Mercato Italian Kitchen & Bar - Canton — Restaurant in Canton

My friends and I had never visited this restaurant despite frequently going to the Canton Shoppes. So we decided to go a couple weeks ago as a group and dine at the restaurant. A few hours before we arrived, I noticed multiple 1-star reviews and was somewhat concerned. But considering the restaurant had a 4.1 stars review overall, I was going to give them the benefit of the doubt.

When we arrived, the atmosphere of the restaurant was pleasant but that’s really it. Here’s the problems we had with this restaurant:

The music was extremely loud and it was difficult to hear one another without raising our voices. The food was decent at best, HEAVILY overpriced and it didn’t even taste Italian at all. There’s no love put into this food. The seating we were given was rather uncomfortable. Majority of the seats indoors are far too close to the hustle & bustle of the kitchen and lastly… the waitress. She clearly knew that she was receiving a guaranteed “Large Party Tip” and made absolutely NO effort to actually be respectful towards us or earn that tip. Not to mention on Mercato’s website, it CLEARLY states that a Large Party Tip starts at eight people, we had seven. We were heavily disappointed with the final bill especially because of how awful our service and subpar our food was. I never leave reviews, ever. This is my first one actually. But we were just so collectively dissatisfied with this restaurant that I had to leave this review for others to see.

If you’re considering going to this restaurant, please re-consider. Go treat yourself, save your money and find a better one. One star...

Mercato Italian Restaurant in Canton is an outstanding dining destination! I recently had the pleasure of dining here with a fellow food enthusiast, and we were quite impressed by the culinary delights we experienced.

Our meal began with ricotta toast, grilled octopus, and meatballs, all expertly cooked. The octopus was tender and flavorful, and the meatballs were succulent and well-seasoned. We relished the ricotta toast with fig jam, a delightful fusion of sweet and savory notes.

The lobster pasta was the evening's highlight. The pasta was cooked to al dente perfection, and the lobster was juicy and flavorful. The creamy, rich sauce beautifully complemented the pasta and seafood.

We also sampled the peach salad, which was refreshing and well-balanced. However, I would have preferred if there were more peaches included in the salad, as their sweetness paired perfectly with the crisp greens and would have enhanced the dish further.

The outdoor patio added to our overall dining pleasure, providing a relaxed and comfortable ambiance that was ideal for a leisurely meal. The patio is definitely great for summer get togethers to have wine and cocktails (I had the Strawberry Daze and the 90’s vibe cocktails) The service was flawless, with attentive and friendly staff contributing to a splendid dining experience. We were also pleasantly surprised when the owner treated us to a scrumptious dessert. I would still highly recommend this restaurant to anyone seeking an authentic Italian...

Was really hoping to love this place because so many say great things about it, but sadly, I wasn't impressed. First, the hostess took us to one side of the restaurant and stopped abruptly, looking confused, and then without communicating to us what she was doing, she walked off... Didn't know if we should follow her or not, but my husband has a visibly hard time walking and can't easily swing around and go in the other direction, so we waited to see what would happen. Finally, she came back and took us all the way to the other side of the restaurant. As soon as we sat down I could see my water glass was very dirty... fingerprints and multiple dirty water streaks all over the glass. Ok, they brought me another glass. But then bread the server brought was ice cold (almost frozen) in the middle...better when she brought it back (rather quickly, seems it was nuked, which dried out the bread), but it still had cold spots. The calamari was very good...the cocktails were very good. My husband had the chicken scarpiello and I had veal Milanese. The scarpiello, however, was not like traditional scarpiello...not much of a vinegar-y pepper flavor and the sauce was bland. Should be called something else. My veal was just ok. My daughter's salad was soggy with too much dressing, but the grilled shrimp in it was good. So....eh. They have potential... but, hopefully, they will pay more attention to detail with time because all this was a lot to be desired...