Grab ‘em By the Meatballs

While in Pittsburgh, my sibling-in-law told me about this amazing meatball place. I’m generally not one for a big ball of meat but I have still enjoyed some nonetheless.

This brings us to Mercato. Downtown Pittsburgh, near the convention center, it’s a cute/trendy place with a bit of outdoor seating on the sidewalk. We decided to indulge in the good weather since we had shade and the intense humidity was not nearly as bad in that moment. Even had a nice breeze.

They have different things to order, like the usual sandwich type of things, but you don’t go to a meatball place and order. A salad (and I know it could be argued you don’t go to a meatball place and order the veggie one, but I’m a rebel like that). And since I had just had meat meatballs a night earlier, I decided to try the meatless variety.

This was a chick-pea based ball with other veggies in it (corn, carrot, a few others). You can order with a sauce and a side. I opted for pesto as the sauce and mashed potatoes for the side.

Normally, if you order a single ball it would come on a sandwich, otherwise you get multiple balls with sauce for the range of about $18. I wasn’t that hungry, so they were accommodating to give me a single ball.

The pesto and mashed potatoes were on point. The potatoes being a little chunky but that isn’t something to deter me. The pesto tasted fresh and with the mix of it all (even with the ball) that part was quite nice.

However, the veggie ball itself tasted as if it had double the amount of salt a reasonable ball would have. It was a salty ball. I was willing to think it may have just been my own body overreacting to the salt, like it had enough electrolytes for that day, or maybe I had a bad patch where a bunch of salt had accumulated, but the more I ate of it the more it came to be that it was just the ball itself.

I didn’t find it worth complaining about, though, because even then it was still a tasty ball. I ate most of it (and all of the potatoes and pesto). Seven-out-of-ten (but would have been a full ten if not for the salt).

My sibling-in-law got an actual meaty ball. It was the Ball of the Month so a bit of a mystery, but they ate it all and felt that it was very good.

Theirs was over brussel sprouts and the sauce was a mushroom gravy. I even had a bit of it myself (just the sprouts and gravy - I must have been on a veg kick) and it was the perfect bit of crunchy, tasty, and savory. I didn’t feel any food envy from my own meal, and looking back now I should have tried their ball to see if it was as salty as mine, but they certainly enjoyed their meal and only has some brussel sprouts to spare.

I also enjoyed the dishes they were served in - simple metal bowls to keep the contents inside and easily manageable to til and try to get every scrap of flavor you’d like. The flags were cute too and the cloth napkins made it feel like a bit of high dining but for the every-day person.

Mercato is a place I would definitely go back to and even look forward to if I take this trip on the yearly. With it being so close to the convention center, if anyone were to attend a convention being held at the Westin in Pittsburgh, I would recommend going there before most attendees show up so there is little wait. I was fortunate enough to be able to time it conveniently.

Overall, a nine-out-of-ten experience as my only true complaint was the salty ball. Even still, it was a tasty salty ball.