Good spot overall. It can be hard to find quality Spanish cuisine, but they executed well.

The food was very expensive! I have lived in Spain and I know many of the recipes. Many have have changed and you may expect something different than what you order.

Nice place for casual dinning, good service, excellent food.

Very good service, outstanding food. They need to do some acoustical dampening as the noise level was too high for the prices! Beautiful setting in old hotel.

A great menu to choose from, matched with imaginative cocktails and wines that will complement the tapas. I suggest the patatas bravas and the fig and serrano ham salad. They are truly outstanding. The room is lively and well-appointed.

Location to theatre was good, atmosphere great and food was EXCELLENT!

Thoroughly enjoyed Mercat.
Had the Chef's Tasting Menu with Wine pairings - delicious.
Only drawback was the boisterous table that got seat next to us after our dinner began.

Everything was delicious. Miss the short rib flat bread but the tuna flat bread didn't disappoint. Suckling Pig was delicious as was the rack of lamb. My favorite bacon wrapped dates ended a lovely meal.

As the hostess seated us, I remarked on the beautiful view from the windows. She asked us if we would like to move to a seat by the windows, which we did. The waitress answered our questions about the brunch items and made a great recommendation. Our brunch was relaxed and unhurried. The price was reasonable.

We had a great dinner. Loved the food. The server and the kitchen were very good at spacing out our dishes.

The service was spot on. My water was consistently filled. The food was fabulous. This was our third visit to Chicago and Mercat. The food was as good as the first time. I spent time in Spain and this takes me back to that wonderful country. The meat paella was flavorful, and came out piping hot. The stuffed dates are not to be missed. They have a great salty sweet from the bacon and date. The almond in the middle provides some great texture. The meatballs were moist and flavorful. The smoked paprika was a great flavorful addition. This is still my all time favorite restaurant.

Be advised that on Saturdays their kitchen closes at 3pm. We made 2:45pm reservations and arrived close to 3:00 only to be informed that we could only orde from the limited bar menu - about 5 or 6 items. They were great, but we were extremely disappointed!!! Why take reservations at 2:45 if the kitchen closes at 3:00?

Ah, the secrets ! The octopus, flash fried peppers, grilled dates, mushrooms were all wonderful too. Go with a group and share the diversity of flavors. Just note that a lot of items have cured meats so if you are salt sensitive be careful.

The food is excellent and the whole space, and the hotel itself, is great.

Great Spanish tapas restaurant in the heart of Michigan Avenue. The red sangria was by far the beat I’ve had since Spain.

Food was not up to expectations and not a good valu

Coffee had floaters in it, when I told the waiter he said that is normal. LoL. Couldn’t leave fast enough!

Wonder what’s in the food?

This is my second visit to Mercat and was no disappointed. Everyone was super attentive to our needs.

we arrived early for our reservation and were told they do not seat until a certain time. So we left to walk around and arrived back on time. We were seated in an area where there were 4 or 5 other tables. Our server seemed very busy and tried to get us to order the Chef's special, which is very expensive. We decided on a paella and some plates so we only had to interact with/bother the server for another glass of wine. She came back to sell us dessert and we did order sorbet.
There were some really tasty plates that we had and the paella was perfect for 4. Our bussers were the folks who worked the hardest-- replacing plates, filling water glasses, removing empty dishes, etc. not sure I'd go back but glad I've gone!

This review is for Brunch. I have been for dinner and really enjoyed it. My dining companion ordered the traditional Benedict. Nothing traditional about it. No English muffin and a very weird spice/seasoning. She did not feel well after and I had a few bites and didn’t feel great. Bacon wrapped dates are good with the blue cheese sauce but 4 very small dates (I order these everywhere and by far the smallest ortion and size) for $10-$12. Not many options. Do not recommend for anything but dinner.

50th birthday great time!

The best Spanish restaurant outside of Spain. A great variety of tapas with wines to match.

Great time great view food was excellent we will return again

Excellent, authentic spanish tapas restaurant. Go for the tapas, stay for the paella and great Spanish focused wine list. There are some great wine finds on this list you won't find anywhere else.

The ten course variety absolutely delicious. It was perfectly spaced as far as timing. It’s the first restaurant I’ve been to in a very long time that I left totally satisfied thank you. The orange desert out of this world.

Our server was excellent and extremely helpful in assisting our decisions as it was our first visit. She was especially thoughtful of our teens who were there to celebrate a graduation. The food choices were perfect for our party and we enjoyed immensely. It was a great meal to introduce a new cuisine to the younger generation. Great and fast service with the high class experience.

Shared several tapas that were all good. My fiance & I each chose two so he was forced to try octopus for the first time & once he got past the suckers, he really enjoyed! Smoky & delicious! The tuna flatbread was amazing as well.

A hidden gem.

Incredible!

Incredible experience. We enjoy dining st Mercat every time we get to Chicago.
Katie was our server and took awesome care of us. She planned our whole dinner and it was spot on.
We will be back not soon enough.

Did the 4 course meal with wine pairing and it was excellent and the price was just right for the amount of offerings.

The food was quite good, especially the fig salad. It is a large space but not too noisy and the large windows looking onto Michigan Ave add to the ambiance. My only complaint was the service. It was OK overall but we started with salads indicating that we would order our main course tapas later. The waitress did not come back to put the order in until we were completely done with the salads, despite me trying to flag her down. As a result, we had a long wait between courses. One of the orders then did not come out for a very long time and was charred. They did give us that one on the house. Overall, we felt ignored.

Amazing food!! Tapas are always fun but this time they were extraordinary!! Our group of four had 7 tapas including a few salads and a pitcher of sangria. Everything was excellent... hard to recommend one thing over another as it was all fantastic!

Very disappointed. I went there for a business dinner and was less than impressed which is a shame since I love Tapas. Plates were small portions and overpriced, very oily (greasy) and overall very bland. The few standouts were the garlic shrimp (tasty but bathed in olive oil) and the chorizo. Scallops and flatbread had no taste. The calimari was one of the worst I've had (bland and soggy) and the Octopus, while a bit more substantial, was also very oily with minimal taste.

Delicious food, lively atmosphere, excellent service. Our server, Jerry, was the best!

The service was excellent and we had a great table at a window. We really enjoyed the food. It is quite expensive.

The tapas was excellent, the sangria was good, service was good, would not go with the black ink paella (Arros Negre del Ampurda (squid ink Paella, calamari, pork sausage, pork loin, artichokes, garlic aioli) though, too salty. I would not characterize the ambience as romantic. Specifically, we ordered: Patatas Bravas (spicy potatoes, smoked paprika aioli) - excellent vegetarian option, as was the Setas al Horno (grilled mushrooms, confit potato, shallot, cipollini onion, parsley). Both the Vieiras (diver scallops) and Pulpo con Patatas (Spanish octopus, confit potatoes, smoked paprika) were excellent.

We ordered the sampler that provided seven or eight or nine different courses. I forgot how many. it was outstanding.

We have been here several times and the experience is always really nice—the food is delicious, the service is great, and the ambiance is just right.

As usual, we had a great dinner and will of course be coming bazck.

Waiter was a bit stiff, however very attentive.