Mercato Bar & Kitchen

This restaurant is a great addition to Ithaca’s food scene. We went here recently on a weeknight and had a really great meal. The veal chop and the chicken piccata were prepared well and presented in an attractive way.
They also had some great dessert options — the buttermilk pie was a surprise, but a good one. The crust was very well-​made and the pie itself had good flavor and was not too sweet.
Staff were friendly and checked in when appropriate. Service felt more casual than at some higher-​end restaurants, but that could be because we went on a less busy weekday, or it could just be their style. Either way, it felt appropriate for the restaurant.
Definitely recommend!

This is a very easy restaurant to rate 5 stars and based on my overall experience here last month, I would probably give them a (rare for me) 6 if I could.
They hit a grand slam home run in all respcts. And they hit a home run in my nieces eyes. She loved it! They exceeded all my expectations. I have not had a better food and service combo anywhere.
Our first times here, I researched out this place to take my niece for a graduation celebration dinner as soon as I got off my jet at Tompkins Airport. We were here on a Weds night for over 2.5 hours. They did not rush us. The atmosphere was perfect for catching up, celebrating, laughing, and just enjoying life.
Service was the best I have ever encountered. The wait staff had great communicstion, worked as a team, and were able to sense our pace and adjust to it and accomodate and answer questions as experts on the dishes.
The food was best in class. Here is the roundup:
Martini: She said it was excellent.
My Ithaca Beer Co beer: Great
Table bread: 5 of 5
Soup: Perfect.
Parchment Fish with Fingerling Potatoes and Spinach: Easy 5 – I could eat this every day.
Scallops: 7 of 5. You read it right. These are the best Scallops you will ever have, naturally sweet, tender, fresh. If you order scallops in restaurants, they will only taste as great as these 1 out of 15 times.
For desert we had the house favorite, also very good.
Total bill without tax and tip for drinks, appetizer, dinners, desert: $ 90.00
If this fits in your budget, check this place out.
I will again next time in town. Wish there was one in Cali near me. Restaurants in Beverly Hills would have a hard time competing with Mercato.

It was very quiet on a Wednesday night, so we got right in with a party of three even though they don’t take reservations,
We started with a watercress salad and the crostini sampler. The crostinis were meh, the mortadella was the best one but the fig and goat cheese crostini lacked any flavor of goat cheese and ended up tasting like an elevated Fig Newton.
I ordered the scallops with puréed carrots and mushrooms. The scallops were beautiful and perfectly cooked but didn’t really feel like a cohesive dish. They were also served lukewarm which was unfortunate because it led to the last few scallops being cold and rubbery. I also am not a huge fan of the shoestring fries so I got green beans instead and they were quite good, but simple.
It was a pleasant meal and the service was good but for $ 32 for five scallops, I want to be blown away and served scallops that aren’t lukewarm.

We had Hanger Steak. I like the fires, the steak itself is not amazingly good. It has some raw meat smell which I don’t like. In general, the steak is an ok level to me.
The two appetizers are pretty good.
I like their service, makes me feel warm and being taken cared of.

This might be one of my fav restaurants in Ithaca. I prefer it to the French place next door. Its a small joint with close «neighborly» tables. You get to know your neighbors and I have often suggested food items to them! Overall, the drinks are really good and the food specials are worth the prices.
Speaking about prices, this isn’t a cheap place and you can easily spend $ 50pp BUT I find it worth it. The crostini sampler is a must have for me (love the chicken liver crostimi) and I suggest you try any pasta special they have on the menu. If unsure, ask the server for help.
I love their scallops and piccata. The papardelle is a hit as well. Generous portions and attentive service. It’s a great date night spot or when you want to enjoy a nice dinner. But as others have said, it can get loud so don’t expect soft musoc and roses! Enjoy.

A hotelie friend recommended me this place. The Crostini Sampler was lovely. I liked the scallops, a delicious choice for a person that is on diet XD. I recommended a friend the veal chop, which he absolutely loved! I was considering this place for a graduation dinner, but unfortunately it was too small. A nice atmosphere for a date though.

This is actually a 5 star restaurant, or even 6 stars, but I’m giving it 2 in order to get management’s attention about just one issue: the music. We were there last night (Saturday) around 6:00 PM — a very busy time, obviously. The place is small and the tables are close together, so just the other conversations around us were noisy (which is normal). But, the music raised the noise level to the point where we had trouble conversing at times. I’m a musician. I love music. But in certain environments, it serves absolutely no purpose except to allow restaurant owners to wallow around in an unfortunate delusion.
Now for the good part: Everything else about this place is fabulous. Or waiter was very professional and his timing was excellent. My companion had mint pappardelle with lamb ragu, and I had spinach & cheese ravioli with oven roasted tomato sauce. Both dishes were absolutely beautiful, and portion sizes were perfect. If we’d had more time, we would’ve tried one or two of the appetizers, but we were slightly rushed to get to a concert.
This is the kind of place you keep coming back to because you fall in love with some of the dishes. Congratulations, owners. Just tone down the music when it’s busy.

