Merkato Reviews Summary

Category: Ethiopian restaurant London

Address: 196 Caledonian Rd, Barnsbury Estate, London, N1 0SQ, United Kingdom

Phone: +442077138952

Rating: 4.6
based on 179 reviews.

Service

Pros:

  • "The staff were very helpful and gave good advice on what to try."
  • "This Restaurant is my first choice in London the reason is simple and elegant food for the soul with outstanding service."
  • "Definitely give this place a go. The staff is lovely, the place is really chill and it's such a good price."
  • "The owner was super friendly and lovely."
  • "The customer service is amazing- honestly I've never experienced better customer service than this."
  • "Staff was very friendly too, always smiling!"
  • "The staff are very hospitable and the food comes out very quickly and perfectly done."

Cons:

  • "We found the service pretty poor."
  • "Do not come here - as a hospitality profession I guarantee you this place is heading for closure and good riddance."
  • "Costumer care? Absent."
  • "They didn't bring enough bread. And the honey wine was AWFUL."
  • "The waiter (without a mask) grabbed a piece of the bread out of our plate with his hands, and refused to give my wife and I a separate fork and plate."
  • "The attitude of the other server, the man – unfriendly and uncommunicative"
  • "Zero help. Zero recommendations. Zero personality."

Food Quality

Pros:

  • "The ginger tea was appropriately spicy and the beef, chicken, fish combo more than enough for three with stretchy bread with a tad of sourness."
  • "Delicious food full of flavour."
  • "The food was delicious and what a great way to get your kid to eat all this healthy food."
  • "The food tasted amazing and the food looked good"
  • "Food was delicious! Very well presented"
  • "The food is absolutely delicious, I’d definitely recommend getting one of the combo plates as you get a bit of everything!"
  • "Delicious food, wonderful service and great portions/prices."

Cons:

  • "The beef was inedible. Very hard to chew. Better yet, not chewable at all."
  • "The food was so bad with its very small portions."
  • "The food was not great - didn’t taste fresh and wasn’t really seasoned or spiced."
  • "The food was just OK, nothing special."
  • "A lot of the dishes tasted bland."
  • "The food was mediocre, overpriced, quite oily"
  • "The food was disappointing. The injera was way too sour."

Ambience

Pros:

  • "Nice cultural decoration and vintage habesha music (yemane barya) playing in the background."
  • "A charming, homely yet exotic vibe fills this place."
  • "Lovely interior and atmosphere."
  • "The place is small and cozy and you can sit indoors or outdoors."
  • "The atmosphere has the friendly and relaxed vibe of a local restaurant, frequented by many regulars."
  • "The setting is very cute and ethnic music plays in the background."
  • "The interior design of the restaurant was unique and added to the African feel."

Cons:

  • "Empty unfriendly, cold, unwelcoming."
  • "Firstly, I am unsure why they have potpourri on the dining table. The smell isn't pleasant at all."
  • "The ambient is definitely merkato, full of cheapy and tacky objects all around."
  • "Maybe Tuesday lunchtime is not the best time to go here. We were the only customers."
  • "The place has very high ratings and that is how we ended up here. Food is below average in taste and they have weird RULES about sharing food, yes RULES."
  • "It looked a bit dodgy and the place wasn't very clean"
  • "Don't be put-off by the rather bar-like appearance of this Injera joint."

Value

Pros:

  • "The price was good though, it's just a shame we weren't too much a fan of the Ethiopian flavours."
  • "Vegan friendly options and very reasonable prices."
  • "Prices are very reasonable too."
  • "Price wise, it's damn cheap with what was essentially an all you can eat and drink for just 18 squids."
  • "The flavours were great and has a very reasonable price."
  • "It's such a good price."
  • "Great food, big portions, and very reasonably priced."

Cons:

  • "However for this price there are cheaper options. we paid £60 for 2 persons in total for reference."
  • "We left after 45mins after paying £60 and not feeling like we’d eaten a proper dinner."
  • "Very overpriced for the quality and portions they offer."
  • "However when it came to paying the bill they clearly did a U turn and denied any association."
  • "The pricing of the chicken was weird - £10.50 for one very skinny chicken drumstick with an egg"
  • "Last thing? Too expensive for the quality of the food."
  • "The food on the sharing platter was not at all enough for £40."

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