Review - Mariza

I've been wanting to try Mariza for a really long time after hearing so many great things about it.

Let me just say that the praise I had been hearing was spot on.

Mariza has a great Bywater location on Chartres close to NOCAA. Speaking of NOCAA...the parking lot next to Mariza is for NOCAA only. Don't park there. You will be towed. Lack of parking was my only complaint.

I loved the atmosphere. Exposed brick and beams, low lighting, Edison light bulbs = beautiful.

Now the food...

For an appetizer, we split the Burrata crostini and tomatoes with basil pesto, shoots and sprouts. It was $8. OMG this was so delicious! Every bite was just bursting with flavor! This was our favorite dish of the night.

For our entrees, we got the Fresh mozzarella pizza with fennel and arugula salad for $10. This was really good too! I REALLY wanted to try the bacon and anchovy pizza that came highly recommended by our server, but my friend was having none of that...and we were sharing everything.

We also got the Hanger steak with pesto and bruschetta topped with olive tapenade for $16. It was cooked to absolute perfection at medium rare. I had to add a very tiny bit of salt. But again, it was delicious.

For dessert we got the Chocolate Terrine with sea salt, candied blood orange for $6. While it was really good, I wasn't blown away. But then again, I'm not a huge sweets person, so desserts rarely wow me.

I found the prices to be extremely reasonable for the quality of the food, and the portion sizes. Our total bill after tip was $57. We didn't drink.

I found our server to be nice, but a bit slow. We waited 15 minutes with empty dirty plates in front of us before our dessert order was taken. After dessert, we waited another 15 minutes for the check.

I can't wait to go back to Mariza and try more of their menu...especially that anchovy and bacon pizza!

I think Mariza is a great date place. Low lighting, not too noisy, but noisy enough that there are no uncomfortable silences, and reasonable prices.