Market – The Black (and White) Market

3.6/5 on the Foodie Foursome Index
3.7/5 on the Fancy/Hip Scale

Mike’s Review: 😌👭🎩🍖🐖
Entering Market I felt like we had walked into Cruella De Vil’s living room luckily she was my favourite Disney Protagonist… she just wanted a nice jacket… is that so wrong? IS THAT SO WRONG TO WANT A NICE JACKET?!… but I digress…

The evening started with sweaty palms and nervous jitters as we were about to meet “@Lapetitteshar”, of whom we are a big fan! We ordered the Gnocchi to start, and I gotta say… me likey the gnocchi, it was absolutely phenomenal, best I ever had! It was followed by a main course of pork belly, which I gotta say, if I wasn’t a fan of Porky Pig before… I definitely am now! It made up for it’s somewhat small portion by being accompanied by some of the best veggies I ever had! Typically, like most men, I eat only enough vegetables to trick Jenna into thinking I am healthy, but with these veggies, she didn’t even need to double check my plate!

Overall, I enjoyed Market, I really wanted to use the phrase, “Called ‘et’ because ‘et’ missed the mark”… but unfortunately for my love of wordplay… Market hit its mark…

Jenna’s Review: 🔳🔲👗👠🍗
After a dismal black monday, it was evident that this was the only Market performing well that day!

The interior is very modern and clean, the perfect setting to enjoy a nice meal. It definitely fits the hip eateries scale to a “T”. To start I had their homemade cream soda to sip on which tasted kind of like vanilla extract smells, phenomenal. The gnocchi appetizer was extra delightful because every other gnocchi I have tried is dense and heavy but these were like little clouds of cheesy heaven in my mouth.

For my main I tried the special of the night which was pork ribs and fries. For me it was good but not brilliant. Now, I am not the biggest pork fan, and I can’t tell you why I chose that as my main, but I think next time I would stick with the standard menu because Mike ordered the pork belly and I could not get enough of it, so it was on there for a reason.

I would love to go back and try some other dishes from the menu…or eat 5 pounds of gnocchi. Either would suffice.

Sharon and Corinne’s Experience/Review:
Apologies to Market that it took us this long to return. The last time we were here was when they first opened on 17^th, and they’ve gone through some changes. Their patio always seems busy so we were very excited to come here for dinner and especially because it was to meet the famous couple of couples. Since the stock markets around the world are in bad shape, we’re glad that we invested in the “food” market. Market has a beautiful interior, full of character with the white tables and flooring providing a lovely contrast to the dark color setting of the bar area.  One memorable feature was the unique plant terrarium fixtures they had hanging above the bar.

Market offers a simple menu, and each item listed sounded so tasty that we all had a tough time deciding what to order. Pork belly? Chicken? Beef? Gah … sooo overwhelming!! We ended up ordering the special of the night…Baby Back Ribs, accompanied by vegetables and fries. When the dish arrived we were amazed at the presentation! Each dish had its own finesse. We was pleasantly surprised at how big my baby back ribs were. Jenna also got the ribs and Mike ordered the Pork Belly, which looked tiny compared to our dish, but still delicious-looking. Two girls out-eating a guy … haha. Sharon had to put her bib on since it was inevitable that she would get sauce on herself (which she did!). The fries were delicious and the aioli ketchup dip enhanced the taste that much more. The vegetables which formed the healthy part of the dish didn’t have much taste to them, but this was solved by coating them with some of the sauce from the ribs. The ribs themselves were a bit of a challenge. We found them a bit dry and hard to eat without using a knife. Expectations for the ribs were higher as we look for the meat to be tender so that it falls off the bone easily. The flavor was just average as well – the fries stole the spotlight in the Flavor category.

Corinne ordered the popular duck tacos.  Well-seasoned duck confit shredded on a some crispy mini crepes and topped with pickled strawberries, caramelized onions, and cilantro. The tacos were tasty but Corinne felt they were a little dry and the tacos could have used a bit more moisture via a sauce or salsa. The crepes themselves were an interesting concept for tacos, but they would have been tastier with some more seasoning. If you are a taco and duck fan, give these babies a try, as the meat was moist and well-seasoned and the crepes were a nice change of pace from tortillas.

Overall, we still enjoyed our experience here and I would say that the $28 price tag for ribs and $16 for tacos was well worth it. There are many more dishes we want try, so we will be back!

Rating: 3.35/5