Mercado Bar & Cantina, Stoke Newington, London

Mercado has great margaritas, good fajitas, and is very reasonably priced. Although the service wasn’t exactly wonderful, they were very accommodating to our large group and very swiftly and surreptitiously provided a slice of birthday cake and fantastic sombreros for the birthday boy.

The other members of the party gave great reviews of the burritos and the enchiladas – I really can’t complain about our experience at all, and would definitely go back.

I have eaten here twice now and I must say that the food has been ok. I was a big fan of the guacamole, Mexican rice and the chicken tacos. The sauce in there was to die for. Nice complexities and depth of flavour ran through the sauce which danced around my mouth. Yet didn't leave me gasping for a bucket of water to drink.

I haven't tried much else from the menu as of yet but the tacos are good. I also had a chicken quesadilla too which again had a lovely depth of flavour and was served with some tangy and creamy guacamole.

I have tried the corn with chilli, lime and mayo and I feel it needs a lot more chilli and lime. In New York I had some corn done in a similar way and this one felt like a wimpy imposter in comparison.

On my first visit I did share some churros but I wasn't overly impressed with them. But then after sampling the churros at Wahaca I think a lot of churros have a lot to live up to, especially where the chocolate sauce is concerned.

I have been twice on a Tuesday night very late and feel they have done well. I would like to return but on a night where it is busier and with more people so I can sample more of what the menu has to offer.

The only good thing about this place was their cocktail happy hour. Everything else was extremely poor, worst being the food.

Good food but vastly overpriced considering the surroundings and quality of what you get. They offer a lunch deal however which makes the food price just about right.

As well as the restaurant there is also a bar area - when we came for drinks the music was too loud to talk over and was punctuated by the people who live in the flat upstairs regularly slamming their door (presumably to drown out the noise).

A new Mexican has opened on kingsland road recently which I think will provide some competition to a place that exists more for it's unique cuisine in an area of okabasi places than it's overall greatness.

simply avoid...

HORRIBLE!
If I managed to make it home without feeling ill it would have scored 2* for being incredibly overpriced and bad tasting.
But the food made me feel sick. Portion sizes were fine, but the variety in a main was bad. Mexican restaurants in my experience have usually had a choice of salads to put on your tortilla or taco, this place just gave me a huge hunk of bad chili with a tiny portion of average guacamole. The prices were fine for good Mexican, but this place gave us a main that would be considered OK airline food for about the price of a Ryanair flight. Service was fine but the bad food was naturally the driving force behind this review. I discouraged a couple from entering and submitting themselves to this wallet raping for a bad experience and the first thing I did when I got home was to try and discourage you from coming here too.

Mercado would without doubt win the prize for Stoke Newington’s most gaudy restaurant exterior. That said it makes this cantina hard to miss. The mexican menu is equally vibrant; we were drawn in by the 3 course set menu for £20. Approved selections include the chicken in mango sauce and the Sea bass. After the substantial starters some of the less endurant members of our party found the mains hard to finish, so it may be better to go for the flexibility of the full menu.

However, staff were happy to provide a doggy bag and went into impromptu fiesta mode as soon as it was discovered we had a birthday girl in our midst - think chocolate cake and crazy hat brigade, and not just for the birthday girl…

Fairly quiet the night we attended, but I can imagine it has a good buzz on a saturday night. For the more adventurous there’s an authentic, if a little strange, crossbreed beverage somewhere between a beer and a bloody mary, called a Michelado (not to everyone’s taste!).

Not much wrong with this place. Double thumbs up!

Mexican is my favorite food, and I’m quite a snob about it.
Mercado do a pretty good job, the menu is limited but the food makes up for the lack of choice. The margaritas are amazing!

Mexican food. It’s a bit of a mystery to us Brits, isn’t it? Sure we all like to chow down on a fajita or a burrito, but we tend to recieve the Tex-Mex, Americanised, homogenised versions as oppose to the traditional, fiery, full-flavoured Mexican versions. And trying to find anything Mexican not wrapped in a tortilla or stuffed into a taco is like trying to find a club on New Years Eve that isn’t charging extortionate rates to enter- Nigh impossible. So I was happy to be taken to Mercado Cantina, a… lets say ray of sunshine [it was either that or brightly coloured house of fun] nestled in good old Stokey.

As we entered Mercado we were warmly greeted by the staff; however, they outnumbered the customers three to one, seeing as on a Saturday night at nine o’clock we were the only customers. This worried me slightly, I mean I know there’s a recession going on at the moment but an empty restaurant surely reflects on the quality of the food? From this example I’d have to retract that sweeping statement, as everything we ate was delicious. We were brought fresh, crisp tortilla chips with a pungent, spicy salsa while we consulted the menu and glugged our wine- which was pretty reasonable tasting to say it was the house plonk. I opted for the chiles en nogada, a huge chile stuffed with mince and spices, smothered in a creamy sauce and served with rice. It had just the right amount of spice to creaminess, the rice was great, it was proper Mexican food of the kind I tried when I was in the great country itself.

My dining companion, being a) a vegetarian and b) a bit of a wuss, opted for the veggie fajitas, which were presented as a sizzling plate of mixed vegetables with approximately 500 tortillas and various sauces [clearly they could tell she’d been working up an appetite through her constant chatting]. It looked good, it smelt good, she said it tasted good- pretty good all round.

I would’ve preferred a bit more atmosphere to complete the feel of this place, but unfortunately I’m not very popular so I couldn’t really round up the troops to get a party spirit going; However, if it was a busy night here I think it could be a great start to a night out, and I would be demanding some tequilas from the lovely barman to wash down the great food.

