Stoweners' Party

So this year the new Stoweners' welcoming party is held at Mercatto. I've heard about Mercatto and I've read about it. It has quite a bit of positive reviews so I was pretty excited. Since there were so many people, they made us a three course prix fixe menu. 

The choice for starters was either the ginger potato soup from above or a salad. So obviously I chose the potato soup. It was steaming hot when the waitress brought it to me, but to my surprise, it was still hot when it cooled. Spicy hot that is. In my opinion, there is too much ginger in the soup and it overpowered all other flavours. I don't know how they over-reduced the ginger so much so that it tastes even more gingery than the ginger tea my grandma makes. HOWEVER, I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it just depends on your palate and preference.

Bucatini. There is so much more described on the menu than what actually came out. The bucatini tasted like chilli on steroids. WAY too spicy for me to finish. I had my glass refilled several times during this course. However, the bucatini is perfectly cooked.

This is the other main dish, the cornish hen. The meat tastes very tender, perfectly cooked and seasoned. I think I would've enjoyed this a lot more.

Lemon tart/pie or something like that. :P This is the only dessert available to us. I do like the flavour combination with the crème fraiche, but I feel the texture of the cake/tart/pie (whatever it's called) isn't that great. It's a bit too dry and grainy to be a pound cake and too hard to be a sponge cake. Maybe that's what they were aiming for, but it makes it quite super-markety in my opinion. 


Overall Review: 


I don't feel confident giving Mercatto scores based on the limited options. Looking at their regular menu, a lot of dishes sound delicious so yeah. It's hard to organize and order from a full blown menu with 30 people. However, they DO lack in the dessert department (I don't see any dessert at all on their menu). Maybe it's due to the size of our party, the food came incredibly slow. I understand they don't want to pre-make the next dish before we finish our previous course, but I still feel it's a bit too slow with that in mind. Also, I can't help but notice that on a Friday night, there is no line, and the restaurant wasn't even packed. All in all, I feel that this particular meal was not worth $40 and I would rather go to Il Fornello. I would go back and try their regular menu. But often, it's the people that matters, not necessarily the food. :) 


Address: 
101 College St
Toronto, ON M5G 1L7

(416) 595-5625

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