Mercado Central - Cambridge market-fare Spanish
March’s meal for my one-a-month Cambridge restaurant review challenge continues the Spanish influences with Mercado Central, on Green St.
It’s good.
Will that do? Clearly not, and it does deserve more, so why am I struggling?
Perhaps because despite serving genuinely good food, it doesn’t give me much to react to - there isn’t a strong opinion here, or anything to really disagree with unless we’re quibbling about the value for money (scallops gonna scallop).
They’ve picked high quality produce and generally speaking done simple things with it. Generally speaking, I love that. Indeed, I enjoyed every dish each time I’ve eaten here.
This week the pork cheeks were meltingly soft, and paired well with the celeriac and squash. The salsa verde could have been a punchier accent note but was sitting quietly at the back, tasty though it was. The scallops were perfectly cooked, less perfectly portioned at two for sixteen-fifty, and really only needed one of either the anchovy or Iberico. But the flavours didn’t clash, and I love both. So more is more, right? Well, somewhat. Depends if more adds up to more than the sum of the parts.
Perhaps that’s the missing thing - a force multiplier in the combinations. The winter tomato salad coaxes something incredible out of sliced tomatoes and olive oil. More of that please. The monkfish looked fantastic, so did the hake. Fish, peppers, lentils - love it. Little bit of cured beef? I’m cocking an eyebrow, but I’ll come on the journey. Stopping there seems prudent unless you’ve got something up your sleeve. With the fish they stopped rather than rummage for an ace and risk finding a three. My dining companions were delighted. Likewise, they’d chosen a genuinely great piece of Manchego, served with a simple oil cracker and gloriously too much membrillo for afters. The Basque cheesecake had just the texture and balance. The closer they stuck to the produce, they better they delivered.
Is that is the strong opinion: do less, with gusto? If so, then on this month’s menu at least, that strong opinion is unevenly held. It’s almost like we’re hitting diminishing returns past the third listed ingredient.
Maybe that’s not a bad rubric: go, order the dishes with the shorter descriptions, have a lovely time eating what they’re good at cooking. Or maybe I just had an indifferent main at an otherwise rather good restaurant and I’m making a meal of it? Maybe I’m the one who needs a stronger opinion. It’s a good job this isn’t my day job, eh?