Market Cafe

For the value, this place is quite good.

I first stumbled upon Market Cafe because of its $5-6, 4.30-7pm happy hour. The price is what drew me in; what made me a repeat customer was the quality of the cocktails and the amazingly pleasant staff. After work it's a great place to wind down.

From there I tried the food--which, admittedly, I've tried less of (though what I've tried has been delicious). The fries are great. It's easy to make passable fries; it's much harder to make fries you actually look forward to eating. The hummus was par, really. Good, but nothing to write home about (though I've rarely had "great" hummus at a restaurant to begin with. Most tastes like what I buy at the supermarket).

By contrast, the salads are also always fresh, well thought out, and amply portioned. There's a variety of healthy and hearty salads. But I've enjoyed them.

The cocktail I had was great!  It was called  Jack O Lantern and it was perfect for a crisp October evening.

Appetizers were very good...a warm artichoke salad was super tasty and the scallop saffron soup my dining companion had was also delicious.  

Lamentably, the entrees were awful.  My aforementioned companion's pork burger was over done and just looked wrong.  He didn't finish it.  When my steak frites arrived, I thought I must have ordered the kids meal because the steak was tiny.   Am I in Lilliput?  The fries were of a type for which I did not care.   I ate about six of them (and I love fries).

Service was okay but for what they charge for their food in a still-very-seedy neighborhood, I don't think I'd go back.

This restaurant looks like a fancy diner but give it a chance - the portions are HUGE and the food is delicious. My table shared a delicious scallop appetizer atop a tasty mashed potato. I had a pork loin (HUGE serving) with sweet potato puree and a sweet tomato and apple compote. It was so yummy!

They also have a huge selection of gluten-free options. I'm not gluten-free but I do try to avoid carbs most times for fitness purposes, so that is why I chose this restaurant. in addition, they're on Restaurant.com and you can score a pretty awesome coupon :D

For the three of us WITH tax, tip, and coupon it came to only $66.   One appetizer, three entrees. And again - huge delicious portions!

Our server was super nice and friendly and the server at the table next to us was also very accommodating. I'd definitely return.

Walked in Saturday afternoon at 3:45pm.
The servers told us the kitchen will go on break (lunch) in 10 minutes, so we looked at the brunch menu ASAP.
The setting looks a bit 70s diner look inside. We sat near the windows so it was bright.
It was disappointing that the lunch menu was not out cause I was craving for salmon.

We ordered the Belgian Waffles which was topped with bananas, strawberries, vanilla cream cheese frosting and maple syrup. ($11).
The strawberries were sweet and I did not taste the maple syrup, but did taste some chocolate instead. This dish is a favorite for me. This dish was shared between two ppl.

I got the Eggs Chesapeake which consists of two poached eggs, fresh lump crab meat, hollandaise sauce on English muffin with a side of rosemary home fries ($13).
I gave the eggs to my other half because to my taste, eggs didn't matched with the crab meat. But my god, the crab meat on the English muffin was the best creation ever! It was real crab meat and it was perfectly salted or seasoned. My other half was practically eating off my plate because he was not happy with his plate of food compared to mine :)

He got the Grilled Chicken Club with grilled Dijon chicken breast, lettuce, tomato, onion, mustard-mayo on sourdough bread with a side of spices fries. ($12.5).
The chicken was dry and I wished you could have chose which bread you wanted. Too much onions. Fries were on the small side, but the fries was the best out of the plate.

We would have enjoyed the refreshing cucumber water if we didn't order the orange juice ($2) and iced coffee ($2).
OJ was a bit sour, I think I will stick with cucumber water next time.

Market Cafe is a west side restaurant with a refined palate and retro diner vibe. Items on the menu include roast calamari, seared scallops, quail, and semifreddo - what diner on earth would carry such items? Appearances and juxtopositions aside, the food was good overall, service was smiley, cordial, and knew the menu well, and I enjoyed my meal.

I made a reservation for an early Friday dinner. The place was pretty empty, so I really shouldn't have bothered, but always better safe than sorry for a new place. I snagged the table up front so my friend and I could watch the sunset and the people go by. The vibe is like a darker version of Johnny Rockets - chrome, bright colors, some neon, clean tiles. The waiters are chipper and were on top of our water pitcher, cleaning the table, and getting our orders out. It would make a good meet up with friends or casual meal out kind of place.

