Is the Mercado a total tourist-trap?

[Kasmir]

Hi, Fellow DISers!

We're planning on visiting the Titanic Exhibit at the Mercado one evening during the Universal portion of our vacation this December.

I was looking at some restaurants nearby to have a decent laid-back dinner afterwards and saw that Bergamo's was located at the Mercado. It looks kind of intriguing, but when I looked at the Mercado's website, it looked a little cheesy/too touristy.

What is your opinion? Have you been there?

Thanks in advance!
Sheila

 

[pth]

At one time the Mercado was a nice shopping center. Now, most of the stores have closed and it really has become run down. As for the restaraunt, we ate there about 10 years ago and thought it was just 'ok'. Nothing special.

 

[Kasmir]

Thank you so much! Anyone else?

Should we skip the Titanic exhibit then also?

 

[Local_Girl]

We did the Titanic Exhibit and thought it was very well done...glad we went, and I'd recommend it if you have any interest in things Titanic. The Mercado, however, was a different story! I agree, it was really run down, and there isn't much there. I felt as though there was no reason to hang around, and honestly, we probably would NOT have stayed in the area to eat. Sorry, I don't know about that particular restaurant...but the Mercado area in general wasn't great.

 

[Kasmir]

Thanks... I may alter our plans...

We saw an outstanding Titanic Exhibit (it was a traveling special exhibit) at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago a couple of years ago and were hoping for a repeat in Orlando.

The Mercado sounds yucky!

 

[gabbygrennell]

We went to the mercado because Titanic was a must do for us!
We are sooo happy we went!
The mercado itself was definitely run down, most stores have left... there was a specialty candy store that our kids loved! You could get all kinds of old fashioned candy from back in the day!

But the titanic was amazing!
If you have any interest in the titanic at all, you simply must do it!
I plan on going back to the titanic exhibit on a future vaca without our kiddos! The kids were ok and all, but there was so much to see/ read etc... that it was kinda hard with little kids. I definitely got to see enough but I would love to spend more time reading documents, letters etc...

Just down from the mercado, still on international drive, there are tons of restaurants! We ate at boston lobster fest, and loved it!
I have heard others rave about a restaurant called sweet tomatoes and it is off on intl drive somewhere
there are tons of choices just not right there at the mercado!
Have fun!

 

[Kasmir]

Thank you, Gabby!

 

[DaddyDon]

We went to the Titanic last year and it was GREAT!!!!!!!! Have never eaten at Bergamos..But with so many choices on i-drive what can i say! The mercado Use to be the only place to shop 20 yrs ago on i-drive.So yes it is showing her age and all the shop's are closeing for one reason or the other and moving towards the outlet end of i-drive...Heck this is Orlando who knows next year it could be a new hotel.....We have eaten at several places close to there Adobe gilla's,Hooters ,Marino's,fridays Daryl's and pizza uno.....Not a dog in the bunch...And bigdaddy does love to eat!!!!!!!!Hope this help's
Don

p.s. check out
www.ibidusa.com
for some good deals on titanic tickets

 

[Kasmir]

Thank you, Don. I think that we're going to the Titanic Exhibit, followed by dinner at The Kitchen. At least that's my plan today... It'll probably change tomorrow!

 

[Susie]

Whatever you decide DO NOT eat at the Chinese restaurant at the Mercado - I'm sorry I can't remember the name. We ate there last October and it was a Chinese buffet which we really enjoy at home. Well to cut a long story short the kids were going up and down and eating lots of different things whilst DH and I were having a more leisurely meal. My son came back with a plate of profiteroles and as I'm a chocoholic I had a good look at them and I noticed a little white patch on the chocolate. On further inspection I noticed it was mould - green and furry! I went to look at the buffet and there was a tray of about 40 profieroles and at least half of them had little mouldy patches. Yuck! I pointed out my sons one to the waiter, very discreetly, we're British and we don't like making scenes Well he tried to deny it was mould but eventually he started appologising and I told him about the ones in the buffet. Well we paid up and left and he didn't take the ones from the buffet away and he didn't knock anything off our bill. Of course hubby and I started worrying about the food we had eaten if the profieroles were anything to go with we were convinced we would be sick and miss precious days of our holiday. Thankfully we have cast iron stomachs!

 

[Kasmir]

Oh, Susie, yuck!

I would be worried too...

We ate an IHOP about a year ago and my daughter had ordered roasted potatoes as part of her entree. A part of it looked a little charred -- which isn't ordinarily a biggie -- but as she was lifting the food to her mouth, I noticed something and grabbed the fork. It was a cockroach that had been cooked to the potato! It was so disgusting that we all lost our appetites... We discreetly spoke to the manager and he comped our dinner, but we have not been able to bring ourselves to ever step into an IHOP again. Darn! I loved their pancakes!

 

[vfb2girls]

Yuck, Yuck, Yuck..things like that really get to me. A couple of years ago we had breakfast at a Denny's in Orlando and after we all got our plates of eggs my sister and I noticed that there were little green worms crawling across our plates! It was really gross! We called the waitress over and she was horiffied. It seems that the lettuce that was used for a garnish wasn't washed so it was full of worms. After that we couldn't eat but Denny's mad good and had us come back to eat on a different occasion and we could order whatever we wanted so we were satisfied with the way they handled it.

 

[momof3disneyholics]

Yes, the poor Mercado.. It use to be something, but now the only things worth going there for is the Titanic and the italian restaurant Bergamos. It has singing waiters and the food is good.