after dinner sneeze

t says: I was on my home today and decided to pick up lunch.  Not feeling awesome (allergies are kicking my butt right now), I decided to go for something comforting and delicious rather than just heating up whatever was in the fridge.  But what to do, what to do?  All of Center City in front of me – where should I go?  Well, it had to be new [to me], do takeout, and be warm.  And then I happened to walk in front of Marabella Meatball Co – a place I had always wanted to try!  kp tried it a while ago but wasn’t impressed despite the favorable reviews it had garnered.  BUT – he hadn’t tasted the classic beef meatball.  Obviously, this needed to be done … for the sake of the blog!

4/2011, Take-out, Party of Me. So I rolled up in there and ordered myself some beefy balls … and some rabe … and headed home.  I assembled my sandwich, reserving a meatball and some bread for g (I ordered it unassembled).  Here’s what it looked like.

Meatball sandwich with rabe!

Overall, it wasn’t bad!  It definitely had a home-made feel to it – made me feel warm and squishy inside.  The texture was good with some nice spring in the bite without being too hard.  The taste was decidedly beefy – almost too beefy in the sense that you really didn’t get any other flavors.  I wished they either cut it with some pork or added some more herbs or something.  I guess I really shouldn’t expect Marabella to be as complex as Barbuzzo’s or as awesome as g’s … or maybe I should!  Beef meatballs can have flavors beyond just beef!  I will say however that the sauce, is better than Barbuzzo’s, which comes off as tangy/sweet to me; but Marabella’s was still not as good as g’s (I’ve become a gravy snob – gasp!).  The roll was soft which I appreciated immensely (nothing ruins a meatball sandwich more than crappy bread), and it’d be a true champion if they somehow got a crusty outside like Tony Luke’s rolls.  As for the rabe … not bad … not too different from what we can make at home (but we like it more garlicky).

For me, the Marabella star was the bread pudding.  For $1, you get a tiny bit (about the size of two shot glasses) of bread pudding that is the most wonderful dessert you can find for $1. Now I don’t know if maybe I just happened to get a “good” one or what, but that bread pudding had texture and creaminess and just the right amount of sweet and cinnamon.  I might have to pick up a second dose of it next time I’m passing through to confirm that it’s as good as it was today.

Would I go back for lunch?  Sure – it tasted pretty good overall and the people behind the counter were super-nice.  I also kind of like the vibe in there (they have BYO seating in case you want to stay).  I can see my dad and I just grabbing a sandwich and eating it there.  But would I go out of my way to go back for dinner?  Probably not … it’s a good lunch, but not something I’d actively seek out for dinner if I was looking for a “dinner out”.  Sorry Marabella.  But if you came out with a beef-pork meatball, I’d be back to give it another go!

What’d g think?  Well, she came home, and I told  her I couldn’t tell her about the meatball until after she ate it – I didn’t want to bias her opinion.  So she heated it up, ate the sandwich, and reported …

g says: I’d like it more if there was more “stuff” in the meatball, like onions, cheese, parsley.  I’d say it’s one step up from a WaWa meatball sandwich.  It’s good, but I wouldn’t be able to eat a lot of just the meatball, itself.