The Mercantile Social

Very nice restaurant, our waiter was pretty standoffish and the food was just ok.
Would probably come back for drinks.

Love the atmosphere - super cool vibe. We got the tuna tartare for an appetizer and I got the mushroom pasta as my main. Both were absolutely delicious. The service was incredible. The most noteworthy thing that happened: the waiter brought us each out a glass of champagne as an apology for the wait for our appetizer which in our opinion wasn’t a wait at all! Highly recommend this place and looking forward to going back.

Had lunch today with my adult children and their spouses. The server was amazing, the food was outstanding, and the relaxed atmosphere was great. I am a senior citizen and dined at many places in my world travel. Today was. An experience that I’ve.us will remember. Our first time there, will not be our last.

Great place for cocktails with a nice vibe. Had some small plates, I had Les Frites loaded fries which were nice but nothing special.

A group of us celebrated a milestone birthday here.we have been there before & left with not the best impression. Last week was Fantastic! Our servers for our group was Steven & Laura. A huge improvement! Lovely evening all round!
The updated menu was much appreciated. We will be back!
Terri & Shawn Schiebel

Reliable spot to come and have a good time. Nice interior & friendly staff. Lots of space for larger groups. Patio rocks!

My partner and I had supper on April 1,2023 at the Mercantile Social. Without an April fool’s joke, this was the worst meal in 25 years that I’ve experienced. The Tandori chicken was burnt and extremely dry. My partner’s Pesto Gnocci was not pleasant…. The glasses of wine were priced at the cost of a per bottle price. The wait staff with their endearing terms (for both of us) were totally unacceptable. « Dear « and « sweetie » don’t belong in today’s vocabulary. The $6.00 tap water bottle charge was ridiculous for Halifax tap water (which is great at anytime). The wait staff claimed it was Evian bottled water, without removing the cap/cover in our presence. At best, our salads before dinner were ok, but not special…. Having eaten in every major Canadian city, many London UK restaurants, New York restaurants and other well travelled destinations; I would rate the Mercantile Social restaurant with its Jost wines, as a -1 on a scale of 1 to 10. Terrible experience, comes to mind. Tragic… Never go back…

We ate at the mercantile social for my partner’s birthday last night and we left saying “WOW”. The restaurant was packed due to burger week and were late seating us for our reservation.
Normally, this would be a disappointing experience on a special evening, but they handled the situation with class and truly went above and beyond to accommodate us and make us feel special.
Drinks were delicious (Japanese denim, deal closer, espresso martini), food was excellent, and service was impeccable.
The management at this restaurant is top notch.
Thank you for a wonderful evening - we will be back!

I went for dinner last weekend for the first time. I live in the building and was looking for a positive experience. It didn’t happen. The food was terrible. I had gnocchi which was worse than store purchased. Wines were expensive for their quality. Wait staff were “old school” with their language - I do not want to be called dear or sweetie. Also, tap water (so called bottled water) was something I had to pay for - ridiculous. I will never be back unless someone else pays.

The Mercantile Social is one of my favourite spots in the city! The interior design is absolutely gorgeous, the cocktails are to die for and the new menu is exceeding all my expectations! What also sticks out is the amazing staff at the mercantile! They are such hard working individuals with great attitudes across the board, they really make the experience. If I had to recommend one cocktail and one food item I would choose an espresso martini (best in the city!) and the Sunday meatball with a side of pasta to make it into a goulash, so good!

The service is amazing from start to finish. One of the new managers checked in on us to chat and ensure we were doing well. My partner and I enjoyed every dish we tried and are planning to come back again for more great eats. The cocktails & desserts were wonderful as well. Beautiful spot!

