You could have a simple pasta dinner and occasionally or you could go all out with multiple courses and get pretty expensive. You can do share plates or you can order the smaller size and eat it all yourself! For a group of us who hadn’t been there before, we wanted to try everything and really experience it! We spent $ 100 each, but got leftovers, and couldn’t have been more satisfied at the end of the night.
Jim R.
Tu valoración: 5 Calgary, Canada
Amazing, very pricey, but worth it!!! We had 2 orders of the steak, the mushrooms and the caprese with a bottle of red wine. The server was pleasant and was nice enough to offer samples of some of the wines before we chose a bottle. The caprese was ok for me but my wife really enjoyed it. The steaks were cooked perfectly and were excellent. The mushrooms were pretentious and super overpriced. They tasted amazing but holy moly 19 $ for a small bowl of mushrooms.
Rena Y.
Tu valoración: 3 Calgary, Canada
3 out of 5 today. I think Mercatos was having an off day. Besides the caprese salad, the two pastas my friend and I ordered were not very good. I will be nonetheless. Mercatos on 4th is one of my favourite places to dine in Calgary.
Oriana F.
Tu valoración: 5 North York, Canada
Wide great selection of wine! The food is expensive but it’s work every single penny! The lamb is to die for! Make reservations way in advance though
Paula R.
Tu valoración: 2 Calgary, Canada
NOTE: I’m purely reviewing the Market side. I’ve been to the restaurant, and I remember it being tasty, but it’s been too long to really review my meal there. I like Mercato. I do. I think they have the tastiest arancini possibly ever(and I LOVE that I can take them home to heat up), I think they have great pizza dough, and Mama Cathy’s doughnuts are AMAZING. We frequent the market side because it is down the street, so it’s quite convenient. As an Italian woman who likes to cook, I do require some things from Calgary’s fabulous Italian markets in order to make what I need to. Mercato has a few very delicious things, and everything is always fresh. The quality is pretty fantastic. However… they lose a whopping 3 stars for their prices. The convenience of Mercato keeps me coming back(and the arancini, and the doughnuts, and some of the baking), but I am so disappointed with how much they jack up the prices of things. Just about anything that can be bought at Mercato can be bought at Spinelli’s or Lina’s for about a third or half of the cost. And at the same quality. So, all in all, Mercato has some amazing things, and the food items that they make in-house can be really worth it, but they gouge you like crazy on the prices. Avoid buying your pasta, pizza dough, oils, sauces and deli stuff here, and just get their pre-made take-home items.
Sharon K.
Tu valoración: 5 Calgary, Canada
BESTITALIANRESTAURANT in Calgary. Amazing food, great ambiance and great location.
Collin S.
Tu valoración: 5 Calgary, Canada
Our favourite restaurant by far. We love sitting at the kitchen bar and watching the food preparation as we eat. The steak is to die for.
Kristina C.
Tu valoración: 5 Langdon, Canada
My husband and I went for dinner. We started with the pasta special and followed it up with the green beans and pork chop(another special). It was beyond delicious, the pasta was perfect. We ordered a half order of the pasta, which I would recommend if you are planning on eating something else as the portion sizes are huge. The pork chop was cooked perfectly. We ended the night with an Americano and cheesecake! It was a perfect meal, so much so, we ordered another half order of the pasta for dinner for the next night! Great food, great service… wonderful!
Nicole T.
Tu valoración: 3 Calgary, Canada
The restaurant is pretentious and expensive. I have eaten there a few times(as a guest) and it was okay but not a good value for the price. Their in store grocery bottled olive oil is to die for and worth the silly price(I could. drink it straight). The takeout from the grocery is expensive but good quality — cheaper then eating out.
Murray O.
Tu valoración: 3 Calgary, Canada
VERY… that seems to be the first word that comes to mind after last night’s dinner VERY salty VERY noisy VERY good service VERY good pastas VERY over rated … The bistecca was beautifully cooked and presented but WAYTOSALTY… and I love salt. Any of Calgarys better beef houses can do a better job seasoning a slab of meat… The pasta and sauce were OUTSTANDING… could the secret be Italian tomatoes? And yet even this was a touch on the salty side. VERY pricy wine list VERY smoky if you are seated anywhere close to the kitchen. …which may be fun to watch for some but I would prefer to talk to my dinner company which is hard to do because it is VERY noisy. I cannot give Mercato more than 3 stars…
Margie G.
Tu valoración: 4 Calgary, Canada
I went into Mercato with pretty high expectations as I had heard highly of it. It is a family style restaurant with plenty of high end gourmet Italian courses! Each dish we ordered was unique and flavourful. The antipasta with octopus was spicy however the clever combination if cauliflower and cappers balanced it off very well. We had some sort of special on with linguini which was very good and also spicy which was interesting and unexpected but very delicious! We ordered some steak(not great with remembering the names, sorry!) that was very high quality, a salad and also my personal favourite which was the cauliflower dish! Best cauliflower I’ve ever had! Lastly, the tiramisu was light and very flavourful, a very well done dessert! Overall, I would recommend going here if you like unexpected combinations and are willing to pay for it!
Mathilde D.
Tu valoración: 4 Calgary, Canada
Everytime I visit Mercato I am never disappointed! My favourite dishes are the asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and the taglietelle! The service is good, atmosphere is fun! Make sure you make a booking because it’s often booked out!
