Review of Mercado Bistro in King St, Bowen Hills

It’s one of Brisbane’s most talked-about venues, thanks to its eye-wateringly expensive fit-out, but when it comes to ordering one crucial item, our reviewer finds things rapidly descend into farce.

How many waitstaff does it take to get a glass of wine?

It sounds like the opening of a joke – and that’s just what our lunch at glamorous new food retailer-cum-restaurant Mercado in Bowen Hills was fast descending into.

Based on the acclaimed food halls of London’s Harrods and Paris’s Galeries Lafayette, the swanky culinary destination opened late last year with an eye-wateringly expensive fit-out.

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The space features a butchery, greengrocer, patisserie, fishmonger, delicatessen, bottle shop and two restaurants: the waterfowl-focused The Duck Room at the front, and the more relaxed, jack-of-all-trades bistro down one side.

Upon opening the latter, owner Tony Nguyen spoke of using only the finest produce carefully sourced from around the world – seafood caught within the past 24 hours to the best of Australian beef.

Mercado Bistro. Picture: Mark Cranitch

The bistro’s tome-like menu tells much of that story, with maps dedicated to highlighting from where the ingredients hail, and forewords to every section.

You’ll find share plates like beef tataki, sashimi and nigiri, alongside seafood dishes including teriyaki-glazed whole baby snapper and live lobster and crab fresh from the tanks. There’s also steak and pizza.

But it’s a good thing the menu does most of the work, because the service team simply struggles.

The mostly young waitstaff is friendly and compliant, but there is an obvious lack of experience and knowledge around the basics of hospitality and the menu.

In answer to my opening question about the wine, at Mercado it takes six.

The tea-smoked duck at Mercado Bistro in Bowen Hills.

We order a glass of bubbles with our initial waiter, but after it fails to arrive following our entrees we follow up with another waitress. Still nothing. We follow up again. Nothing. Until our original waiter tells us that particular wine is unavailable. After ordering another glass of wine, we then have a different staff member – seemingly oblivious to what has transpired – come over and try to sell us on a rose to go with one of our mains, which have now arrived. We tell him we’ve already ordered a glass but ask him to follow up too. Another waitress then arrives with the wine list to look at, but still no wine. Finally a sixth staff member comes over, asks us what we want, and delivers it immediately.

There are other smaller service issues during lunch, but it all boils down to inexperience and a lack of procedures and knowledge.

The food fares better.

The snapper and sea urchin pie at Mercado in Bowen Hills.

Tea-smoked duck ($24) with Peking duck juices is tender and tasty. The signature snapper and sea urchin pie ($49), plated at the table, could do with a crack more salt, but the cookery of the fish can’t be faulted. While the 220g OBE certified organic, pasture-fed eye fillet ($39) is a keenly priced top quality piece of beef, expertly prepared to the medium-rare requested. But they’d do well to ditch the odd smoked potato mousse on the side.

Desserts are a collection of pastries, tarts and cakes from the patisserie, executed with French precision.

The bistro has potential for greatness, but some intensive staff training is desperately needed to ensure it gets there.

MERCADO BISTRO

Address 30 King St, Bowen Hills

Phone [phone]

Web mercadobrisbane.com.au

Open Lunch and dinner daily, breakfast weekends

VERDICT

Food 7

Service 3

Ambience 7

Value 8

OVERALL SCORE 6.5