MERCATTO

MERCATTO

LOCATION:
15 Toronto Street
Toronto ON
M5C2E3

101 College Street
Toronto ON
M5G1L7

330 Bay Street
Toronto ON
M5H2S8

RATINGS:
Service: 2 . 5 / 4
Ambiance: 3 / 4
Food: 3 / 4
Price: $$

AM and I went to  Mercatto on Bay for date night last Saturday night.  The restaurant provides a wonderful ambiance which includes a trendy yet comfortable atmosphere. The comfortable decor goes with the reasonable prices and interesting variety of menu options, we were surprised to find that the restaurant was quite empty, as the quality of the food was high and the prices were right. My only guess would be that the place was quiet due to the service. Our waitress was unfriendly and seamed a little annoyed to be waiting on us.  We tried to not let this ruin our time at Mercatto, as everything else about our meal there was lovely.

We started off with the SALUMI AND CHEESE PLATTER, which included three different cured meats and two cheese options. The meat and cheese was accompanied by some apple slices, bread sticks, and mixed olives. As always, AM was thrilled with this dish. For him nothing beats cheese and meat.

Next, we shared the FRITTO MISTO large pieces of calamari and shrimp lightly battered and quickly fried to perfection. Each piece was tender, crispy and well seasoned. We were happy that, the portion was quite large, for we both could not get enough of this.

I decided to go with the STICKY LAMB RIBS. I had never had lamb ribs before so I had to give it them try. The lamb was served with a warm creamy celery and potato salad, which turned out not to be  an overly exciting side. The ribs, however were very flavourful and saucy, although they were extremely fatty. If you have high cholesterol, then stay away from this menu item. There was only about two bites of meat on each rib, so it would have left me very hungry if we had not ordered those  apps.

AM ordered the SPAGHETTI, and loved every bite of it. The al dente spaghetti was tossed in a zesty tomato sauce and topped with large chunks of fresh mozzarella cheese and a mountain of parmesan cheese. As a huge fan of spicy food we thought it could use a few chili flakes but even without that every last bite was gone by the end of the night.

Would we go back? Yes, but hopefully we would get a more friendly server.

STANDOUT DISH OF THE NIGHT:
Fritto Misto