Mercato - Mission

I wanted to find a restaurant where would could sit and chat since we were meeting with my husband's cousins for dinner.  After doing some Googling for a place nearby the apartment, I found Mercato (Mission location).  My friend also mentioned Mercato, saying they make the best pasta.  So I knew I wanted to try this place.  But of course, due to me not doing enough homework before the trip, I never made a reservation.  In the end it worked out due to Calgary being 2 hours later than Toronto, means for an early dinner, we lucked out and got a table during the first seating.

It was so busy there, even though we walked in at 530pm, which is when they open.  We snagged a table because there just so happened to be a last minute cancellation, otherwise we would have had to sit at the bar.  I hate sitting at bars, because it's hard to have actual conversation, and plus i'm short, so getting up and down on the stools is quite a pain.  We quickly ordered because I was hungry.  We ordered a mushroom pasta, octopus pasta, the bistecca with a side of mixed mushrooms.  The pastas were great!  Even though pastas tend to me heavy, both these pastas were light and flavourful.  I guess its because it was a oil based sauce instead of a heavy cream or tomato sauce.   From both these pastas, the octopus was my favourite.  Very tender!

Mushroom Pasta

Octopus Pasta

The main was the steak.  It took FOREVER to come.  I know people like to sit and chat and enjoy their meals slowly.  But I was hungry, borderline getting to be HANGRY.  I just wanted my steak damn it.  We kept asking them how much longer, and they kept saying soon, it's just resting etc.  It finally arrived, and unfortunately I don't think it was worth waiting for.  I find the steaks I have in Toronto are much better.  There just wasn't much flavour.  Alberta is known for their beef, but yet, the beef I've had in Alberta, is well just meh.  Do they ship out all their beef to other parts of Canada instead?

Bistecca

The pasta was good, so good I would come back just for the pasta if i'm in Calgary again.  And I will make sure to make reservations next time, because I definitely don't want to sit at bar.

Mercato - Mission
2224 4th Street SW
Calgary, AB
T2S 4W9

Phone:  (403) 263-5535

Hours:  Monday - Sunday Lunch 1130a, Dinner 530p

http://www.mercatogourmet.com/main.html

Calgary - Markets

I'm a sucker for markets.  At home, I buy my produce from local farmers markets whenever possible. Yes, this doesn't mean that I am necessarily getting the best price possible, but I believe that it's important to support local.  Supporting local would mean keeping smaller farms alive, and also your produce would be more likely to ripen on the vine/plant (more flavour!), versus on a truck somewhere.  But when you shop at local farmers markets, you still have to be careful what you're buying.  I have been to some markets, where I noticed produce had stickers on them saying product of the USA.  So sneaky!

When I'm about to go on vacation, I spend all my planning energy, in this particular order, restaurants, accommodations, markets, and tourist attractions.  I always try and book my accommodations through AirBnB so I have a kitchen to cook some meals with the fresh produce I pick up while browsing the markets.  I was surprised to find Calgary to have so many markets as I was told Calgary is quite small.  I'm sure there's even more weekly/seasonal/summer pop up markets, but I only went to the year round ones.

Crossroads Market
This market was I think the biggest market out of the three that we visited.  The layout of the market was very strange, but I think its because the market is pretty much a couple of separate buildings connected together to form the market.  There is a flea market section where you can buy random used items.  And there is a fresh produce area where you can buy fresh meats, fruits, veggies, breads, cheeses, and cooked foods area (food court-ish, but it was pretty spread out due to the strange layout of the market).  I didn't end up buying any fresh produce from this market, we just bought a snack because we were hungry, and we couldn't find any food that we wanted for lunch.  We picked up some pastries from Alaturka.  Both items had had spinach and cheese.  One of them is similar to spanakoptia, and the other is like a pide that is filled with spinach and cheese.  Both were delicious!

Alaturka - Snacks

Crossroads Market
1235 26 Avenue SE

Calgary, AB 

T2G 1R7

Phone:  (403) 291-5208

Hours:  Monday - Thursday CLOSED
             Friday - Sunday 900a - 500p

http://crossroadsmarket.ca

Market on Macleod
This market was the smallest of the three markets.  There were booths/stalls that sold new random items, limited produce, and were actually mostly prepared/hot food items.  This is where we picked up some delicious home made Mexican food.  The vendor that we purchased our lunch from was Fresh-adilla Fresh Tortilla.  They make their tortillas when you order!  They're not the super thin tortillas that I'm used to eating, they were thicker, they were delicious!  I've never eaten food from a Mexican home, but this is what I would imagine it would taste like.   We ordered a gordita, and a quesadilla.  I've never had a gordita before, but to describe it, it's similar to an arepa, but deep fried.  The quesadilla wasn't what I imagined, normally its pan fried or grilled or something, but this one was deep fried.  Both items were deep fried, deep fried anything is delicious as long as it's not greasy.  Fillings were both pretty much the same, we chose pork for both I believe, and was topped with lettuce, tomatoes and queso fresco.

