Friday, November 12, 2010

Mercatto

Must warn you that this post is definitely not one of my most exciting ones - basically my friend Julia and I went to Mercatto one day after work, ordered two pizzas, shared it, and left. No drinks, appetizers, no dessert. BORINGGG right?! Why did I even bother blogging about it then? Well because 1) I had my SLR with me so I took some pictures that are decent enough to show, and 2) because I really, really, love pizza (check out my Pizzeria Libretto post if you haven't already).


If a restaurant has pizza on their menu, my eyes will immdiately scan through the list of pizzas they have. If nothing interests me and I don't end up ordering pizza, in the back of my mind I will always wonder how their pizza would've been like. 


Mercatto has 3 locations in downtown Toronto - we went to the Bay Street location. It was a weeknight around 5:30pm, still bright and hot out (it was August at the time). Summer! Where did you go? *sigh*~


Mercatto seems to be a nice place to stop by for some happy hour drinks and food. Very casual atmosphere with a warm decor (I always associate wood with warmth hehe). I find that I tend to like places with chandeliers too....it automatically gives off a level of elegance and...class.



Mercatto's menu consists of: salumi / cheese plates, starters (mainly salads), pizzas, pastas, and mains. I knew I wanted nothing but pizza ( I have random pizza cravings every now and then).



Funghi Pizza -Wild Mushrooms, Taleggio, Mozzarella, Truffle Oil. 



Margherita - Tomato, Fior di latte, Basil. 



Mercatto's pizzas were average; not the best I've had, nor was it bad either. It was really...just average. I liked their selection of pizzas, the thin crust, they were also generous with the mushrooms too on the funghi pizza. However, I DID find that their pizzas were a bit on the dry side.

I think Mercatto is good if you want a quick pizza fix, in a casual Italian restaurant in downtown, with good prices. Not sure if I would go back though...maybe one day to try out their pastas, but I'm really not sure when that one day will be given I have a whole list of other restaurants I want to try too. But still, can't say I'm totally writing off Mercatto.

However, one thing that will deter me from going back is that we did not have good service; our waiter was not attentive at all; basically he was nowhere to be found 95% of the time when we needed him. He was always busy serving other tables and would just whiz by us like we were non-existent.  What can I say, I guess he didn't like the fact that we only ordered two pizzas.

Mercatto on Urbanspoon