The Marx Bros Cafe

It was just ok. The small room is/was an awkward and awful situation. The food, just eh, for the price. I had a nice grisly pork chop, which went almost while to the garbage. The side items were ok.

The service and food itself were very elegant. I would 100% recommend this dine in experience to anyone.

All of it, FIVE STARS!

To start off, I am well versed in fine cuisine. Everyone I have met that has gone to marx brothers has raved about how good it is, especially their Caesar salad. I got married this last year and was given a $200 gift card to marx. Awesome, and we recently decided to use it this last valentines day. I went into this restaurant with the mindset, money isn't a concern. So, when they asked, would you like the $75 wine pairing with our $150 prefix plates, I immediately responded, yes, my wife would like that. I did not because I stopped drinking and was driving anyways. The prefix was a 5 course meal. To start off, they gave us ciabatta rolls with black salt over butter, not homemade, but warm and good nonetheless. Next was Thai shrimp that came out singularly on a spoon. I will say, this was absolutely delicious. The shrimp was cold and crisp and matched with the cilantro was great. Wish I had more than one. Next came a beet salad with arugula and blue cheese crumbles.. This was good, but not great by any means. Just a small little salad. Then came a lobster risotto. The chunks of lobster were of size, but they were tough and chewy, and I will stand by this statement, the risotto was the absolute worst I have ever had. Beyond over cooked and starchy. More of a paste that resembled the color and texture of peanut butter. I ate the majority of mine out of spite, maybe thats not the right word. Basically, I ate most of it because I was hungry and the price of the prefix wasn't cheap. My wife had about 2 bites and sent the plate back. I would hope the server would have shown the head chef that his plate was returned. The main course of the meal was caramelized onion in a potato gratin with a filet mignon. To start off, I couldn't cut the potatoes with a knife and fork without them sliding and mashing all over my plate, with that, they just weren't very good. I actually had to tell myself, just finish them, but if there was other food to eat, I certainly wouldn't have. On to the filet. I am a firm believer that a filet should be no less than 2 inches thick. These filets were closer to 1 inch thick. It was as though they took my filet, cut it in half, and then served it to both of us. A positive note. The filet was cooked to perfection. I could have cut it with just a fork, but it came with a pomegranate demiglaze, which was good, but the steak had no sear or seasoning on it which led to an overall bland unsatisfying taste. It just wasn't very good. For desert, it was chocolate mousse with raspberries, which was good. I thought coffee would have been a good addition but was not offered. In fact, during this whole time I had finished my water and was drinking my wife's water because it had not been refilled. All in all, when I left this restaurant, I was not full, not sated, and felt like I was herded in like cattle and rushed out. When going out to nicer restaurants, I'm paying for the experience. A lot of times they ask how long you have to spend there because the experience takes over 2 hours. This whole experience was an hour and a half, and having only left a $50 dollar tip on a $375 meal, as I walked to the car to leave, I said to my wife, did we just spend $425 on that dinner. I just couldn't see the value in this food or experience. I am deeply saddened by this as I was so excited and hopeful to be eloquently dined. To put this in prospective, we had 15 people at my wedding dinner at the captain Cook. Right off the bat I ordered 2 of each of the 4 appetizers offered. People were ordering $25 Manhattens and wine. I got the king crab with my entree, and coffee with my dessert. I left there stuffed, fully sated. The dinner was 4 hours long, and for 15 people doing all of that. It was only $1700. My wife and I had just spent a quarter of that at marx brothers on just the 2 of us. I give this place a thumbs down and would tell people to eat at the crows nest, the kincaid grill, Southside bistro, or club paris. Marx Brothers pales in comparison to all of these restaurants.

I really dislike writing negative reviews as I know restaurants strive to give all their customers a positive experience and no one is perfect. Unfortunately we had the opposite experience the first time visiting Marx Brother's. We were a party of five, for starters two people had Lobster Bisque which they said was good. Two of us shared the Pork Belly and it was very tough (overcooked). The main courses: two people chose duck, one thought it was ok the other didn't like it. My wife and I chose the Fillet Mignon and anyone who's ever had one knows how tender they are. These were the opposite, they had the consistency of a New York Strip and were under seasoned. Somehow they managed to overcook half of mine which made it extremely dry. The mashed potatoes were bland, not even a pinch of salt. The best thing I can say about the $50 plate is that the carrots were cooked properly and the demi-glaze was good. One person tried the Wagyu New York Strip. He said it was good but not considering the $100 price tag especially for American Wagyu which is the cheapest of Wagyu's. Moving to dessert: the free raspberry sorbet they offered to share was good as was the creme brulee. However the berry cobbler was not and the cheesecake had decent flavor but I've never had a piece of cheesecake literally crumble under the weight of my fork. I'm guessing they make their cheesecakes ahead of time then freeze it or their ratios were just off. We've enjoyed many meals at some of the best restaurants around Anchorage ( Crow's Nest, Altura, Kincaid Grill, Jack Sprat) and we were hoping to add these folks to our list but unfortunately they failed on so many elementary levels. We didn't even complain because how do you complain about almost everything plus the waiter, even though he was pleasant, never asked us how a single thing was so apparently they're not too concerned. After spending just shy of $600 I can honestly say we will never be back.

Delicious food especially on a cold Alaskan night. Marx Brothers has great service and very cosey atmosphere perfect for a double date. All (4) of us had the Ossu Bocco, which was incredibly delicious. We started with the Melitzano Salata, Alaskan Oysters, and Smoked Pork Belly. Everything was the perfect temperature, and tasted fantastic. Searched around a few places as we visited family here from Maryland, and were satisfied with the Marx Brothers. Hope to stop by on our next visit!

I attended a birthday dinner with my family a few days ago and was severely disappointed. It was an extremely expensive dinner and this was a once and a lifetime experience for our family. We ended up witnessed the owners and the chef going around and talking to the other tables, but they never came to our table, although we had the largest party in the venue. The waiter didn’t bother to ask if were enjoying this special occasion, and also forgot that it was a birthday dinner. We had to remind them and ask for a candle for the desert. I felt like this was a missed opportunity for the owner and the staff to treat us like this like it was an extraordinary event. Instead we witnessed all the staff treating the other tables great and ignoring us. Extremely disappointed, will never go back.