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| - Sometimes I wish this was a 10-star scoring system and not 5-star. I've been contemplating this review for a couple of days. Is it a 3? is it a 4? Tough call.
I met my friend here for dinner on a Wednesday evening. First, the restaurant is seriously beautiful. The wood, the marble, the small decor details. I want my dining room at home to look like this. Enter my first complaint: why are the tables so close together? I really dislike that. I like my own space, and don't want to stick my rear in someone's face as I'm getting in and out of my spot.
Second complaint (and probably the reason I chose 3 stars and not 4) - wine list consists of 3oz or 5oz pours. What? What is that? And how are you going to charge $18 (for example) for a 5oz pour? Not happy. Annoying wine lists are the worst.
On to the food. For apps, we split the beet and burrata salad and veal cheek risotto (feature). The salad was very tasty, even though I'm not a huge beet fan. The risotto was lovely and I enjoyed the crushed nuts on top.
For mains, my friend ordered the pancetta pizza. I have pizza fatigue. This city is full of the same, boring thin crust pizzas. She enjoyed it, fwiw. I ordered the carbonara pasta, which is hard to say no to when I see it on a menu. The pasta was cooked perfectly, the sauce was delicious. The pancetta? Practically raw. I didn't send it back b/c well, I was hungry. Instead, I am complaining about it here. I just don't understand how a restaurant, with experience in the kitchen, turning our great food, can overlook this most important detail.
So, for that (and the stupid wine list), I think this place is about a 3. The food is solid (for the most part) and the room is gorgeous, so I don't think it's a bad place to end up. But with so many restaurants in this city, I probably wouldn't race back to Mercatto.
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