Il Mercato Centrale

Rating: 5⭐

Ordered: 
- Prosciutto focaccia: $26
- Pasta special: $26
- Coccole: $16

My friend wanted to take me here. I'm very glad she did because it was a really unique place and had some great food. It was sort of a food court vibe and also a market vibe and also a bar. It was massive and really quite cool.

How it works - you sit down at a free table (they don't really take bookings) and you can scan the QR code at the table to order. There's 3 levels to the place, we sat in the lower ground which had a central bar around sprawling tables. There's a bunch of little stalls surrounding this food court-type area, with each stall selling something slightly different. You can also go up to the little stalls and order straight from there. 

When you order on your phone they give you a text when your food is done so you can go to each individual stall to collect your food. There's actually so much variety, because it is a bit of a glorified food court. We got the focaccia from the Mozzarella stall, which we both agreed was the best. Fresh mozzarella with Prosciutto and fresh tomatoes - what an amazing combo. My friend mainly wanted to go back to have that again. 

The Special Pasta was kind of bland, so I probably wouldn't get that again. Might try the gnocchi or the carbonara or literally any of the other ones. The coccole we mostly got just for the truffle cheese, which was good, but it wasn't anything particularly special either.

There's also a seafood stall that sells fresh oysters and also lobster and other stuff. There's dessert stalls which sell tarts - we both got some for takeaway. There's also the whole alcohol section - there's a cocktail bar with $24 cocktails, which is a bit steep but maybe would be worth trying if I went back. There's also a juice bar for the non-alcoholics. And there's also cannoli that we didn't get to try.

There's just so much that can be tried here. I would be keen to go back. Definitely worth checking out.