Mercato Bar & Kitchen

Mercato is clearly popular and with good reason -- wonderful food and drink. We started with two very well made cocktails, Cidecar (twist on traditional Sidecar with apple liqueur) and the Corpse Reviver. Appetizer was the mushroom and goat cheese crostini which was quite good but a rather small portion. Main courses -- Pappardelle with duck ragu and Butternut mezzalune were both delicious with the Pappardelle especially nice with surprisingly light pasta. Dessert was GInger Panna Cotta, easily one of thebest desserts I've ever had, and some fun biscotti with a couple of nice dessert wines. Food came out a little fast for us to completely enjoy our drinks, so a request to slow things down would be wise if you like a little more time up front to sip.

What a pleasant surprise. My boyfriend and I were driving through Ithaca on our way to the finger lakes and needed a spot for dinner. He texted an old friend who lives there and his immediate response was Mercato. We were hesitant as we usually are with Italian restaurants but went with it and wow am I glad we did. What a fantastic meal from start to finish. We have the bruschetta trio which they so nicely split in half so it was easy to share. My boyfriend had the steak and it was cooked perfectly. Also the shoestring fries were a thing of beauty. My pork Milanese was thin, crispy and juicy. We had a side of the broccolini which was garlicky and cooked just how I like it, with a little crunch. The bartender helped us select a bottle of wine and it was exactly what we wanted. If you are in Ithaca make sure you stop here for dinner, it’s worth it.

My girlfriend and I decided to take a romantic getaway on the finger lakes and our drive had us passing through Ithaca, so we decided to stop for dinner. A good friend recommended this place, and admittedly I was skeptical of Italian food this far from New York City, but I trust their recommendations and decided to give it a try. I am so glad that I did. For our wine selection, our server allowed us to sample one of the wines by the glass, which tasted thin. When we described what we wanted, she came back with a reasonably priced bottle that exactly hit the deep red notes that we were looking for (see the picture for the winery / vintage if interested). We started with the crostini sampler. In my opinion, the Caponata was the best, but they were all interesting to try and I was glad we got all three. As a nice touch, they cut each crostini in half so my girlfriend and I could both easily sample each one. For dinner, I had the grilled hanger steak, which came with rapini and shoestring fries. I admittedly gave an annoyingly long description of how I wanted it cooked (essentially rare+) and they nailed it. The steak was fantastic, but the accompaniments were so good that they almost stole the show. The shoestring fries’ rosemary seasoning was a fun twist and the rapini was both familiar (garlic and olive oil) and excitingly different. For dessert, I had what was essentially espresso mousse with graham crackers and a glass of dessert wine. While probably the weakest course, it was still a delicious way to cap an amazing meal. The mousse required a bit more texture, but fortunately they provided graham crackers on the side (which I suggest crumbling into the mousse). I’d highly recommend checking this place out if you happen to be in the area.

Oh my goodness, we were seriously thrilled to stumble upon this place! We came for the wine/convenient location and ended up falling in love with the atmosphere, service and excellent pasta. We had a split Hanger Steak, which they neatly split for us, along with the sausage and bell pepper ravioli and gnocchi with eggplant ragu… wow. All so phenomenal. It’s so charming watching the chef prepare the meals and personally quality check each dish. I truly cannot recommend this place enough, and even though I typically choose meat dishes above all else, the pasta is to die for!

This place is just perfection. We sat at the bar at around 5:40. The restaurant opens at 5:30 and all the table were already full but the time we got there, which excited me. We had the pleasure of being served by Shawn. He was attentive, hilarious and made a mean drink. He spoke about the menu like he was a chef himself and you could tell he was passionate about his work. My friends and I enjoyed our banter with him. Once we ordered we were given bread and butter. I’m a bread lover and this was some good bread. Airy and fresh. My drink selection was the Hemingway Daiquiri, that Shawn recommended, it was sweetish and had a nice acidic kick. 10/10. My entree was the black pepper fettuccine which featured guanciale, carmelized parsnips and pecorino romano. The pasta was perfectly cooked and delicious. The parsnips were sweet and paired nicely with the guanciales saltiness and the peppery spice from the pasta. My friends got the mushroom & goat cheese cappelletti and the gnocchi with short rib ragu. Both were delicious, seasoned perfectly and pasta was cooked perfectly. They also got an Old News cocktail and Shawn made an amazing lemon drop inspired drink for them. Both were delicious. We finished our meal with the vanilla panna cotta with blood orange. It was light and sweet! Wish there was some more blood orange so each bite could have a bit of it, but it was delicious none the less. Cannot wait to come back on my next visit to NY to enjoy this beautiful restaurant again!

Very quaint and inviting. The atmosphere in this restaurant is very relaxed and offers dinning as well as a great bar. Our waiter was excellent. He was very cordial and personable and never skipped a beat. The food was very good. The place is small and gets filled up very quickly so I would suggest getting there when they open at 5:30 pm to guarantee a table.

If I could give 8 stars out of 5 I would. I'm taken away how great the food is from such a small kitchen. I really wished I lived closer to enjoy this food minimal 4x a month. The service at the bar was great and very involved. The food was out of this world. The soup was full of flavor. The main dish was also full of great flavor, the sides were great. The beer selection was a bit low but made up in drink availability. If any one reads this, yes it's worth every penny!!