Mercatino — Restaurant in Winnipeg

I stop in here from time to time and usually make myself a salad at the salad bar and have had good experiences with the quality of the ingredients provided. However, today I decided I wanted a bit more than just a salad and decided to add some hot food to my takeout container. I use the word “hot” loosely as the food was at most lukewarm. The few things I took were either overcooked or undercooked.

1). Chicken fried rice - of the “hot” food this was the probably the item I enjoyed the most but quality-wise, there wasn’t much in terms of ingredients (think the free chicken fried rice you get at a takeout Chinese place if you spend X amount). It was dry overall (you definitely need to add soy sauce as they don’t)

2). Chow mein stir fry - the beef wasn’t bad but the noodles were either soggy or uncooked.

3). Chicken tenders - basic frozen chicken strips that were over cooked and dried out.

4). Meatballs in gravy - meatballs were over cooked and the gravy was very salty.

On top of the low/poor quality of the food, their prices have become astronomical. For the same price (maybe even less), I could have ate at a sit down restaurant and had a much...

Went for the first time since being back in the office and I must say, this place has gone down hill since before COVID. I went to the buffet at noon sharp and of all of the hot foods that I took, only one item was at best warm. Everything was cold and tasted like it had been sitting out since yesterday. I'm all for giving place a break with the way the pandemic has effected our economy but if you're going to serve a hot buffet, the food should be hot. I could see maybe if I went right at closing time but this was at noon, when the food should be at its hottest...

What in the world happened to this place? I used to come here all the time for their fish tacos and now they are just embarrassing. They used to have beautifully battered fish, then they slid a little downhill and that fish was no longer seasoned or flavourful. That was enough to keep me from coming back. My coworker just showed me what she got today. Fish sticks. Fish sticks? Yes....fish sticks. Are you kidding me? My 8 year old niece could make a better fish...