Steakhouse in Središće, a city district which earned the title of the gastronomic nucleus of Novi Zagreb, is a spacious restaurant with about 120 seats, located in a new building next to the Museum of Contemporary Art. Right at its entrance, there is an impressive chamber for dry aging of meat, where about 1,500 kg of different beef cuts are currently aged.
Although the interior is dominated by dark, industrial-style colour shades – black, raw concrete, walnut brown, dark green – the restaurant is airy and full of natural light thanks to the huge glass walls along its entire length, overlooking the avenue. One wall boasts a painted mural, and the leitmotif of the interior décor are large vertical wine coolers dividing certain parts of the restaurant. Marble has 3 private rooms; one of them, the Marble Room, is located right next to the kitchen and can also serve as a chef's table because of its large window that overlooks the key part of the entire restaurant – the custom-made grill manufactured for Marble in Spain.
What is served?
The key to this whole gastronomic story is the unique grill, which leaves its mark on almost everything on the menu.
Naturally, the focus of the menu are steaks, classified according to 13 different breeds, aging days (from 7+ to 45+) and types of cuts. Most steaks are aged using the dry age method, but there are also the so-called wet age steaks, aged in oil.
Some of the curiosities on Marble’s meat menu are Wagyu A5 with a BMS of 11–12, Sashi choco-steak with a specific flavour because the cattle are fed Belgian chocolate, and vintage cows aged 10 –12 years.
There are 7 cold appetizers (meat and fish), two of which are prepared in front of the guests at the table – Caesar salad and steak tartar. Warm starters include seasonal soup, risotto and pasta, but also an interesting interpretation of mussels with kohlrabies, bone marrow, and veal sweetbread. The offer of main dishes comprises beef cheeks, mackerel, beef short ribs, burgers, steak sandwiches, as well as high-quality white-flesh fish.
"His Majesty the Potato" plays the leading role in 8 types of side dishes, and there are also accompanying vocals such as celery, grilled cabbage, 5 types of beets, creamed spinach... Creative sauces and butters are also offered with the steak.
The dessert menu is just sweet and short enough to make you want to try all the seemingly unusual combinations.
All dishes are designed to be shared.
Marble also has high top seating next to the centrally located bar where a special menu for bar food and signature cocktails is offered.
The wine list is a selection of 220 labels from Croatia and the world; the bottles are arranged all over the restaurant, and sommelier Goran Petrić combines them with the menu options in a very creative way.
The service is pleasant and friendly. A sommelier and a bartender are at your disposal should you need advice on choosing a drink, and chef Tomo Trboglav himself will often bring a steak to your table.
What our chefs had?
To whet our appetite, we started our lunch with 2 refreshing oysters and Croatian sparkling wine. The oysters were served with chili and cucumber mignonette sauce with a seed cracker on the side. This was followed by smoked mackerel with potato salad, spinach, mustard and furikake nori, which the charming lady bartender combined with the signature cocktail Smokey Sweetness based on whiskey, citrus and ginger. It was a perfect combination of textures and flavours.
From the steak selection, we chose the 45-day dry-aged Aberdeen Black Angus rib eye, which we paired with crispy potatoes à la mille feuille served with smoked mayonnaise, grilled cabbage in an anchovy emulsion, and grilled celery in an emulsified beurre monté butter sauce. As for sauces, we opted for chimichurri sauce, smoked mayonnaise, and meat jus. Along with the steak, we were served 6 types of seasoned salts.
An explosion of flavours! The robustness of the steak was tamed by inventive vegetable side dishes, and the mille-feuille potato justified the title of His Majesty. The fact that everyone had the opportunity to season the meat according to their wishes with various salts and sauces and enjoy side dishes according to their own preferences, resulted in the absolute satisfaction of everyone at the table.
Dessert was exquisite Choco Tacos which combines whiskey and dark chocolate cream, cocoa bits crumble, coffee cream, and whiskey ice cream.
We had two glasses of red wine with the steak – Royal Hill Cabernet Franc and Krauthaker's Mercs.
