Market & Co. — Restaurant in Newmarket

The overall look is very ‘European Like’ with an urban feel; fresh markets, a bakery , unique restaurants etc. The book exchange was a cute French touch. HOWEVER, we had TWO bad experiences in our first visit. Our first exchange with a restaurant on the south side, we walked in to hopefully order only a cafe at the bar. We were rudely and abruptly stopped by a server that said “ are you here to order or just look around?”. A bit taken back. She then told us we had to wait in line. What happened to ‘Greet the customer, say “hello” welcome them, at least smile’ ..by doing this alone we would be more than happy to wait in the 20 min line. So , we decided to leave and discover other options in the market.

The second bad experience really was an eye opener. “I don’t care how beautiful the pastessieres are, when a server cannot and does not greet customers with “hello” , a smile and at the end of the transaction say “have a nice day” or at least “thank you” , I will not return. The storefront and pastessieres may be colourful and beautiful, they look delicious, but placed with poor service it quickly turns ugly and unapppealing. Ordering a miachiato and a macaroon was another ‘painful’ ordeal. As soon as a server gets ‘pretentious’ about coffee details, “an American or Italian miachiato” or say “raspberry” with attitude, please as much as we would like to tell these people a few things about what service should be in any great business, don’t waste your time and your money ..,move on to the next retaurant/cafe. They will be more than happy to serve you and take your business. We have been to many cafes and Pastissieres on our travels, including authentic French shops and NEVER have we been greeted and treated so poorly.... at this point I was over it, the experience totally turned me off, in the first 30 minutes total disaster. This beautiful place turned ugly.

But we didn’t want to give up on this place Lucky for other vender shops, we were more than happy to ‘skip’ across the room with other great options.

We did try the ‘build your own muffin, and icecream/cookie shop’ (great staff, very helpful and great service! (5 stars) :D. ( great quality)

Then again there is always the old American starbucks , the great thing is that they have great flowered patio area with umbrellas and a lot of seating outside. Very nice to have a drink and do some work, or read. (5 stars for service and experience!) and to no surprise they are located at prime location and space in the market , right at...

So today I ordered an "strawberry honey basil italian soda" from Amano Kitchen. It took a while for someone to noticed me at the front counter, but I wanted to try a soda on their menu so I waited... When someone finally came over I ordered my drink & again it took a while to make this soda. When i finally got it, I kind of sped out of there before trying it because I didn't want to wait there any longer. When I did try it it tasted only like club soda. I was expecting something like Basil Box's delicious rose + pineapple soda! But no, I saw her put like a can and a half of club soda, and the tiniest amount of the strawberry syrup & 2 small bruised basil leaves... I paid almost 6$ for club soda with a hint of strawberry... I threw it out as soon as I had the chance. Also the idea of honey being in the drink is nice and all, but if you can taste it then it shouldn't be advertised in the drink in the first place. Maybe it was there but the girl certainly didn't put enough to leave even a hint of honey. Also given there being two bruised & basically grey/brown basil leaves, there was also no basil flavour. Surprise surprise.... Try the drink for yourself, I hope they fix it before someone else decides to try it. They need to test the drink out, and see how much syrup + basil + honey they need to actually taste it... Ill stick with basil box soda's... which are quite tasty and a few bucks less than the club soda drink I had... I don't plan...

vegetarian/vegan warning The vegan and vegetarian pizzas are not actually meat free. Watch the pizza makers. They pick up the meat products with the same gloves that they touch the cheese and vegetables with. There's even pesto from the pesto chicken all over the mozzarella from this cross contamination. I informed a staff member about this and was rudely dismissed..

Went to the Italian place to try the pizza. Stone oven pizza should have a nice smoky flavour to the crust and be light and airy... Although there was some flavour to the crust it was only on the edges.. the pizza was very soggy and I was very disappointed in the mere 3 pieces of basil.. it should be at least one piece a slice. The pizza was almost flavorless. Honestly I wish I had salt. still good just not great.

Went to sweet Jesus. The mango and coconut "ice cream" is a sorbet. I liked it! The icecream was good too. Very messy- I recommend getting it in a cup not a cone. The staff is very handsy with the food which grossed out my guest a little.

Went to the chip place. The chips are great! The dips are not. I recommend the sweet potato chips.

I went to the seafood place and ordered some oysters. The oysters were a bit fishy...still good but not great. The staff was a bit edgy.

I'm wondering if the mayhem of everyone going here is the reason the staff is so consistently "off".. too much stress? This might be a better spot when things die...