Mercado Bar Espagnol

LADIES’ LUNCHEON
My two friends and I decided to have lunch here after wedding dress shopping (eeeeeeeek! EXCITING!!) last Saturday.
The location is great, being within the (COVERED!!) Merchant Square… so in he middle of the Merchant City in town! There’s a variety of places to eat/​drink in Merchant Square, but on the penultimate day of the Merchant City Festival, this was the only place with any free tables! I hoped this wasn’t a bad sign!!! ;-)
Turned out after taking a seat ourselves (pretty sure there was a hostess to do the seating but it was mad busy and the table was empty!!) and looking at the menu, we were looking forward to having a good munch!
They do a special lunch offer where you can get three tapas dishes for £8.95…bargain! We decided to combine all of our choices so we could try a better variety of dishes! This turned out to be a FABULOUS idea! ;-)
We ordered (you’ll HAVE to forgive my spelling as I know NO Spanish, pretty much!!!): 2 x patatas bravas, 2 x calamari, 1 x haggis nuggets, 1 x meatballs, 1 x queso croquettas, 1 x croquettas de polo and a wee tomato salad with manchego… we also got some extras of onion rings and chippies-​we should have bothered with the extras!!! There was TAPAS-​A-​PLENTY; it seemed like the waitress just kept bringing our food out-​LOL!
Everything was delicious and well cooked… I was really impressed! I don’t eat tapas all that often (I SHOULD!) but reckon I’ll be back here again VERY soon! :-)
We finished off lunch with some French Martinis which seemed strrrrrrong-​NOT a complaint, by the way…
I would DEFINITELY recommend this restaurant to anyone… and I’m doing MORE wedding shopping soon, so will pop back in!

We came here by chance, wanting to check how the market (Merchant city) has changed since we left Glasgow about 20 years ago. We were surprised by the modern appearance and the several great restaurants choices we found.
We decided by Spanish food, exploring their lunch time menu with the 2 options: 2 course lunch and 3 course tap, both at the same price,£7.95. We tried the chicken croquet and the pork skewers, all very good and for the tapas the haggis bon bon, the calamares and the tortilla espanola. The haggis bon bon was amazing, a new lecture of the traditional haggis made in a crisp croquet ball way — bom bom shape :-). The calamares were good but traditional. I did not like the tortilla, too much potato on it. And I regret not asked for the mussels instead. Overall, we enjoyed very much our food experience. The service was good but not perfect. My husband asked for a Scottish draft beer, they don’t have any and when he insisted, pointed out the quality of local beer, the answer was: «they are not popular, only „old people“ like them». What? This guy need urgent training. The star was taken mostly for that!

I was here for some friends’ leaving night and it was alright We ended up here as the place we thought had been booked turned out to not quite be as understood. Thankfully, there was space for a large group at 7pm on a Saturday in the bar area (this could be seen as a sad point, but it was a lucky thing for us!). The drinks are good, the prices are ok, and the service isn’t amazing, but totally fine. We didn’t have any food, so I can’t comment on that, but we spent a long and fun night out here!

The only standalone Spanish tapas restaurant in the Merchant City — there is one integrated into the bar complex Arta — Mercado sits on Bell Street and opens out onto the Merchant Square. I’ve been here a few times, not because I love it, just cos as I said it’s the only standalone Spanish restaurant in the Merchant City.
So for the same reason we went there again, but this time we only got offered the lunch menu. It’s cheap for sure, £7.95 I think for three tapas, but here is the twist, beware of supplements and drinks prices. I opted for Albondigas, Chorizo, and Beef Ternera, and a side of Garlic Bread with Cheese. All were served with a smile, all were tasty, all were very small. The garlic bread was certainly not worth the extra £4.50-odd either, and my Spanish pint was a little expensive at nearly a fiver.
I don’t love being forced to choose a set menu, nor do I love sneaky charges that bump the price up. I’d rather pay the normal prices and get more food. Ultimately I left feeling slightly hungry and that makes me slightly grumpy, but the food was very decent, it’s no El Sabor but it’s still 3 stars.

Popped in for lunch today, bit disappointed, we ordered off the lunch menu and had a long wait for our starters. Once they came they were fairly cold. We didn’t complain but had to wait half an hour for our main course. Pretty uninspiring, think they need more front of house staff and a bit of a shake up in the kitchen. Won’t be back I’m afraid.

Spent a fabulous 40^th Birthday here with 8 of my friends. Had a wonderful time with only a couple of wee niggles. Some of the dishes were a little over salted and the tortilla had to be sent back because of this. Service a wee bit slow, but hey it was a Friday and the drink was flowing so it was’t too much of an issue.
Staff pleasant, loved the idea of sitting in the courtyard and definately recommend the gambas pil pil and the whitebait dishes. The bill wasnt overly expensive considering a few cocktails had been slurped .
All in all a great night, will be back again sometime soon.

Ive been to this place 3 times, two as El Sabor and one with its new name and bizarre tapas/​peri peri menu.
The service here is diabolical. You get thrust to a table by a sour faced host who you have inconvinienced dearly by existing, have menu’s thrown at you then they give you about 5 minutes, if that to choose your tapas and wine. When you ask for a few more minutes they look at you as though you have just asked them to eat the menu.
Every time we come we order bread, and every time they forget to bring it with the food and we have to ask for it, which, as you can imagine does not get met with an apology, but a sneer.
Why have I given them two second chances? The food. When I have eaten here the kitchen has been on top form with gorgeous mussels, calamari and chorizo. The veg dishes are great and Im never dissapointed with the food.
However, I really cannot give them another chance, the service is just far too shocking. Oh and the wine is poor too.

One of our group had been here when it was El Sabor, and advised against it, but, I convinced her to give it another shot, it might have improved since the rebrand and in believe in second chances.
I was wrong to have done this. The tapas was pretty lame, the piella was alright, when they eventually brought out the right one, and the house red was awful and expensive.
All in we spent over £100 for three people, this was without desert or coffees, seriously not worth it.