08.17.08
Review of Mercat, Friday June 2008
45 Bond St. #A & Lafayette/Bowery, 212-529-8600
Great for: cheese, watching chefs, people on high-sodium diets
I confess to a weakness for this little neighborhood because of the hallucinatory metal sculpture/enclosure/fortification around the new apartment building they’ve just put up there. It looks a bit like a T-1000 that’s been shattered, flung on the wall and somehow suspended there. I enjoy looking at it because it’s simultaneously brilliant and stupid. I can never decide which. Kind of a Schrödinger’s Cat paradox involving my taste in architecture.
We started with the selection of three cheeses. The Monte Enebro goat cheese from Ávila was soft, reminiscent of bleu cheese, and I thought it actually pretty tasty. I found the La Serena, a sheep version from Extremadura, bitter and soft. I didn’t much like that one. The Idiazabal, ovine cheese from Pais Vasc, was firm, not too strong, and delicious. The cheeses come on a nice board with bread and aged jelly. Yeah, I thought that sounded gross too. I couldn’t force very much of the jelly down.
From the tapas section we tried the patates bravas with garlic and spicy sauce. The sauce reminded me of spicy mayonnaise at Japanese restaurants. The potatoes were a bit charred, and the dish is really big, so though I liked it at first, I got tired of it about halfway through. The bombas – chicken, pork and beef meatballs – were minced very finely with a hard potato-y shell outside. They were interesting and yummy but the meat had a disconcertingly soft texture, reminiscent of Gerber’s baby food, which eventually overpowered the taste of it. We didn’t finish this dish either.
Of the embotits (Spanish for charcuterie, I think) we tried the jamón serrano, which was delicious and not too salty. I don’t know why the pá amb tomàquet, toasted bread with tomato and garlic, is in the same category, but it was pretty good.
In the larger dishes (cuiina de Mercat) we went for the vedella amb escalivada, a grilled hanger steak with cheese on top and roasted vegetables. A little tough, it was somehow juicy and too salty at the same time. I was surprised at the large amount of meat; too much, in fact, although sliced into good sizes. The truita, a Spanish omelet with chorizo was also overly salted. I did like the tender egg and creamy cheesy sauce on top. The Maya shrimp with crispy garlic and pimenton were nice and big and a bit too salty as well.
Commodities Broker and I were not disappointed with Avinyo, a rosé cava. It was a lovely ruby color and the flavors balanced well. I was pleased with the service too. The waiters are really nice, more attentive to the level of our glasses than getting the food out – though that’s not such a bad thing. The kitchen forgot one of our dishes, which was fine since we found ourselves stuffed anyhow. There is a sexy wine area catwalk just begging to be used in a runway show or movie.
I thought they used the large space inefficiently – they could have fit a couple more tables – but the decor was nice. There are white tiles everywhere, which, fortunately for the noise level, are offset by all the unvarnished wood and brick. You can sit at an open kitchen area in the middle of the room and watch the chefs. You could also sit at the spacious bar and skip the food. I had a fairly good experience here, what with the nice service and the abundance of champagne, but basically everything from the kitchen was too salty. Have drinks here. Bond St. a few doors down is more reliable when it comes to food.
Rating: 7 / 10
Our cost: $260 (2 $55 bottles of rosé cava)
Noise level: not too bad
Chance of walking in: medium.
