Demo site Marchena's is a restaurant Moxireel invented, so a real one can see what its own site could do. The address, the phone number and the family are not real.
Marchena’s (954) 555-0136 Book a table
The dining room at seven o'clock: brick walls, low lamps over every table, and every table taken.

Open Tuesday to Sunday for dinner 2418 Davie Blvd, Fort Lauderdale (954) 555-0136 See the menu

Est. 1989 Davie Blvd

Rafael and Nilda opened the doors with eleven tables and a rented flat-top. Their daughter Cris runs the kitchen now. Her brother Tono runs the front and pours at the bar.

A family kitchen on Davie Boulevard, open for dinner since 1989.

Half the menu came over from Havana with Nilda. The other half came from the Sicilian family two doors down, who taught her to make gravy on a Sunday and never fully explained why.

You can eat at the bar. You can bring the kids and the grandmother. Nobody here will ask you if you have a reservation on a Tuesday, because on a Tuesday you do not need one. Come as you are, sit where you like, and let Tono tell you what Cris is proud of tonight.

Read the menuCall the restaurant

Tonight The board

Written on the wall by the register every afternoon at four, when Cris knows what came in.

Ropa vieja$24 Brisket pulled in the pot all afternoon with peppers and cumin. White rice, black beans, sweet plantains.
Sunday gravy rigatoniNilda's$21 Pork, beef and a little sausage, cooked down since morning. The recipe from the family two doors down.
Whole yellowtail, off the boat$29 Grilled with garlic, lime and a lot of parsley. Whatever came in from Pompano that morning; ask Tono what it is today.

The whole menuTwenty-six dishes. Nothing over $29.

A long table seen from above, covered in shared plates, glasses and half a dozen reaching hands.
Table nine, about nine o'clock, halfway through.
The room

Loud in the good way.

Fourteen tables, a bar with ten stools, and a back room that seats eighteen when a family takes it over. It is not quiet in here. There is a pass window you can see straight into, so you always know somebody is cooking.

High chairs, booster seats and a plate of plain buttered pasta for anyone under six — ask, it is not on the menu.

Hours, parking and the back room

“My mother cooked for people she knew. I still do. The difference is now I know four hundred of them.”

Cris MarchenaChef, and the second one to run this kitchen

Meet the kitchen

A cook's hands laying herbs onto a plate at the pass.
The pass, about a quarter past seven.
Three things people ask
The menu

Everything we cook, what is in it, and what it costs. Easy to read on a phone at a red light.

Read it → Getting here

Hours, the free lot behind the building, the back room, and whether you need a reservation. You usually do not.

Plan the trip → A table

Walk in any night. Book ahead for five or more, or for a Friday and Saturday after six.

Book a table →
Tonight Just come

Walk-ins are the whole point. There is almost always a stool at the bar, and the bar gets the same menu as the tables.

Call

Ring the restaurant

Tono picks up from four. He will tell you honestly how long the wait is.

(954) 555-0136
Find

2418 Davie Boulevard

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312. Free lot behind the building off SW 24th Avenue.

Open in Maps →
Book

Five or more?

Leave your name and Tono will call you back to confirm the table.

Book a table →