Midtown Lunch

I heard that Marabella was serving Turkey meatballs this week, a special not on the regular menu. I had enjoyed the cheese covered beef and pork meatballs there, and I am curious to see how the turkey meatballs were since I have had much experienced with them being often dried out. Alas when I got there, they were out. But I was still hungry. I had never tried the chicken or veggie meatballs, and I had recently read good things about them. I also found out on this trip that you can do combo sandwiches, why did I not think of that before. I ordered the traditional with 2 chicken and 2 veggie balls ($8.50).

In order to really get a sense of the meatballs, I ordered the simple tomato sauce with piave vecchio, since I remembered the fontina, while delicious, prevented me from fully tasting the quality of the meatballs. The bread, cheese, and sauce are still of a very high quality.

I was surprised that I really liked the chicken meatballs, they were light but had a distinctive flavor and stood up to the sauce and cheese even more than I thought it could.

The veggie meatballs really make Marabella a worthy destination for any non-meat eater.They are more crumbly then a regular meatball, but it works with the cheese nicely. The herbs and green flavors stand out, broccoli in particular.

I can honestly say that depending on my mood, I could order the chicken or veggie meatballs and not miss pork and beef. Turkey meatballs will have to happen another day.

I couldn’t resist picking up the new dessert addition to the menu, a $1 ball of bread pudding with whisky sauce. I love dessert, but I often get so full with my meals that I don’t have too much room for it, so I love the idea of a little nibble of something sweet. The little ball itself was fine, could have used some more texture,  but the real knock out was that sauce. They better not serve that to minors! It had such a strong whiskey flavor, even more so than Beck’s bread pudding sauce, I loved it. I want a stash of this to put over every dessert I ever eat in the future.

Marabella Meatball Co., 1211 Walnut St (btw 12th and 13th  St), 215-238-1833