In the era of COVID, dining out has become a whole new experience. Still, I am thankful that we are still able to get a break from being stuck at home all day and get out to enjoy good food. And that's exactly what Marbles had to offer.
We loaded up on the fried foods since fried foods definitely do not travel well and we've ordered take out several times and have been disappointed since some foods just don't travel well and need to be eaten fresh from the kitchen. We ordered onion rings for our starter, then the fried chicken dinner, and fish and chips. We were not disappointed. The chicken in particular was very moist with a satisfyingly crunchy batter, but not too thick or heavy. I chose the Nashville sauce to go with it, which gave a good amount of heat. The pickled vegetables that accompanied it provided a nice balance to the fried food. The cod from the fish and chips was tender and not chewy, very enjoyable as well.
Service was friendly and speedy, and when another group ahead of us left after finishing, the server wiped down both the table and the chairs thoroughly, providing comfort that they take cleanliness seriously.
Being in the restaurant business is a tough slog on the best of days. In the era of COVID, I can't imagine how any of them are making it work. As I take my breaks from the house to get out, I like to support our local businesses, and I hope that Marbles can find their way through this.
This is a really great little restaurant with a fantastic venue, excellent customer service (the most important thing in my opinion when it comes to restaurants), and food representative of a small, quaint restaurant. I'm going to emphasize the customer service aspect as I think that in today's world, restaurants take this for granted by hiring young servers and not stressing how important being personable is. Serving food should not just be a transaction - it should be an experience. I've never had a bad experience with respect to this at Marbles which goes a really long way for me.
My latest visit, I ordered to go as dining in during times of Covid isn't desirable. I got fish and chips, the whole earth salad, the Vegan rice bowl, a side of fries, and the pumpkin cheesecake (no, not all for me).
Fish and chips: Definitely the best in the area (without needing to go out east to get the real McCoy. It's not greasy - hard to get this in general).
Whole earth salad: Excellent, hearty little salad.
Fries: Amazing
Rice bowl: Meh ..wouldn't get it again. Lacks excitement. This dish almost made me make this review 4 stars but I can't justify it since the rest made up for it.
Cheesecake: Kind of hard to go wrong with cheesecake, especially when it's pumpkin flavour. They didn't disappoint.
I definitely like supporting local businesses, especially restaurants like this. I'll be dining at or taking out of this restaurant again some time for sure (hopefully dine in once this covid thing is over. They have a really awesome little place that looks fantastic for enjoying a night at).
Staff here are super friendly and helpful! Cozy atmosphere when your enter. This place can be busy on some nights requiring reservation but we came in for an early dinner so there were plenty of open tables.
We got one go the vegan salads for a starter, the lamb sandwich, curry bowl and non-dairy ice cream for dessert. The starter salad, lamb sandwich and fries were perfect! The vegan curry and ice cream were ok, wouldn’t say it’s a must have.
Our waiter was incredibly nice and helpful, we would definitely come again on another “chilly” night. Cozy place tucked away in Uptown Waterloo :)
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