Marmalade Café
Marmalade Is Many Things to Many Diners
Where: 3825 State Street, 682-5246, marmaladecafe.com.
What: A large space featuring large selections of California cuisine and a variety of options for in-house dining or catering.
How Much: Lunch build-a-burgers start at $10.95, dinner starters range from $6.95-$13.95, Marmalade classic entrées range from $13.95-$18.95.
The Dish: La Cumbre Plaza’s Marmalade Café is the most recent location of the Southern California chain. The original Marmalade opened in Santa Monica in 1990, and there are now 10 locations from Tustin up to Santa Barbara. With a menu built to appeal to every palate, lunch and dinner menus are pages long, featuring small plates, “build-a-burger” options, sandwiches, pastas, “breakfast for lunch,” grilled specialties, and more than 10 entrée salads. Sea-inspired starters include a clean spicy ahi tuna tartare tower layered with avocado and seaweed salad. Crispy sweet potato fries are served on their own for the table, or as an entrée side. Build a burger for lunch, and pick your patty, choose your sauce, customize with two extra items, and choose a cheese. The ocean way sandwich is a favorite, stuffed with house-blended albacore tuna salad. For dinner, pair simply grilled entrées with signature sides or choose half or whole portions of pastas. Top it all off with one of their signature martinis and a dark chocolate ganache-oozing molten chocolate cake for dessert.