The new menu is amazing. We tried 5 different plates and every single one was 5 stars. Service was perfect as well. Can’t wait to go back

Please read the reviews before eating here! My girlfriend and I had really high expectations for this restaurant. The restaurant was beautiful and honestly added to our excitement to eat here, however, we ended up walking out. Service started off good and we placed our order, 30 minutes later our server came and told us that our chit had been lost in the kitchen, asked us what we ordered and said it would be out shortly. Our reservation was for 5: 45 and we didn’t receive our starters until 6: 45, we took one bite and it was cold and dry, clearly rushed. After waiting 1 hour to eat and receiving a cold meal we decided that we did not want to eat here anymore and we left. I have to say that the servers handled the situation and our frustration very well and were understanding. However overall very disappointing and ruined our plans for the rest of the evening. Would not recommend and will not be returning.

My partner and I had our wedding dinner here and it was lovely. From setting up the room for us to the excellent food and service by Kori I highly recommend it here.

Service was very slow - our group of 6 waited 45 mins to get our drinks. There seemed to be some disorganization as orders got mixed up (servers bringing orders to our table that weren't ours 3 times) and they put cheese on a vegan dish someone from our group ordered. I had the gluten free fish tacos and was still very hungry and had to order a second pasta dish. Both dishes I ordered were not very flavourful. The meat dishes seemed to be better than the vegetarian and fish tacos dishes, and the drinks were really good. Our server was very nice but the whole experience was disorganized. The ambiance and decor are really nice but it's not worth the money for the food in my opinion.

Just left this restaurant very disappointing experience. Such a poor overall experience. Very poor service! Wait for food was dreadful, an 45 minute wait for an app, a charcuterie board that was thrown in front of us, as staff appeared run off their feet. Had to flag down a staff member to request a refill on our drinks. Waited another hour for our mains. So very disappointed!

Be prepared to spend a lot for a nice experience. Food is beautiful in visual presentation. The vibe and decor is gorgeous from the moment you enter! Well thought out! Very spacious. Lots of different types of seating to meet your needs from cozy to group privacy. Staff are friendly, but we were met with some attitude when asking for bread. Meals are small but what we ordered was delicious. Prices seem average for main course items but in comparison to the amount you receive on your plate, they are overpriced. The appetizers are very expensive, again you will pay for presentation and taste not amount of food that arrives. There are views of both Hollis St and the waterfront. Our group favorite was the brussel sprout appetizer which was full of flavour, maple sugar and pork was succulent. So yummy! I would say this restaurant is an experience in itself, and most appropriate for adults vs family. There is a parking garage across the street, handy for parking. Drinks are also top dollar.

Amazing dinner! The fish tacos, mushroom ravioli, Digby scallops, and salmon were the highlights of this party of 4! Lovely atmosphere but the tops was our excellent and very personable waiter, Allan, who made the night. Highly recommend the Mercantile!

Great place for dinner and drinks. It's a little pricey but the atmosphere and service really is awesome! Food fantastic.

Delightful server, Bethany but waited 45 min for our lunch main… food was just OK. Place was empty, guess no work lunches given the expected wait time?

This place is 10/10. We have really high food standards and it takes a lot to impress us and all I have to say is wow. It was fantastic and so delicious. Our waiter was such a gem and made sure we were well taken care of and had amazing recommendations. Sadly I didn’t get his name but he was an older gentlemen! Definitely recommend!

Last month I had a horrendous experience at this place on Labour day weekend. The place was incredibly understaffed despite it being a busy long weekend, and the poor staff were run off their feet/in tears while the owners were merrily sat at the bar being served drinks and food. We waited over 30 minutes to put in an order, 45 minutes for an appetizer and a drink (which came in that order), and then another 51 minutes for our mains. My food was taken to the wrong table and had to be remade, which we watched happen. The replacement was so rushed and was therefore so raw/tasted so bad i could not eat it, and after a few bites i gave up and resigned myself to being hungry. The waitress assigned to our table came over after we basically stood up to flag her down at which point we begged for the bill so we could be done with this place. She asked me if I wanted my main remade - at this point it was 9 PM and we had been there for hours and said we wanted to leave, and that we did not want to wait another hour for it to be remade, at which point the waitress made me pay full for food that was too raw to eat. Just overall a really awful experience and the reason I have decided to write my first restaurant review.

