Located on the cross streets of Huashan and Wulumuqi Roads, you find the delightful Mercado 505.

I have dined at Mercado 505 on two prior occasions and always enjoyed dining on the terrace, for the whole concept of Mercado 505 cries out for Al fresco dining.

What a pity that the heavy downpours this past Thursday evening prevented one from dining Al fresco, despite arriving without a reservation one is warmly welcomed by Marta and shown a table for two, on what one might call the mezzanine floor of the restaurant, we were promptly shown the menus, and offered a complimentary glass of Cava, which went down very well I might say.

On to the menu, started off with a delicious plate of Casa Santona Golden Anchovies, served with a tomato base with olive oil, and warm bread, these went down a treat with the Cava.

Ordered the following dishes which are just right for sharing.

Scampi Carpaccio: wonderful delicate flavours and the nibbed almonds just finish this dish off.

Fried Calamari: well it’s calamari rings, with a light coating of breadcrumbs and sauce vert, these were so-so, needed a little kick to enhance the flavour, to which we added a dash of Tabasco.

For these dishes we ordered two white wines by the glass, a lovely Abadia San Campio, Rias Baixas and a Ramon Bilbao, Rueda both excellent wines, served at the right temperature, decent size pour and certainly value for money at 55 & 60 a glass.

We then preceded to order a further two dishes, again for sharing.

Beef Tartar: (I can never have enough of this dish, does not matter which restaurant I go to) the dish is accompanied with four chunky sized deep-fried potatoes, some warm toast, and six smidgens of mustard.  The dish was fine, once you mixed yourself, although had to ask for both a salt cellar and pepper grinder, neither were on the table.

Iberico Pluma/ Piquillo Pepper: Grilled sweet red capsicum with pork, the meat was tender and had a reasonable amount of sauce within the dish, but could have done with a touch more sauce, had to ask for some bread to mop up what sauce there was remaining in the dish, truly delightful dish.

For these dishes we ordered two red wines by the glass, a Penalosa R Duero and a Viaje de Ramon Rioja and both excellent wines, served at the right temperature, decent size pour and certainly value for money at 40 & 50 a glass.

The restaurant was extremely busy on both levels, with a diverse mix of clientele, service was efficient and well serviced, the management of Mercado 505, certainly know about customer service, they have well-trained employees, I can’t fault the place, many areas that are overlooked in establishments are the toilet facilities, the Unisex toilets were spotlessly clean and well serviced at Mercado 505.

I can only recommend a trip to the market that is Mercado 505.

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