Seated after very short wait on a night where every other place we tried had hour long waits. It was a nicer restaurant than we had need of but was perfect for us. We were very casually dressed but no worries it was fine. It has an incredible wine selection, however we were on a college visit and meeting a friend from China studying in Ithaca so alcohol was not part of our dining experience. Nice alternative options though in limonada and a local brewed root beer. No pressure or sell to choose a wine. Our meals were fantastic. The lamb ragu brought memories of the lamb we enjoyed in Egypt. Excellent! The lobster bisque was divine. Fresh beans crisp. And the steak was tasty and done to perfection. Service was attentive, knowledgable and friendly. Waters refilled, bread brought out, etc all timely. This was a great find.

Service was great and wait staff was very helpful and informative. We had the gnocchi and the chicken Marsala and they were unique and delicious. The crostini sampler was the perfect size and a great variety of tastes

Great hangar steak and fries. The price was just right for the area, the bar service kept the booze flowing, and the cozy ambiance made for a pleasant dinner. I recommend getting a pint or half pout of any Ommegang beer with your meal. Recommended.

Came here for dinner on a weeknight and had a great experience. Our waitress was very friendly.
The food was really good, and the service was good as well. I will definitely be coming back here.

Very good cocktails and wines.

What a an amazing experience! We went here on a Saturday night to celebrate a birthday, they don’t accept reservations which was fine, so we took the last seat at the bar and settled in. The bartender was friendly and warm. Instead of just handing me a drink menu he asked me what types of drinks I like and made a special drink for me– and it was divine! The attention to detail and the bartender’s craft into making this cocktail was superb! I was slightly saddened when our table was ready because I wouldn’t get to see their drink making skills anymore! :)
We sat down and had great table service, she was warm, knowledgeable and never tried to rush us. We started with their clams casino appetizer (a Unilocal recommendation) and they were yummy! We moved on to dinner and got the hanger steak (which was much review on Unilocal as well) and I the buckwheat papperdelle with duck ragu (sounds weird but it was fabulous), both were so good! I would eat that duck pasta daily if I could. The quality of the meal was so good, and we paired it with a good bottle of red wine.
Overall I’d say go! The drinks and food are good and it was just a great evening.

Eating at Mercato is a treat for us. Each time we are pleased with our drinks, the food and the service. The waitstaff has always been extremely attentive, remembering us each time we come in, and making sure we’re enjoying our meals there.
My only complaint (and it’s not even really one) Their menu options are pretty standard, with only a few changing specials– I’d love to see a wider or changing variety of dishes.
All in all, a great date restaurant!

Wanted to go to dinner on Labor Day and this was the only place we found that was open. And wow did we get lucky finding this place. Small place with a great atmosphere and I highly recommend for a date spot. Clams casino for an app, excellent. For the entrée I had the hangar steak. Cooked to perfection and the veggies were also perfect. There is only two chefs so the food comes out slow, but i would not consider the service bad. The waiter brought us bread (which was amazing) and came over multiple times to offer more bread and check up on us before the food would come. The dessert we chose was cheesecake and purity vanilla ice cream.
Everything was absolutely beyond expectations. A cocktail, 2 apps, 2 dinners, and 2 desserts was around $ 100. I don’t usually like to spend a lot on dinner but this was absolutely worth every single penny.
Writing this review makes me want to go back again tonight !

Truly exceeded expectations. Found this restaurant on Unilocal and based on reviews decided to give it a try. I was blown away by how delicious everything was.
The lobster bisque was the soup of the day and it was incredible– best I’ve ever had.
The fish in parchment paper was amazing and filled with flavor.
Also a great atmosphere with a friendly staff. Definitely recommend

We are out of towners and stayed in Ithaca for our first wedding anniversary. We found Mercato on Trip Advisor, who also rated it very high.
The absolute highlight of our visit was the professional, friendly (but not too friendly/​chatty), and knowledgeable level of service we received, which was apparent right off the bat. They have an extensive cocktail menu and i was torn between two, and both had a few ingredients I was not sure what they were. Server broke down each cocktail, explaining the flavor each component brought to the overall flavor of the drink! I was impressed and happy with my selection.
Server did the same thing with food items, and i ordered the sausage and sweet pepper ravioli with a chunky tomato sauce and little bits of crunchy fried basil and shallots. Hubby ordered pork Milanese with arugula tomato salad. Delish! I was a bit bummed when our food came out less than 10 minutes after ordering it as I would have liked more time to enjoy aforementioned cocktails. We got our servers attention for the wine list, and we had tastes of two suggested paired wines on the table in a matter of minutes, made our choice and quickly had a full glass to enjoy with our delicious dinner. Cocktails to the back burner as these wines paired beautifully with our meals!
I appreciated it when our server folded my husbands nappy when he was in the bathroom… this guy hit all the steps of service you’d expect from a fine dining establishment!
Lastly, we had a delicious peach galette and coffee for dessert, topped off with a complimentary glass of house limoncello. Our honeymoon was in the Almalfi Coast of Italy a year ago and we loved how restaurants would give their home made limoncello after each meal, so this was a very special touch to our first anniversary meal!

