Mercat a la Planxa — Restaurant in Chicago

Mercat a la Planxa is a Spanish-inspired restaurant located within The Blackstone Hotel. The restaurant itself is a beautiful space with a pleasing aesthetic. Unfortunately, the staff and food left a lot to be desired. My friends and colleagues and I were in town for an international food blogger conference and decided to reunite over dinner at Mercat. The evening started with drinks at the bar for half of our party. Unfortunately, the bartender made them feel less than welcome. His service was curt and outright hostile. My friend told us she felt compelled to leave but didn't want to ruin the evening we had planned a week for. Our server was no better; when she came to introduce herself, we all immediately felt unwelcome. Common questions about the menu were answered with a condescending remark about how "it's exactly what it sounds like" or "I have no idea." Without her guidance on the menu, we took some time to decide on what to order. She would return to us in a harried state, asking, "Are you ready yet, or do I need to come back?" We all agreed her vibe and energy were completely out of line and unprofessional. Having overheard how she spoke to others who didn't look like us, we realized we were her problem. We ordered many menu items, the croquetas de serrano were the best dish we ordered, but nothing really stood out as remarkable. When we asked for the check, the server brought it to us and said, "We don't split checks." Not that we asked, but the way she said it as she slapped down the bill was the final straw for us. The next evening, another friend who wasn't at the dinner the previous night invited us for a pre-dinner cocktail in the bar. We attended and were met with the same dismissive, hostile behavior from the bartender. It was so overt that we decided to tell fellow Black food bloggers not to patronize this restaurant. As a result, I can't, in good faith, recommend...

Food was great. Almost everything is stellar. The things that weren't stellar were just because they weren't my thing, not a failing of the kitchen. My only quibble with the food was that on the menu, it says that paella takes "30 min or more" but the waiter told us it takes over 45 min, so I think that some wording should change on the menu. The service, however, was not great. The waiter went into a long rambling explanation of how tapas works, as if I'd never left my house. He should have asked us if we'd ever been to a tapas restaurant before instead of giving us all of this info that most people already have. He kept looking out the window and looking at his fingernails like he was making a mental note to cut them, and barely made eye contact at all. I actually had to cut him off and order some food because he was going on way too long. We asked about spiciness (my husband can't have spicy food right now due to a medical issue). He didn't ask us why or anything, just told us that Spanish food is flavorful and not spicy (this was incorrect and my husband couldn't eat one of the dishes). Then he left and we only saw him one more time while we were there. The food came several minutes before the drinks, so we were halfway done with our salad and had our first two plates before our cocktails even arrived. Finally the people that were bringing the food would mumble the name of the dish and walk off. They didn't care about our comfort. I'll give it another shot because the food...

Subpar - much better resturants at half the price. Went there with my wife hoping to try something different on New Years. Paid for the New Years meal rather then ordering seperate dishes. First, they brought out the wrong dishes, our waitress did a great job covering, then as the meal progressed, they kept bring out dishes that were rather cheap and unispired. Portions were tiny, which would have been fine had most of topas actually tasted good, however, only 1/3 of dishes were worth eating. (who the hell wants to eat raw beets that taste and looked liked they came out of a can?!) Clearly, the pre-made menue was designed to make money rather the entice repeat customers. Often we would get dishes late or in some cases not at all. Finally, desert arrived, unfortunately someone decided that we could share a desert rather then give us each a desert. Granted, at this point I was looking forward to leaving and head to another resturant to actually eat, but when the bill is 250.00 and the resturant is in financial difficulties where they are that cheap, well, there are much better resturants with far better service in chicago at a more reasonable price. The staff were very nice and did a wonderful job covering for managementn however, the constant appologies became annoying after the third one. A resturant of this self-described caliber should have been much better then...