Recommendations

Honest home cooking.

Strengths

• Market Table is tailor-made for fans of honest home cooking and warm, friendly service. If you’re looking for scene without substance, this ain’t your place. Otherwise, you’re in luck.
• As its name suggests, Market Table operates as both a market and a restaurant. The market sells goods ranging from fresh fish and meat to rich homemade tomato sauce, house-cured gravlax, seasonal produce, grissini breadsticks, olive oil, coffee and even Ajax, making it the perfect place to stock up on groceries before or after dinner.
• In the restaurant, the seasonal American menu comes courtesy of chef Mikey Price, and the offerings will astonish you with simplicity and wow you with flavor. The crispy pan-roasted chicken is served over hazelnut-buttered roasted sweet potatoes, and has skin crunchy as a potato chip and meat juicy enough to merit a bib. The seafood pan roast is packed with bass, shrimp, scallops and mussels, and comes with grilled garlic bread for broth mopping. Another favorite was the light and airy gnocchi sunk into a vibrant Parmesan broth swimming with escarole and braised hunks of tender short ribs. A dessert of warm apple crumble with fresh mascarpone whipped cream tastes like mom just pulled it out of the oven.

Shortcomings

• The restaurant has hardwood floors, double height ceilings, and floor-to-ceiling windows, and these hard surfaces make the room a magnet for noise.

Insider tips

• While dinner is terrific, Market Table's burger is only served at lunch. In my opinion, it’s worth a special trip, even if you need sneak out of work for a couple of hours. The Burger (it deserves to be capitalized) comes fully accessorized with cheddar, caramelized onions, pickles, and fries, but honestly, it would be just as wonderful served naked.

Anecdotes

• While my boyfriend and I were waiting for our table the other night, we got to talking with chef and partner Joey Campanaro. Campanaro comes from a very Italian family, which means he literally cannot talk to people without feeding them. He treated us to little bites of his homemade tomato pie, a couple of fingerling potatoes with smoked salmon, and a few blini topped with caviar. Waiting has never been this rewarding.

Credentials

• Chef Mikey Price honed his skills at The Mermaid Inn, while Joey Campanaro and Gabriel Stulman are the chef and front of house partners (respectively) behind the cult-favorite West Village restaurant, The Little Owl.