Most important for a restaurant's survival in this location: The price is right. The most expensive thing on the menu is beef tenderloin with vegetables for $20.95. The meat and seafood entrees are all reasonably priced, but if $15 is too much for you to spend, there are sandwiches and six vegetarian dinners for $12 and less. The spinach lasagna, with meltingly soft noodles, lots of cheese and spinach and a lively tomato sauce, was as satisfying as anything we had.
Well, maybe not quite as satisfying as the macaroni and cheese casserole with bacon - a cheesy, wicked delight - but it's only a side.
Most of the other food we tried had a bit more finesse. (I don't mean to give you the impression that Marie Louise specializes in homey comfort food.) Toasted brioche slices are the beginning of an appetizer that pleases with a combination of roasted red pepper, chevre and tapenade. Marinated mozzarella over fresh tomatoes and basil almost made us forget that the large, fat tomato slices weren't quite summer-delicious.
Some of the selections are quite traditional. The only soups offered are French onion, black bean and Maryland crab; but the French onion soup was made with good stock, not too salty; the croutons stayed crisp and the cheese wasn't overwhelming.
You might think that grilled vegetables "drizzled with balsamic vinegar" would be a lighter way to begin your meal, but the vegetables actually come with quite a bit of oil as well as vinegar. I didn't mind this greatly, but it seemed to be a theme throughout - a throwback to more traditional French cooking. These days, sauces are often reductions, but here lots of butter and oil seems to be the norm. If you're dieting, don't assume that the choices that sound low-calorie actually are. You're going to have to ask for the low-fat version.
Boneless chicken breasts, for instance, with artichoke hearts, tomatoes and mushrooms, arrived swimming in a very rich, garlicky sauce sparked with white wine. Lots of couscous rounded out the plate and soaked the sauce up deliciously.
Carbs are a star at Marie Louise. I wasn't crazy about the pork tenderloin because it was wrapped in bacon, which just didn't work for me, but the accompanying potatoes dauphinoise, thinly sliced and baked with cream (what your mother may have called scalloped potatoes), were to die for.
Not to mention the excellent bread.
