Mercatto

They accommodated our large party of 26 people on a saturday evening. That was very hard to achieve for a downtown restaurant. The ambience is really good. Nice sized restaurant. Had a seafood linguine. It was ok, filling but not out of the world. The waiter was nice and tried to remember my order. Never got any starter of bread but our table was a chaos so cant blame them. Overall a happy and friendly experience in downtown.

Great tasting food. Friendly staff that will crack jokes with you but on a genuine level. The prices are a bit higher than what you'd expect to pay, but then again it's what I call a "downtown tax". I had the steak which was delicious. However be prepared they it won't be cooked to your liking as I had asked for a medium rare but got medium well. Nonetheless it was delicious like I said earlier. I'd go back.

Mercatto tries hard to impress you, but doesn't make the cut. Risotto tasted like under-nuked Uncle Ben's rice. Pizza was garden variety - you could get better pizza at Domino's. The 20 grams of calamari was overcooked and hard. The 40 grams of tuna tasted bland. What am I paying for? Portions are tiny and not really worth the money, i suppose portion size isn't the focus of a place like that; The focus is presentation - which wasn't really spectacular. There is nothing on the menu worth writing home about. The atmosphere was nice, choice of furniture and lighting is good. Servers are OK. Music OK. Washrooms were dirty and smelled like piss. I left hungry.