This Mexican restaurant sits on the spot where Yum Yum, the much loved thai restaurant used to be (before it moved round the corner to the High St), so it has a lot to live up to.

We went on a week night when it was quite quiet, but it seems to fill up at the weekends.

My Margarita cocktail went down very well and my friend had a Pisco Sour, which she was pleased to see on the list. The food was tasty but not particularly memorable. I had vegetable fajitas and my friend had a mole (not the furry kind!), which you don’t see on many menus in London.

I’ve had better fajitas and was quite disappointed and not very full. My friend seemed satisfied with her mole (it’s a kind of savoury chocolate sauce, by the way – and not as disgusting as it sounds!), but it didn’t blow her away.

I’d definitely come back for cocktails and would probably give the food another chance.

This is a fantastic little restaurant, serving authentic mexican food and drink. The decor is very basic but fantastic, once inside you feel like you could be in mexico (the toilets are a bit shabby and smell of damp though). Everyone in our group (of 6 adults) thought their food was amazing. We all tried cocktails and have to say that their mojitas are out of this world. It was great to sit at the bar and watch them making one - not the drink to order if you are short of time though. We rounded the evening off with a little dancing (they clear the tables away once everyone has finished eating and hey presto, a dance floor!). Will definitely go back - its got everything restaurant, bar and somewhere to dance all under one roof!

After a rather scathing review about how bad Mercado had become, I now have to eat my words.

For a while Mercado had become exclusively a TexMex affair, I’m pleased to report that it has returned nearly all the items of the authentic Mexican food to the menu, while keeping the TexMex as well. Ideal, I suppose, to cater to the less adventurous diner too.

All my favourites are back, Mole Poblano, Rajas con Queso, Crepas de Cuitlacoche, Enchiladas de Mole & Pechuga al Pimenton. I highly recommend any of these dishes. Maybe the Crepas de Cuitlacoche more than others; sour corn fungus, stuffed in crepes, covered in a rich creamy sauce.

Most of these dishes are served with rice and refried beans, quite, quite tasty. Words cannot express the flavours this food posesses. A word of warning though, if you are not very adventurous with food, then it’s probably in your best interest to stick to the burritos and tacos. I have friends who frequently slated Mercado despite my protestations. when Mercado changed to the TexMex menu they suddenly loved it, while I obviously hated it.

The little bar next door to the restaurant is quite pretty and serves Mexican beers, micheladas, tequila’s and delicious cocktails, a nice little bohemian place to hang out before going out somewhere.

I would encourage any lover of South American cooking to try Mercado in addition to the more well known Mestizo.

Pros
- authentic Mexican food
- has a bohemian little bar, quite popular with locals
- good drinks menu; cocktails, Mexican beers, tequilas
- good locale

Cons
- service is sometimes lacking
- still haven’t returned the “cafe de olla” to the menu.

Very bright and interesting decor,You may need sunglasses whilst looking at it from outside!
The staff were pleasant and not overbearing,I went at lunch time it was quiet and comfortable, I can imagine its buzzing at the weekend with the addition of music & Salsa classes.
The food is tasty and well cooked and the cocktails are very good. Recommended.

Awesome, vibey little place. Better for cocktails now though… when it first started the mole poblano was out of this world and the menu was a lot more authentic Mexican… it’s still a great night out though!

When you walk up to this restaurant it’s hard to guess what it’s going to be like inside. The decor on the outside is vibrant and colourful and shouts, ‘fun-night-out’. The inside of the restaurant is cosy and exciting - tables are packed quite close together and cushions and crazy colours make you feel ever so slightly dizzy. However, this makes for a great atmosphere - you can’t not have fun here. Note, though, that you shouldn’t go here for a quiet, romantic dinner for two. It is a party place.
The cocktail list is unique and the cocktails themselves are mouth watering. The food list is extensive and original, unfortunately the food itself is fairly bland. It doesn’t help that the menu makes you feel inquisitive about what you’re going to be fed and you assume it’ll be great because it sounded so yummy on the menu.
HOWEVER, the salads are served in huge, deep-fried wraps and this made everyone say, “Wow - what’s that you’ve got there?” when it was put down on the table. And with the atmospheric music; lighting; colourful table cloths, cushions, chairs, walls, waiting staff, menus and cocktails; you can only enjoy a loud, laugh-a-second evening out here. I just wish I could give it an extra star rating.

Incredibly brightly coloured Mexican restaurant at the High Street end of Stoke Newington's Church St. I love the vibrant decoration and the staff are very smiley too. We went during happy hour which meant 2-for-1 Margaritas (a big plus) and I think they also had a happy hour offer on Mexican beer. We ordered nachos to share, but quickly got order envy when the next table got their burritos which looked delicious, so next time that's what I'll order to go with my bargain margaritas.

I love exotic food and here is a place when you can spend a mexican night.

First, you go for a drink, you can seat outside and appreciate the sun or go inside and feel the sunshine of the place with a lot of different colours, a traditional music and smells of burritos not far.
If you are lucky you will be there during happy hours and have two margarita for one.
Then, you start to feel an uncontrollable hunger, forget the bar and take a seat blue, red or green.

A nice thing is you can check before going the website for the menu.
The food is not expensive about £10 a course you can't finish even if it tastes so good.
After, you can learn salsa for free every Monday, it's fun as the place becomes a dancing bar and also a meeting place.