We ordered:
roast calamari
quail
warm mushroom salad
rice pudding with caramel

Every table gets bread with olive oil and chile flakes and a pitcher of cucumber water. Tasty and refreshing. The quail was the best dish of the evening, tender, well portioned, seasoned, and with a nice side of veggies and sauce. The calamari was good, but I felt like the cheesy stuffing overwhelmed the tender squid. The quality of the ingredients was great though. The warm mushroom salad was okay - it had a good mushroom to arugula to parmesan ratio, but seemed more bitter than I imagined it should be. The rice pudding was GIGANTIC - it could have easily served three instead of one (I was so glad my friend and I wanted to split it). The rice pudding had a nice drizzle of buttery caramel on top. However, some of the rice wasn't cooked throughly, lending a bit of crunch to what should be a very smooth, chew-free dessert. It rounded out the experience to a flat 3 stars.

Ten of us gathered for a birthday celebration.

We always book our reservation on line, and there is a field for special instructions.  Mentioning the need for gluten-free dessert is important for a birthday.

Large parties can be difficult and we were no different.  Arrival of guests, readiness to order, questions about dishes all come at different times and it takes a patient and professional server to manage this with aplomb.  And they did.

All the food was delicious, it all arrived in proper order, the service was attentive and efficient.

They made a special dessert for us, complete with candles.  The chef is hoping to introduce a gluten-free parfait to the dessert menu, and we were the first to try it.  DELICIOUS!  

I don't know how they do it so right when so many places do it so poorly:  Market Cafe makes GF dining easy and delicious without a lot of brouhaha.

Diners, even those who are gluten-free, choose from a wide selection of dishes and we've never had a bad one!

If you are GF, you should go out of your way to try this.  If you are a Manhattan diner, or Port Authority commuter, this is a restaurant to put on your list.

**A MUST DINE HOT SPOT**

I followed reviews off of yelp to decide on tonight's dinner with my mum after traveling from California to NYC for the NY and having no idea where to eat near our hotel on W 40th.

From the first moment stepping in we were welcomed in and made comfortable from the wait staff. Our experience from here on out, was quite literally the best I've had in a very long time. The food was delectable; full of flavour, hearty, hot (I hate food served feeling as tho it's been sitting for long periods of time!) and large portions! We were not at any point upset or bewildered by our experience here.
We had Brian as our waiter but the other lads were more than happy to check up on us and chat about their recommendations on the menu.. On the topic of the menu, you must try the entree scallops & the rice pudding for dessert! It is to die for! The perfect combination of sweet and warmth!

We'll definitely be back for Saturday brunch!

Came back today with a group of 7 people and was utterly frustrated and irritated. The waiter took our order and walked away for about 40 minutes without our food. When we asked where our food is, he told us it is because we ordered "burger" so it took longer! Then the 2nd time we asked, he said it is because we ordered "flatbread sandwich" so it took longer. Every time he had a different explanation for something that other restaurants could easily turn around in less than 5 minutes.

I think we were generous enough to wait 40 minutes. We walked out very angry. None of us would return again.

I used my Groupon for dinner here last week and I was quite impressed. I loved the casual atmosphere, unique decor and the fact that our server was exceptionally attentive. The cucumber water on the table was just what I wanted to see on one of the hottest days we've had this year!  I had the Seared Sea Scallops and Country salad and my dining companion had the gluten-free pasta, which is why we went here in the first place.

Everything I ate tasted incredible and the presentation was lovely. By the time we left the place was packed, so I'm glad we had an early dinner. Portions are decent to large, so you don't need to order half the menu for dinner.  Would come back here again :)

I will give 3 stars for the bottomless brunch, 1 star for the food today.

I came here a few months ago, it was fantastic. One of my favorite burgers, and bottomless brunch was great.

Today we came for my friends birthday, service was very slow, and drinks took 15-20 minutes to come. When my food arrived, there was a bug on my lettuce. Gave it back to the waiter, gave me back the same plate with a new piece of lettuce.