Mercato at Dayelsford

Ph: 5348 4488; 32 Raglan St, DAYLESFORD 3460 www.mercatorestaurant.com.au

Contemporary, $$
Open Thu-Sat-Mon-Tue 6-11.30pm Sun noon-5pm; Licensed; AE DC MC V EFT
Chef Richard Mee (5-12-08) Owner Richard Mee (5-12-08)

Mietta's Review
This is Richard and Alison Mees first hospitality venture. He cooks she looks after the business. The food is modern Australian with some of the faults that description implies. Desserts and entree are on the whole the best dishes. Service is thoughful and concerned and the surprisingly spacious room is divided into dining and lounge bar areas. It's a light space that is warmed by an open fire in winter. A pleasant stop in this tourist town.

Other published opinions

Age Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 14/20 "A stone's throw from the mismatched, pre-loved, bric-a-brac hedonism of the Daylesford Sunday market, Mercato sits serenely in the leafy shade of Raglan Street, recalling instead the Italian market heritage of the region"

Age Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 14/20 "In a district enjoying renown for its good food on a par with that for its mineral springs, Mercato has won an appreciative following among locals and visitors"

The Age Epicure Necia Wilden 30/1/06 "I was thinking about this while leaning back on a beige banquette in a pretty, flatteringly lit room at Mercato @ Daylesford, admiring the contemporary art on the walls, the polished pine floorboards, the good bones of the 1864 timber building, the plate of stylish food in front of me and the lilting soundtrack of various chanteuses - Eva Cassidy, Norah Jones (her less-thrashed songs, luckily), a French woman I hadn't heard before - played at appropriate background volume. Pleasant, relaxing and entirely in tune with the rest of the experience at this 18-month-old restaurant."

The Age Good Food Guide 2006 score 14/20 "Mercato is Italian for market, an appropriate name for the smart new restaurant that's a wheelbarrow ride away from Daylesford's Sunday market. Chef Richard Mee's menu sports a bumper produce haul and his imaginative, finely crafted dishes do justice to prize ingredients."