The food was good but quite expensive. I did go back for their donuts which are called something else on the menu, I think they are Beignets. They are most definitely worth a visit and are pictured below.

Dined here last night with a group of 9. Reservation made well in advance and we were placed at a table that was too small for 9 people so we were very crammed.

Service was slow and probably took close to 2 hours for me to receive my main (others had ordered appetizers which came first, but I had not).

When the food did arrive, portions were small, food was barely hot and taste was a bit bland, disappointing for the price point.

Service was just okay, our server was nice enough, but you could tell she didn’t want to be there.

Restaurant is beautiful, but I would say the service and the food is definitely not up to par with what you pay, there are a lot of better restaurant options in the area.

Dined in with a group of 5 and our table was neglected the entire night.hour and a half to receive the food, 20 minutes for drinks.i ordered the linguini and felt extremely ripped off.small portion and bland flavour that didn’t make up for the small portion size.drinks were average.

I've been here many times, but last night was definitely my final visit.

The food was great, but the service was awful. Our main server was so unnecessarily rude to our table of 3 the entire night. Will not be back.

Impressive spot. Great food. The ravioli app is super tasty. The staff are friendly and efficient.

Really cool vibe with amazing interior decorations but. 1. Gets quite noisy during the evening. Bad acoustics? 2. Ordered a Mohito which is good if you like it VERY strong with lots of alcohol, but bad if you like it tasty and minty. Not sure if I would want to go back but worth experiencing once?

We were disappointed and surprised at how bland our food was. We had uncooked mussels and my main had a specific ingredient I had stressed to the waitress that I didn’t want. When the waitress realized, she didn’t seem interested in replacing it with a new one so I only after half of my meal. Also, we asked for bread and it never came. I apologized over and over to the guest we were treating.

Our first time here was both our favorite dining experience OF ALL TIME. We talked about it for weeks. Our service was unimpressive but ALL the food & drinks were amazing, like 12/10. We sat for over 2 hours, ordering different dishes to taste at a time. We had oysters, meatballs, ravioli, braised beef and a seafood dish plus wine and a bunch of cocktails (between two people). SO FUN, similing, laughing and mmmm'ing all night.

We immediately decided this place is our new favorite spot. I anticipated getting engaged here. I booked it for his birthday.

The second experience (birthday) was a let down. None of the dishes tasted the same as last time, so there's inconsistency in the kitchen. The service was much friendlier this time around. But they'd just sold the last braised beef so we left early without having mains. That dish is what we were looking forward to all week and after the inconsistency, we were done and over it.

So disappointed, we decided to give it another go. We both reaaaallllly hoped they'd wow us again, because if so, we'd be spending a lot of money there, often. We don't mind spending, we want a great experience. Tonight was another bust. We were sat and just forgot about. There was cold air blowing on us. Our server didn't smile once, he wasnt friendly. Half an hour into our reservation and we'd only been served our caesars (which were served spicy after we emphasized NO spice). We're very let down. We said tonight was the deciding factor for us. The verdict is we won't be back.

Just ordered appetizers but food and service were great. Would definitely go back fir a fill meal. Loved the decor as well

What a terrible experience. We had a big group with the potential of order a lot but here are the reasons why we left as soon as we could and won’t be back again:
- the drinks were terrible (too strong or just not up to par)
- the tuna tartare was bland and the tuna was flavourless
- when we told our waitress that we were ready to order food, she said “be right back” and didn’t return for another 20 minutes
- waitress gave us attitude
- bills took a long time to come
- waitress didn’t ask if our food was good or if we wanted anything else
- a different waitress asked how our wait time was and when we said bad, they did nothing to reconcile the issue

The place looks great. I could sit there all night but when it comes to the food, it was a let down. I ordered Chicken Karaage on a whim to be greated with basically gourmet chicken fingers with dipping sauce. Not worth $25. And to make the best of it, we were a table of ten, so they threw on a mandatory EIGHTEEN AND A HALF Percent tip!

