Mercadito Midtown

Pretentious Mexican boteca (tapas) style restaurant in the Midtown Miami area (in the Target shopping complex; one street east of Target).

We were craving tacos after a day at the beach (damn you, Ver Daddys for closing), and decided to give this place a shot. We won't be repeating that mistake any time soon.


What we had:

Let me preface our meal ny saying the menu at Mercadito is ridiculous. It's overpriced, inflexible, and pretentious. I guess you have to be pretentious to charge $14 for 4 mini tacos with a straight face. There is also no mixing and matching with your 4 tacos, a fact with which we were sorely disappointed--almost to the point of walking out. $14 is ludicrous, but we would be willing to overlook that if you could sample more than one flavor. Two even, would be okay.

Salsa costs $3 extra, and it's maybe a quarter of a cup. The variety we got was nice, but worth nowhere near $3.

The chips were fresh but unsalted and really greasy; almost inedible.

We ordered carne and carnitas tacos. Each variety came out on long glass plates; a nice presentation.

The carne tacos (tender grilled steak chunks with diced potato, an airy potato puree, bits of roasted poblano and crispy wisps of something in fresh corn tortillas) were tiny, but the flavor was good.

The carnitas tacos (shredded, juicy slow-cooked pork shoulder with crispy cabbage slaw and peanut dressing on the same tortillas) were also tiny and tasted good, but the value for money just isn't there.


Décor:

We were seated outside; almost flapping in the breeze in the patio entranceway. The inside decor was bright, open and modern.


Service:

The server didn't speak English terribly well and managed to be both condescending and neraly intelligible, because he was opposed to enunciation.

The service was tapas style, with dishes coming out at all different times. Really? Is that entirely necessary? Our food did come out quick, though, I will give them that.


Overall impressions:

Everything else on the menu seemed to be similarly overpriced, and geared to ordering a bunch of plates/courses.


Rating:

2.5 out of 5 salamanders, but begrudingly. The tastes were good overall, but the experience was wholly unsatisfying.


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