We had an exceptional meal at Marmite some years ago and have long meant to return. The food is snazzy and good value, the set price meal deals are sweet making us happy for a bit under 4,000 CPF for two dishes. To top it off, we have view of across the bay on a sunny day and waiter with a sense of humour. Sweet indeed.
The restaurant is easy to get to either from Anse Vata or Centre Ville via a short cab ride or the No 10 or 11 Karuia bus (210 CPF each way). The closest bus stop is Ancre de Marine.
The outside terrace is a breezy spot but it also has some smoking allowed.
Just inside is good when you might want the cool of the aircon, and there's no smoking inside.
From the specials board - filet de boeuf, sauce masala, crumble aux noisettes. The beef was soft and pull apart well cooked, on a dark and deep sauce made from masala wine. A hazelnut crumble added to the flavour mix and added some textural crunch. With all the mains came a little sweet potato mousse muffin studded with fresh thyme, light and just sweet in flavour.
The crispy lamb special gets thumbs up all round, pulled lamb encased in crunchy pastry (kinda like a fancy pants chiko roll), lamb juice on the side. The salad composition is sweetly pretty, a round of dressed salad leaves topped with sliced cucumber. Same mousse potato muffin.
Lamb roll innards. Couldn't you go a pulled lamb roll?
The half cooked tuna was simple and good though we didn't understand the sauce which tasted a lot like plain old ketchup. The sauce was way too sweet and overpowered the fish, a shame because the local tuna in Noumea is fantastic. We wonder if this sweetness is a local taste we don't understand, then again we've had a lot of tuna in Noumea, who knows. Shawn became obsessed with this sauce 'why ketchup - why, why, why?'. He had it in another dish later in the week and it almost broke him.
Would the tuna meal be redeemed by dessert? Cafe gourmand - plain cake with chocolate gooey sauce, the cake was average tasting, dry like it was yesterday but the mini fruit salad with kiwi fruit and cream made up for it. So sort of.
However the cherry plum souffle rose to the occasion, sugary sweet and light with pieces of cherry plum at the bottom tasting similar to tinned apricot, the French mirabelle plums are more orange and can almost be confused as apricot.
The specials board changes, so keep an eye out here for what might be in season.
The bill.
La Marmite is at 5 rue Jules Garnier, Baie de L'Orphelinat. Ph: +687 25 17 05
Open 11:00 to 14:00 and dinner 19:00 to 22:00 every day.
The Baie de L'Orphelinat has some seriously nice boat eye candy, it makes a pretty view.
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Thanks for your comment joy - please keep your musings happy - if you want to complain about a restaurant please do it on a restaurant review site (or your own blog) - we're all about celebrating cultural diversity and the great eats that come along with it :-)
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