Mercato West — Restaurant in Calgary

We arrived 15 minutes prior to our reservation at 5:15. The girl in the front was on the phone and made 0 attempt to communicate with us or even acknowledge our presence. Someone else had to come and ask if we had been helped. She then proceeded to tell us that they don't seat until 5:30 and asked us to come back then. We were only 15 minutes early, they couldn't have just seated us?

For our appetizer, we got the arancini as we saw someone else review how good it was. It was okay. Some of the bits of rice were crunchy and not cooked enough and took a bit of chewing.

The gnocchi however, was delicious. The gnocchi itself had the best texture, it was soft with the right amount of "sproing" to it. The sauce was nice and light and ever so slightly spicy and the cheese and basil in it just made everything so tasty.

We then got the 700 oz Bistecca steak. When I say this is one of the best steaks I've had in Calgary, I mean it. The cook on it is actually correct and the meat just falls apart on your mouth. They give you big flakey salt so you get a nice crunch with the meat as well. We ordered a side of asparagus and it was so sweet and the prosciutto wrapped around it was so crispy. They paired really well together.

For dessert, we got a tiramisu and the cannolis with a cappuccino. The tiramisu was much cheesier than I was expecting with a rich coffee and chocolate flavor. The cannolis were very tasty. The slight lemony flavor and the crisp shell was lovely together.

All in all, a pleasant experience that had a rocky start; made better by our very charming and knowledgeable waitor. We'll probably come back and try other things...

This Restaurant encapsulates exactly what’s wrong with family dining in Calgary. This is a spacious relatively Well, laid out restaurant in a wealthy neighborhood. But you walk in and although grand, there’s really no personality, but it could fit 10 people around the table, so that in itself is a win. This is an over view of 2 separate dining experiences.

Service is the best part. Generally friendly and attentive. It would be standard service in many parts of the world, but in Calgary it’s considered outstanding.

The food is fine. However, it is outrageously expensive. $33 Burrata, $31 for Fagioli, which actually was just green beans. I thought it might actually be Italian fagioli, which takes some time energy and effort to make well. No, I paid $31 for Sautéed green beans. In fact, every side dish was just outrageously expensive.

The pasta is fine, but Literally just Pasta with red sauce is $25 as the cheapest menu item. If you want any sort of protein in the pasta, it’s $35 plus. Again the meat dishes were uninspired but fine. However if you’re paying $60-$90 plus for a steak. It better be insanely good. The Burrata, was dry and tasteless. I’m not even sure how. The gamberi are ok-very mildly spiced, you get four on some mini toast. You will forget the taste immediately after you’ve swallowed.

This restaurant is overall is fine. I’m sure they are making money hand-over-fist. But it is Everything that’s wrong with dining in Calgary. Corporate atmosphere, outrageous prices, basic flavours, no adventure no creativity $800 and you’re out the door With no specific memory of the dining experience Except that you paid $31 for...

I'm not one to write a lot of reviews but this experience definitely warrants one. We dined at Mercato West last night in a party of 6 to celebrate a birthday. I've eaten here multiple times in the past and enjoyed it but yesterday has ruined the restaurant for us.

To start with it took our server more than 30 minutes to take drink orders. He then came back to the table a half hour later to take our orders but at that point we were mid conversation and asked him to come back in a few minutes. When he returned, he asked "are you going to order something" which came across very rude and like we were just taking up space.

Now onto the food. At our table there were 2 orders of the lamb along with the meat platter and some sides. Both of the orders for lamb were asked for medium but when they came, they were literally blue (raw) when the parties that ordered them asked for them to be cooked more they were told "this is medium" and met with serious attitude. The steak on the platter was also much closer to rare than anything but at least it wasn't blue. In the end, we had leftovers which we asked to have boxed but we're never returned to us.

All in all it was a nearly $700 bill with very little alcohol and was definitely not worth even half that cost.

I would recommend avoiding this place if you don't want confrontation or you like to feel valued. It's sad to say because this used to be a restaurant high on our list but I guess like all good things, it must...