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Let Mercado 505 Give You a Foodgasm to Remember

Sophie Steiner ShanghaiWOWeng 2018-11-30


The hero is the product when it comes to Mercado 505, a newly-opened Spanish gastronomic market concept restaurant modeled off of Mercado San Miguel in Madrid and Mercado La Boqueria in Barcelona. But don’t come here just Spanish food; you will find an impressive spread of imported meats, cheeses, seafood, and wines along with a rotating menu of lunch and dinner options based on seasonality and availability.



After the success of Mercado de Waima, the two-year old sister restaurant with a similar market concept located on Waima Lu just south of Cool Docks, the partners behind it decided it was time to bring the same idea to a more centralized location and bigger space on Wulumuqi Lu and Huashan Lu.



Although this new spot has only been open for about two months, you would never think it when stopping by on a weekend because of how many people already frequent the venue. Filling the main level, outdoor terrace, and second floor, people come for anything from cheese and meat platters, a great bottle of wine, and maybe a cheeky order of some oysters to a full-blown meal.



The third floor will slowly open to the public over the next few weeks which will be a dedicated space that can accomodate either two private rooms of 8 - 10 people, or one large room for 20 - 25 people after removing the foldable partition. Featuring its own private kitchen, this spot will become an ideal venue for day-long business meetings and workshops with invitees also interested in some delicious eats.



Onto the food and, to be more specific, the import products, that make Mercado 505 such a standout spot. Be prepared for some serious foodgasms! Although the prices are a bit higher than some other similar concept restaurants like Italian deli Alimentari, the food served here is on a different level.



Through strong relationships with food suppliers who believe in and are passionate about this type of restaurant concept - honoring the product over the technique - the team behind Mercado 505 really try to focus on the quality they provide. While places like Alimentari are the perfect spot for a gathering of your five best mates to catch up over a few too many cocktails, Mercado 505 is where you bring a date you want to impress or a client you’d love to win over.



As a market, deli and restaurant, there’s no right or wrong way to spend your time at Mercado 505, but if you really want to take advantage of all they have to offer I’d suggest working your way around the space and the menu. You can easily spend the evening there: from pre-dinner drinks to a meal, and finally to post-dinner hangouts, all in the same venue.



Start by grabbing a bottle of wine from the cellar and bringing it to La Terraza, the outdoor patio area where you can enjoy the final breeze of the evening before that late night humidity kicks in. With a wine list spanning whites and reds from Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Australia, and New Zealand, you’re bound to find something that will please everyone’s palette.



As your appetite builds, order a cheese plate to share. We went for a spread of 9-month aged Manchego (RMB 65 for 100 grams), 18-month aged Comte (RMB 75 for 100 grams), Brie (RMB 55 for 100 grams), and Savarin (RMB 74 for 100 grams), served with warm honey and toasted bread. It felt like my Wisconsin dairy-loving roots came back to life for the first time in years. Screw all those other Western import stores; in my opinion, this is real cheese! You can’t find fault in the creamiest manchego, the richest Comte and some truly flavorful Savarin soft cheese.



After life-altering cheese, you can’t not order a meat platter. At first we went straight jamón, with selections of 5J Paleta Bellota (RMB 30 for 10 grams), 5J Jamón Bellota (RMB 30 for 10 grams), and Marcial Shoulder (RMB 17 for 10 grams), all of which are distinct yet compliment each other. 


For those of you not up to date on your cured pork rankings (don’t worry, this included me as well), 5J (also known as Cinco Jotas) is the cream of the crop from a well-respected brand when it comes to Jamón Ibérico. According to asymptotejournal.com, acorn-fed, free-range, black hoof (pata negra) pigs are the only ones that can be classified as Jamón Ibérico de Bellota, making for sweet, earthy, almost nutty meat with fat that just melts like warm butter in your mouth.


An order of the Wagyu Ham (RMB 38 for 10 grams) from Chile is a must, with a piece of Wagyu beef that’s been smoked and dried for nearly a year so that the texture becomes similar to that of cured pork. The meat brought actual tears to my eyes. My vision went dark, and sound melted into nothing as the world around me stopped so I could focus all of my attention on the one and only sense that mattered; tasting the best cured meat I’d ever eaten.


Move inside for dinner and peruse, the options written on the blackboard, which usually includes about six choices for lunch and 12-16 for dinner. There’s no menu here, just an extensive wine list, reprinted daily to ensure an up-to-date selection and suggested pairings.



Whatever you plan to order, don’t miss out on the Pluma Piquillo (RMB 138), a flavor bomb of confit piquillo peppers with tender, medium-rare Iberico pork pluma (a flank cut), topped with an apple compote cream and micro greens all served on a hot ceramic plate. This is easily one of the best things I have eaten in a long time, and I know I will find myself daydreaming of this dish's perfect balance of apple sweetness, pork savoriness, and roasted piquillo pepper char.



A close second is the Broken Egg and Chorizo (RMB 128). Picture a layer of crispy, thin French fries and house-made Wagyu beef chorizo all topped with flash fried puntilla-style eggs in a hot skillet. Crispy, gooey, salty, and meaty, this is everything you could ever hope for out of the naughtiest brunch item, and everything you could ever dream of for a great dinner option.



If you still have some room left, make sure to order one of their signature paellas. The Artichoke and Chicken Paella (RMB 188) can be shared between two people if you haven’t eaten anything else yet, but is better shared between four so you can save room for some of our other suggestions. The rice is chewy, al dente, and soaks up all the flavors from la marca, similar to a sofrito, which is used as the base of the dish. Small pieces of tender cuttlefish can be found throughout, thus giving the dish its signature seafood flavor, despite the meaty chunks of succulent chicken and fried artichoke mixed throughout. My only wish was for a bit more of that crispy rice usually found at the bottom of a paella skillet; the quintessential char that adds necessary crunch to balance out the dish's’ textures.


Overall, I left Mercado 505 full and already planning my next visit. It truly is a spot for whatever you could want - a full lunch or dinner, a pop-in for a drink and oysters, or a quick stop on the way home to grab takeaway food for hosting.


Mercado 505

Address: 505 Wulumuqi Bei Lu

Tel: 021 6248 8505

Hours: Monday to Saturday, 12pm - 1am

Kitchen Hours: Monday to Saturday, 12pm - 2:30pm, 6pm - 10pm





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