All in all, high prices, low quality and not great service. To have the price tags they have, they need to up there game hard.

Very nice seating area and decoration, but the food is honestly some of the worst I have tried here in Halifax. No flavour whatsoever and extremely over priced. A place maybe to go for drinks, but not to eat…. Hope that there could be some serious consideration to the food as it’s a waste of beautiful space.

We ate here for my mother's birthday and the food was almost inedible. Probably the worst food I've had in Halifax. A real shame because the restaurant is beautiful and in a good location. Stay away!

Really loved the food at the Mercantile! Calamari was nice and crispy with this to die for ginger, chili and lime dipping sauce (going to try to recreate it) I had the duck which was seasoned perfectly. The only piece of advice would be to render that fat down more... Make it crispy! I had a taste of a few other dishes like the incredible short ribs (everyone was raving about this dish. The atmosphere is alive and the views awesome. Definitely stop in for a bite, you will not be disappointed.

I rarely make reviews but my experience here was very terrible! I reserved a dinner for 2 to have a good time and the whole time the waiter brushed me off. I had a starter which was pretty good but when i ordered the Thai curry for the main course meal i was not impressed. I asked the waiter if i could get something else and whether this dish would reflect on my bill and he rudely responded saying yes i can but you can’t do a trial and error for the next one!
I was taken aback because that was very rude and felt like he was implying like i can’t even have an opinion on my food and seemed like he intended that i seemed i would not afford it!

After that comment i was just put off and decided to not eat and order anything else and my friend got her bill. I complained about the scenario and was told i would be contacted by the manager the very next day however i never heard back from them.

The ambiance of the place is nice but if you would not like to be judged on the way you look or general appearance please do not go here. I would not recommend.

Unacceptable service. Had dinner reservations for 7: 30. After waiting 30 minutes and still no table, we were told that our table still wasn’t ready, and were asked if we wanted to sit at the bar. I have never experienced this at any other restaurant in Halifax. Avoid at all costs.

The service and atmosphere were fantastic! The food was good, but it wasn't quite at The level it should have been for the prices being charge. Risotto a bit mushy, duck a bit overcooked, and tuna a bit off. Overall good experience though.

The food has always been delicious in my experience. Expect to pay a bit more for location and view and atmosphere. The service needs improvement. Whether it was a slower or busy night, staff forgot we've been seated and never came by or forgot our orders.

Awesome. The food was perfect, the beer was delicious. The service was impressive, Laura was impeccable, and the music was the icing.

Love this place. Food is amazing, staff are awesome, atmosphere is cozy and inviting. Certainly one of my top spots in the city

We visited Mercantile Social with another couple on Friday, September 3rd. This was the third visit for my husband and I and the first for our friends. As usual, the restaurant did not disappoint! The food - always delicious and beautifully prepared. Our server, Stephen was outstanding! From his menu knowledge to his sense of humour he really made our evening special. I would not hesitate to recommend this restaurant, and particularly, Stephen for a fabulous dining experience!

Beautiful place with good service but the food just didn't live up to expectations. The drinks were average quality with above average prices.

Grate place, just we waited for the order a very long time. Yes, we was a big company but anyway, it was a very long time. If you have available time you will enjoy.

Everything was fantastic, especially Andrew. He took on bartenders choice like a chance and killed it every time.

Beautiful restaurant with ok drinks and ok food. For the price point of the food I was totally underwhelmed. Oysters were fantastic and scallops were good but you got four scallops for $18.
The duck main dish was too well done and the meat was cut too thick. The service was fine. Overall experience: been there once but for the price I was expecting more.