Veronica G.
Tu valoración: 1 Calgary, Canada
Seriously? This place is super expensive for what it offers. I am Italian, a real born and raised !
Wendy Y.
Tu valoración: 5 Calgary, Canada
This is my go to Italian restaurant! Specifically this location. Love the market, love takeaway as well as the open kitchen sit down. You can call or make reservations via opentable. The service is impeccable. They are so friendly and knowledgeable. To put it in a few words: Fresh pasta and the best steak you’ll ever share. I’ve blogged about this, a while ago, and am trying to get the word out here since urbanspoon has shut down.
Vicki M.
Tu valoración: 5 Edmonton, Canada
Love this place! My boyfriend and I have been here two other times while visiting Calgary from out of town. This past weekend, we made an impromptu trip down for the weekend and wanted to have dinner here on Friday night. As I suspected, it was impossible to get a table without having reservations(not to mention this time of year many restaurants are busy with holiday parties and private events). So instead, we ended coming here for lunch on Saturday. We were seated at the counter top overlooking the chefs. Our food was cooked to perfection — the bistecca(our must-have) was perfectly seasoned and a tender medium rare. The mussels baked in parchment paper were delicious to start, and the side order of brussel sprouts — smoky and savoury and delicious! *sigh* we were beyond stuffed. For drinks, we ordered a small bottle of moscato d’asti and it was sparkly and perfectly sweet — just the way we like it! The main chef manning the stove tops was friendly and excellent at his job — watching him make risotto was mesmerizing as he uses the motion of his wrist to mix the risotto in the pan. He looked like he was enjoying himself and in turn, so did we! Do yourself a favor, make a reservation and come here for no reason at all except for good food, good atmosphere, and an all ’round good time…
Nazim A.
Tu valoración: 5 Downtown, Canada
I had a lot of difficulty making a reservation and deciding what to order ahead of time as they do not have a menu online so I was a little reluctant to host my sisters birthday party here however, I had eaten here before so I knew a few dishes I wanted to order ahead of time. I came into this restaurant and was treated like a king. Our server was extremely polite and knowledgable with a friendly twist. Our food was spectacular. We were the last people in the restaurant and were never asked to leave as the servers actually seemed to enjoy our company and even brought my sister an amazingly tasty lemon cookie that was to die for. All in all if I were to live in Calgary I would be at this resto at least once a month. I can’t wait to come back to this fine establishment.
Cody B.
Tu valoración: 5 Calgary, Canada
Mercato is the best restaurant in Calgary. Always delicious with impeccable food and service. Highly recommend it for a truly amazing experience.
Lauren H.
Tu valoración: 4 Calgary, Canada
Stopped in here for an afterwork glass of wine and some nibblies with a friend who had just returned from Italy(we were trying to slowly re-integrate him into society after a vacation of drinking wine and eating Italian nibblies). We wanted to sit outside but it had recently rained so the hostess went to dry things off for us. She seemed a litle put out buy this task but did it quickly enough. Our server was awesome, and made great recommendations for olives, salamis and cheese treats to try. Everything lived up to her enthusiasm and descriptions. She was also very accommodating when it started to rain again, and moved us inside. When we lingered a little longer than expected, she happily moved us again to the bar(our second table was needed for reservations). Never once did we feel like we were inconveniencing her. I really want to come back and check out the market and also try dinner as everything was smelling wonderful as we were leaving(dinner crowd was starting to be served). Its a great spot with a lovely patio(rain aside) whether you are trying to get over a recent vacation or just want a nice place to hang out and pretend you are on vacation.
Lorena N.
Tu valoración: 3 Calgary, Canada
I hate to say this buy our dinner last night wasn’t as good as it used to be. We’ve been going to Mercato for several years now and since it had been a while since we’ve gone we thought we’d give it a taste to make sure it was still our fave italian restaurant in Calgary. We ordered the tagliatelle, bistecca, and green beans. Tagliatelle was fantastic, simple and delicious but could have used a little more bite — in other words a touch on the soft side. Sauce is beautiful and simple. Bistecca was medium and not the typical medium rare!!! We even mentioned it to our server and he didn’t even offer to do anything about it or explained if it was supposed to be like that(even though we knew it isn’t). We usually just end it there for our meal but thought we’d add some green beans. Never had them before and oh gosh tasted salty! I had to wash my palate everytime I took a bite. Ok maybe a little exaggeration but it wasn’t «add salt to taste» it was more like«salt is the taste» Anyway, giving this a deserving 3 stars as we still did enjoy our time there watching the chefs, the server was nice just didn’t handle the one situation well, and the overall flavors were wonderful! Some tweaks and they would have had 5 stars. As for it being my fave Italian in Calgary… I dunno I’m willing to try other places, any suggestions?
Linda C.
Tu valoración: 2 Calgary, Canada
Sadly, didn’t live up to the hype. I’m baffled by the fact that it’s always full, and you can never seem to make reservations for normal dinner times The pasta didn’t taste like ‘fresh, home-made’ pasta :( Menu was pricey Claims ’ voted best steak in Calgary’… nope me thinks not. Lamb was ok. And the thing I hate the most… everything was wayyyyyyy over salted… soooooo salty… almost intolerably salty… :( Overrated. Still on the hunt for good fresh pasta in Calgary…