Fresh-adilla Tortilla - Lunch

Market on Macleod
7711 Macleod Trail SE
Calgary, AB
T2H 0M1

Phone:  (587) 354-1120

Hours:  Monday - Wednesday CLOSED
             Thursday - Sunday 900a - 500p

http://marketonmacleod.com/index.html

Calgary Farmers Market
This was my favourite market to visit.  So much so that we actually went twice!  There were different vendors that sold a variety of things ranging from up cycled bags, to olive oil, to nut butters, plenty of hot prepared foods, and of course, plenty of fresh produce.  Why I liked Calgary Farmers Market so much was that it's open, clean, and easy to navigate around.  Plus it doesn't hurt to have a well known coffee shop, Analog Coffee, right by the door so I can grab a coffee and stroll around.  We loved their coffee so much, the second time around, we bought some beans to bring back to Toronto!  Back to the first visit, I ended up picking up lots of fresh tomatoes, basil, pasta, olive oil, and some pork chops to make dinner at the apartment that night.  For dessert, we also grabbed a saskatoon berry pie from Simple Simons Pies.  I'm still not sure what a saskatoon berry is supposed to taste like, but to me it tastes like a blueberry crossed with a currant.

Analog Coffee - Latte

Saskatoon Berry Pie

Calgary Farmers Market
510 77th Avenue SE

Calgary, AB 

T2H 1C3

Phone: (403) 240-9113

Hours:  Monday - Wednesday CLOSED
             Thursday - Sunday 900a - 500p

http://www.calgaryfarmersmarket.ca

Naina's Kitchen

I was looking for something close to the apartment we rented for a somewhat quick meal, but have it hearty enough because it was going to be a late lunch after driving from Canmore.  I found Naina's Kitchen after doing some Googling, and Yelping.  And no I didn't decide to come here because it was on an episode of You Gotta Eat Here.  To be honest, I have gone to some of the restaurants that have been on the show, but I found that it wasn't really worth it.  Makes me wonder if some of the restaurants just pay the show so they can be featured.

We arrived at Naina's kitchen on a Friday, while it wasn't filled, it was quite busy.  We ordered a mac and cheese grilled cheese and a ramen stuffed burger.  If you know my hubby, if there's fried chicken or any sort of ramen, he will order that.  I realized after we placed our order this was not going to be a quick meal.  Here, they specialize in stuffed burgers.  Stuffed anything takes longer to cook through.  Which made me wonder, do people in Calgary have really lax lunch breaks?  I saw many people dressed in business attire who stayed a very long time for lunch.

As expected, it took a while for the burger to cook. We were getting so hungry!  Finally the food arrive and we dug in.  My mac and cheese grilled cheese was exactly how you would imagine it.  A thick slab of mac and cheese put in between 2 slices of bread and put on the flat top.  Carb overload!  It was cheesy enough, but a bit bland (even for me!), so I dipped it in ketchup.  I chose a caesar salad as my side instead of fries because didn't want carbs, carbs, and more carbs!  Although I have to admit I ate some of the hubby's fries.  The salad was fresh romaine lettuce, with homemade croutons and real bacon pieces.  Dressing I think was bought and not made in house.

Mac and Cheese & Caesar Salad

Hubby's ramen burger was exactly what you would expect.  A burger patty stuff with ramen in it.  It had ramen flavour, I'm sure ramen powder packet was added into either the burger meat or the ramen noodles was tossed with it.  What was disappointing was that the burger meat was dry.  Most likely had to do with how long the burger had to be cooked for in order to make sure everything was cooked through.  Maybe they could freeze some ramen stock and stuff it inside with the noodles to keep some sort of moisture?  I have to say though, the fries were pretty good, good portion and were fresh cut.

Ramen Burger & Fries

Ramen Burger Insides

I'm not sure I would come back here again, tried it once, understand the novelty of these kinds of burgers, but it's just novelty.  I think I would prefer a regular good old fashioned burger any day.

Naina's Kitchen
121 17 Ave. SE,
Calgary, AB
T2G 1H3

Phone:  (403) 263-6355

Hours:  Monday - Saturday 1100a - 1100p
             Sunday 1100a - 800p

http://nainaskitchen.com