The Mercat Bar & Restaurant

The 2012 edition of The List's Eating & Drinking Guide is out now – only £5.95 (+p&p).

This review is taken from the 2011 edition.

There’s a certain sense of energy and enthusiasm about the Mercat Bar. Staff show impeccable manners, hosting this vibrant venue with an endearing, youthful charm. The pub part of Mercat is on ground level, decked out with luxurious leather sofas and plasma screens dotted around the stone-clad walls. It’s usually packed with an eclectic mix of punters, from students to city workers and a swathe of tourists fresh off the train from the nearby Haymarket station. If the beer selection has become a touch conservative, the menu of the stylishly designed basement restaurant shows ambition while also hanging on to Britain’s bar food classics. The haddock in the fish and chips is genuinely fresh, corroborated by the fact that it may run out in busy times and the chips are crisp and golden. Guinea fowl in tarragon and cream sauce doesn’t quite reach the restaurant quality it aims for although it is a decent effort from what is clearly a competent kitchen.

• High point: Clearly making a real effort to deliver quality
• Low point: Poor selection of beers on tap