Harden's survey result
Summary
“Chocca with pop-ups” near Elephant & Castle, this “amazing” 45,000 square foot foodie market is “a great place to hang out and eat” – and is “far less crowded than Borough Market, its neighbour up the road”. “The range and quality means you have to return several times to sample everything you want” from 50 different operators including an on-site Bavarian brewer. This ‘sustainable community food market’ is the brainchild of Andrea Rasca, who runs similar schemes in Milan and Turin. Upcoming developments include markets in Grade I listed St Mark’s Church, Mayfair and Ilford’s new cultural quarter and an MM Food Factory at the nearby £2.3billion Elephant Park development scheme. The only complaint is that this former paper factory “feels like a barn and can get chilly in winter”.
Summary
“Chocca with pop-ups” near Elephant & Castle, this “amazing” 45,000 square foot foodie market is “a great place to hang out and eat” – and is “far less crowded than Borough Market, its neighbour up the road”. “The range and quality means you have to return several times to sample everything you want” from 50 different operators including an on-site Bavarian brewer. This ‘sustainable community food market’ is the brainchild of Andrea Rasca, who runs similar schemes in Milan and Turin. Upcoming developments include markets in Grade I listed St Mark’s Church, Mayfair and Ilford’s new cultural quarter and an MM Food Factory at the nearby £2.3billion Elephant Park development scheme. The only complaint is that this former paper factory “feels like a barn and can get chilly in winter”.
Summary
“Everyone makes their own choice and meets in the middle to eat” at this “fun” experience – a converted 45,000 square foot paper factory, which is nowadays a covered foodie market, with 25-30 stalls drawing from cuisines from all over the globe. Owned by Italian businessman Andrea Rasca (who owns two other similar centres in Italy), it has brought some much-needed life to the area north of Elephant & Castle since 2016 and is “changing and improving all the time; it’s now complete with its own micro-brewery” and mushroom farm. “Perfect for a larger group of friends & family when you don’t know how many of them will show up”. New arrivals this year include Abel – a stall from ex-head chef of Barrafina Drury Lane, Javier Duarte Campos. STOP PRESS: a second location, Mercato Mayfair, will open in early 2019 in a Grade I former church just off Oxford Street.
Summary
This year-old, 45,000 sq ft street food centre, just south of Elephant & Castle, makes “a fab hangout whatever the weather” – the food can be “hit and miss” and it’s “slow when busy”, but there’s “so much choice” and it’s “great for a chilled evening in a group”.
For 31 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).
Have you eaten at Mercato Metropolitano?
Restaurant details
Prices
 Drinks |
|
|---|---|
| Wine per bottle | £20.00 |
| Filter Coffee | £3.00 |
 Extras |
|
|---|---|
| Bread | £2.50 |
| Service | 12.50% |
Opening hours
| Monday | 11 am‑11 pm |
| Tuesday | 11 am‑11 pm |
| Wednesday | 11 am‑11 pm |
| Thursday | 11 am‑11 pm |
| Friday | 11 am‑12 am |
| Saturday | 11 am‑12 am |
| Sunday | 11 am‑10 pm |
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