Despite setback, still a good meal: The Mercantile
I’ve been wanting to try The Mercantile in Hollywood since it opened about five months ago, so when I saw a $20 prix fixe offered via Blackboard Eats, of course I snatched it up. Then, as is par for the food course, I went to dinner here with some foodie friends. Good times!
And not only was the company enjoyable, so was the food (save for one hiccup, but I’ll get to that later). We started with a bottle of Plan Pégau on the recommendation of our server, who was very knowledgeable about the food and drink, and it was a great recommendation.
As for food, all of us started with an endive salad with dates, watercress, smoked almonds and herbed goat cheese. I had never had dates with an endive salad, and I appreciated their sweetness, which balanced out the overall saltiness of the salad.
Endive salad
I also ordered the harissa and poached egg with feta cheese, house-made yogurt and cripsy bread (which wasn’t part of the prix fixe). This appetizer was my favorite dish of the night. Everything is better with egg, right?
Harissa with poached egg, yogurt and feta cheese underneath
For our mains, we all had the gnocchi with peas, mushrooms and parmesan. This was a sauceless dish, which made its saltiness stand out even more. It was just over the line of saltiness where it made the dish unenjoyable, which was a shame because it was good otherwise. And since we all ordered the same thing, all of us decided to send the gnocchi back, and our server and the kitchen were very accommodating and remade our dishes. Check out fellow diner’s Caroline’s post on how to send back a bad meal at a restaurant.
Gnocchi
For dessert, we were offered a scoop of housemade ice cream. There were all kinds of intriguing flavors, including vanilla bourbon and caramel corn, and I settled on the lemon confit sorbet. I love lemon, so I enjoyed this a lot. I would go back just for the ice cream alone.
Lemon confit sorbet
In the end, even though it wasn’t a perfect meal, The Mercantile staff redeemed itself by not only fixing our order but by then taking off two of the four prix fixe meals from our bill to compensate for the inconvenience. We didn’t ask for an adjustment to our bill, but they gave us one anyway. It was a great example of customer service, something I’m a stickler about. Thumbs up for The Mercantile.
so glad that gnocchi wasn’t offered on prix fixe night. we had an extremely pleasant meal, and the staff seemed super relaxed (if not TOO relaxed). this is, beyond Bowery’s burger, my fave Abou-Daoud place so far.