Es Mercat — Restaurant in Montevideo

I really wanted to like this place, but it really did not live up to expectations.

This is some of the most photogenic food possible, but unfortunately looks can be deceiving. The lenguada was very overcooked and dry. I don't know how, but they also managed to dry out braised lamb. The greatest tragedy of all was the octopus, which was cooked perfectly, but had a bitter, charred taste that I didn't enjoy. The gambas al ajillo we're tasty but had a slightly mushy texture.

One highlight however was the langostinos with egg yolk and caviar. That was amazing and maybe one of the best things I've had in Montevideo. The poached pear in wine was also quite good and came with fantastic ice cream.

The service was also lacking (although not maliciously). The restaurant isn't very big and they have two waiters, but somehow they just kept forgetting stuff, neglecting us, or getting our orders wrong. We ordered one carbonated water and one still, but got two with gas. They asked if we wanted the dessert menu, and we said yes, but they never brought it. Later they just completely forgot a coffee.

The reservation was also screwed up. I had made the reservation about a month in advance through Whatsapp. When we show up, they insisted they don't have it. Then I showed them the WhatsApp conversation, and they acknowledged that it was correct, but made clear it was not their fault that no one communicated it to them. Eventually we did get seated, but it was a weird exchange.

Price-wise it couldn't be justified. The meal came out to about $278 for a group of 5. We had 3 appetizers, 5 mains, 4 desserts and a bottle of wine. I'm so happy to pay that price for great food or great service, but this place has neither.

I would...

My wife and I had some truly fantastic food at Es Mercat, we had the omakase tasting and the fish was cooked very well and was refreshing compared to the meat heavy menus normally on offer in this part of the world. What did leave a sour taste was the service. I don’t like to leave negativity but I feel that when the food is as good as it was it was disappointing the service didn’t at all match the dishes or the nice setting. It was slow and a bit sloppy but a lot better when the chef patron came over but disjointed the rest of the time like the staff didn’t want to be there. But what really left a sour taste in our mouths was the waiter who took the payment (when he stopped flirting with his girlfriend) just added his own made up service charge onto the charge machine. The receipt didn’t include service (we would have left a tip still as a we believe in supporting the service industry for what is fair), but he added an extra amount he decided on and just assured us in very fast talking that this was normal. This has never been normal in Uruguay or anywhere else we have traveled. The food really is almost Michelin star quality here and really exciting and well executed but the service didn’t not match unfortunately. We say this as to hope this ‘extra service tax’ doesn’t happen to others and in the future the service matches the work of...

Sábado 23/07/22, un día decepcionante! . Llamo al teléfono del lugar a las 10 hs para reservar mesa para 8 personas. No atienden. Vuelvo a llamar a las 11 y reservo para las 13.45. Llegamos en hora. Nos ubicaron en una mesa en la que quedamos bastante apretados. Me senté en la silla contra la pared ya que llegué primera y luego sería imposible pasar. Ya había platos dispuestos. Al ratito veo que sobre mi plato (negro) se depositaba un polvillo. Era arenilla de la pared que caía encima del plato. Se acerca el mozo y le comento la situación. Respuesta: ah sí, hace tiempo que pasa y están por solucionarlo (habré comido con condimento de polvillo seguramente). Para elegir los platos tuvimos que sacar foto a unos pizarrones puestos en la entrada y pasarnos la foto por WhatsApp ya que no tienen carta y tampoco acercan los pizarrones. Pedimos tres abadejos ,( antes de retirarse el mozo se cambió un abadejo por chipirones) dos con verduras grilladas y uno con papas aplastadas, un bife ancho y dos racks de cordero. Las guarniciones nos informan que son tres que vienen con todos los platos. Las mencionadas o ensalada. La atención del mozo realmente para el olvido! Informaba con un tono que daba a entender ' comen eso o eso". Cómo dije llegamos en punto 13.45. El mozo nos informó que iba a demorar un poco. La comida la trajeron 15.20!! Al traerla el mozo dice que no tenían abadejo y trajo robalo. Nos informan cuando nos estaban sirviendo!! Consultamos que precio nos iban a cobrar y nos cobraron el precio del plato que pedimos.Trajeron 3 platos de pescado (uno se había cambiado por chipirones y trajeron al ratito los chipirones ( de un lado estaban quemados). Los platos de carnes demoraron un poco más y el bife ancho lo traen casi crudo y los corderos no estaban correctamente cocidos. Tuvimos que devolver el bife y esa persona quedó mirando comer al resto y termino comiendo sola. Al entrar le entregué a una persona unas velitas y le pedí que las pusiera cuando pudiéramos postre xq íbamos a festejar sus cumpleaños. Luego de la odisea le pido a mi esposo que se levante, pida la cuenta y les diga que suspendemos lo de las velitas ya que realmente queríamos dejar el lugar. Pagamos 2200 pesos por pareja sin postres, con agua que te la traen en una botella y te informan que es agua de la casa, una botella del vino y los platos mencionados, más unas croquetitas de pescado que pedimos mientras esperábamos el demorado almuerzo. Luego de pagar se acerca una persona del staff con copas y un espumante a ofrecernos cómo atención por los inconvenientes. Se aprecia el gesto pero también a destiempo. Rescato que el pescado estaba muy bien, las guarniciones de verduras pobres Una pena EN FIN....las tres estrellas porque los productos con los que trabajan son de buena calidad y con algunos cambios puede mejorar la atención. No recomiendo el lugar para grupos grandes. Quizá no tienen experiencia en ese tipo de clientela. Las opiniones que había leído eran buenas pero no tuvimos la misma...