27th July 2007
Tasty food in candlelit settings with tasty prices
In short:
Le Mercury never fails to please me.
In long:
I seem to recall thinking on first impressions that this was a busy, and popular little venue. Emphasis on the little - the dining room looked crammed. You might not think its too romantic being dead close to the next table but once you sit down and realise you're going to have a tough choice deciding what to have you realise its actually a bonus - you get to have a good old nosy at what your neighbour is eating.
However, from experience I can now say that its usually a nice enough bunch of people in there. We've never experienced any braying idiots sat right next to us (ah, unless I was the braying idiot and drowned everyone else out) so I don't think anyone could complain about it being a bit of tight squeeze.
On that note, I used to think it was all on the ground floor, but its actually a three-floor beast of building. The separate rooms and their decoration really remind me of restaurants I've been to in France and add so much charm to the place, along with the cosy candlelight.
The food. Seems ludicriously cheap for what you get. And there's plenty of different options for the three courses.
I've tried most of the starters except the mussels. I cannot abide mussels but the liquid/sauce they are in is DEVINE. Apparently the mussels are pretty good too and the mollusc eaters amongst my friends always order them. I mop up the juices when they're not looking.
Other starters have been generally pretty good though I'm not keen on that "chicken sandwich filler" (as Idoru puts it so well!) but then I've always prefered salad cream to mayo. Yes, I know, I'm a barbarian.
As for the mains - there's plenty of hearty meat dinners on offer: big lumps of lamb, roasted chicken, steaks. I'm sure there's some delicious veggie options, but I think I get selective vision when reading menus having grown up in a "I'm not paying for bl**dy vegetables in a restaurant" sort of family.
If you do want some vegetables with your meal then these come on the side, but if you have pigged all the bread and had a substantial starter then I wouldn't go overboard - each one shares easily between two.
I always look forward to a visit to Le Mercury, it always delivers good value, good service, and above all good food.
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PS I also like it cos I had my first date with my soon-to-be husband here (don't worry, I'm not going to make a habit of adding soppy footnotes - this is my one and ONLY time, promise!)
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