Marché Movenpick

42 Yonge Street (Yonge and Front Street) Toronto, ON M5J 2S1.  Voice: 416-863-0108

Marché Movenpick is fun and different.  It's a great place to go when you have a group of people where everyone has different tastes.  It is an experience that I recommend.

What makes Marché Movenpick an experience is its setting and the way they serve food.  The restaurant is located in BCE Place.  To get an idea of what BCE Place is about try imagining a city street with lined with multistory old buildings.  Now imagine taking a block of that street and putting a cathedral-like glass covering over it.  It is an awesome architectural experience.  As you wait in line, and there is often a line, to get into Marché Movenpick, you can look around you and enjoy the splendor of the setting.

In some ways Marché Movenpick is just a glorified cafeteria.  However, to dismiss it as a glorified cafeteria would be a mistake.  It is really what all cafeterias all dreamed of becoming.  Instead of an institutional food line, Marché Movenpick provides islands of culinary delights.  There are 12 or more islands that provide a wide range of high quality foods at reasonable prices.  The process of purchasing food is also unique.  When you enter the restaurant you are given your check.  You then pick up a tray and begin foraging for food.  When you see something that you like you request it and pass your check to the server.  The server will then apply a mark to your check and give you your food.  This process continues until you have assembled a whole meal.  You then find a table eat your meal and pay on your way out. 

If you visualize a cafeteria serving macaroni and cheese and fried chicken you will be in for a shock at Marché Movenpick.  What you will find instead are items like cooked to order pastas with a wide range of excellent sauces, salmon steaks, Indonesian dishes, and many more exotic entrées.  When you have collected your food you will select fine wines to accompany them.  Their salads are always fresh and beautiful.  Then there's the dessert island where you will find more scrumptious desserts than will fit on your tray.

Marché Movenpick knows how to market their foods.  I can practically guarantee that you will buy too much food and that your bill will be higher than you would estimate.  Although everything is reasonably priced, it is nearly impossible for someone who is hungry to pass buy a food island without buying something. They know this weakness and work to make their food displays all the more appealing.

It is possible that you may not go back to Marché Movenpick because of the long lines and because you can eat better at other Toronto restaurants for about the same amount of money.  However, you will probably recommend Marché Movenpick to anyone visiting Toronto for the first time because it will be the restaurant experience you remember.

Additional reviews of Marché are available at Toronto Life and an excellent description is available from TorDine.