Good Italian fare, great service and nice outdoor seating. Small so be ready to sit on top of your neighbor as it only has 12 tables inside and 4 outside. Drinks were nice and sweet just like i like em! We started off with corn and crab soup and some liverworst pâté on a crustini with pickled red onions. Loved it! However, I’m used to corn and crab soup being thick like chowder with nice lump crab pieces, this was pretty soupy and only had tiny crab pieces, still good but could have been better.
I ordered the scallops with corn and favor beans, very good. The scallops were meaty and seared well and the rest were fresh and tasty. My boyfriend ordered the arctic char (oh so meaty, fleshy and light tasting) with fingerling potatoes and perfectly julienned veggies! Very healthy, light and tasty dishes!
Finally, we ended off with buttermilk pie and panna cotta.
To conclude, this was a nice dining experience. Food is pretty good but nothing amazing and because of that. do think it was a bit too pricey for the portion sizes and overall taste.
There are more authentic Italian places in Ithaca like Gola Osteria with its handmade and housemade pastas and bread on site for a fraction of the cost.

Excellent!
Little brother made reservations for the family for graduation dinner. We arrived 15 minutes early for our reservation and were seated almost immediately which was great. Menus were brought out with the quickness and we settled in. Bread with some olives infused and butter was served with waters while we skimmed out menus. Off to a great start.
And the great start would continue. We ordered our wines and drinks and they came out almost immediately. Server was very accommodating to my mom’s request for more grapefruit juice with her mimosa. Here we were happy to discover my husband’s new favorite IPA on tap: Ithaca flower power. Really good. Ordered myself a glass of the vignalta merlot/​cab sauv blend which was also pleasant. My brother ordered a siren song (if my memory serves me right) which was gin with cucumber and something else. It was pretty good!
Had 3 appetizers to start, all three of which were incredible. We ordered a charcuterie plate, the chicken liver and pickled onion app, and clams casino. Recommend all the. The charcuterie plate came with 2 different kids of prosciutto, pork shoulder and salami along with a cup of deliciously marinated olives and 3 kinds of cheese — a goat cheese, Gorgonzola and Parmesan. This went really well with my wine. Chicken liver pâté on sourdough bread with red pickled onions was amazing. Clams casino delicious with peppers on top of each open clam.
Entrees:
Scallops — perfectly cooked on a bed of yummy greens. Came with half a dozen.
Veal chop — first time it came more medium than desired. Waiter took it back without hesitation. The medium rare re-​fire was well worth the 20 min wait. My brother literally picked up the t-​bone and ate it clean. He substituted the fingerling potatoes for the shoestring fries. Seasonal veggie that day was asparagus cooked with balsamic topped with Parmesan which was also delicious.
Paccheri with sausage — this pasta dish was cooked in a white cream Parmesan sauce with ground sausage. So incredibly flavorful and pasta was the perfect al dente. Husband mopped up the remainder sauce with some bread.
My hangar steak — perfect perfect red of medium rare sliced into nice bite size squares. Paired with a handful of shoestring fries and asparagus. Very pleased. Not to be biased or anything but yeah, my dish was the best.
Dessert — affogato: a cup of hot espresso poured onto generous scoops of vanilla bean ice cream was the perfect ending to a very delicious dinner for an even happier occasion.
The likelihood of my returning to Ithaca is slim to none but if I ever do go back, mercado will be a dining stop for sure.

Our entrance was the first disappointment. Granted when we were approached my first question was about a restroom, but the tone and comment we recieved along the lines of… ignoring my question and just asking if we would be dining there was uncomfortable. Our waitress on the other hand was very nice. We ordered the
Chicken liver & pickled red onion crostini, roasted with onion & bay leaf, blended with dark rum. The consistency of the liver was not quite mealy or gritty but not at all smooth, not at all moist not at all the buttery consistency chicken liver can have. The taste was a bit sulphuric and metalic.
Butternut squash ravioli, brown butter, sage, mascarpone, parmigiano. The ravioli was decent, they were certainly not worth the over $ 3 a piece that they are priced at when you do the math. They seemed to be served in more of a light broth than a rich brown butter.
Caramel — espresso pot de crème, homemade graham cracker, whipped cream was the last item. It was the shining star of the evening. The texture was awesome, like a sought after pillow at the end of a hard day. The lightly salted graham put the gold star stamp on it. Unfortunately the dessert didn’t save the whole experience.