The Market Hall

Great food, beer, and service. Happy hour from 4 – 9 $ 4 for good craft beer every day, you can’t beat that! Friendly servers. Also, my go to coffee spot, they have illy coffee/​espresso, the best.

Somehow this gem hasn’t been discovered yet, which is surprising given the paucity of this type of place in a city that is supposed to be trendy.
MH has a wide range of gourmet foods that are high quality but reasonably priced. This is my go-​to place now for great cheese.
But the best thing about MH is the happy hour. Excellent wine and great craft beer (a pint) for only $ 4. And phenomenal gourmet appetizers for only $ 5.
Really friendly staff and a very cool atmosphere make this a unique downtown place. It’s the kind of place that Bay Area transplants wish there were more of.

This was the amazing market around the corner from the Hotel Indigo I ended up frequenting a few times during our San Diego trip.
Their lunch special was absolutely mouthwatering! The brisket sandwich and pesto pasta salad was the perfect blend of rich and spicy BBQ sauce and herbal palate cleanser. The price for the amount and quality they provided was totally and completely worth it. I wish I’d found them earlier in our trip!
The service both days was amazing! Polite, friendly, and helpful I enjoyed my experience with them, though the meatballs proved a bit too much for me one day, I’d definitely return when we’re back in the area!
So much yum!

My husband and I really enjoy The Market Hall, especially being seven minutes walking distance from our home! They have a very friendly staff available to answer questions or help out. We have had their Eggs Benedict, it was very good! And their burger is dynamite! The only reason I did not give them five stars, it is a tad pricey.

1) There was dog poop on the floor at 8 am. I’m assuming it was dog poop. It was next to the prepared foods case.
2) Check the dates before you buy anything from the to-​go food case. Seriously. I found two week old fruit one day.
3) The bread is frozen stuff that they reheat. They keep the frozen ciabatta squares in the freezer display with the ice cream.

Came in because it next to our hotel. This was EPIC fail, eggs Benedict was burnt and cold the 1^st time, still cold on the 2^nd try. My fruit had a bug in it, not sure if it was not washed or was from the decorative flower, either way being 8 months pregnant I’m not taking chances. Both the server and my omelet were good.

Lovely gourmet grocery store, great Italian cold cuts selection. Lovely ambience and décor. Had cheeseburger with hallah bun and loved it

We came here to enjoy a craft beer for happy hour and do a take out from the grocery section, but ended up eating dinner because the bites were so tasty and the happy hour was so awesome. My daughter had the Baja fish tacos which came with a creamy sauce which enhanced the flavors. Hubby had the cheeseburger with shoe string fries and we had the bruschetta as an ap. The entire bill came to $ 45 and included not only the food but 2 craft beers and 3 glasses of Cabernet.
Smooth jazz played in the background for a chill vibe.
Great experience after a long day!

Well I came here for dinner and must say that the food is forgettable but the décor isn’t. I had the pulled pork sandwich with a side of pesto pasta salad. The pulled pork had some flavor but the pesto pasta salad was very bland. We also tried the bruschetta. It had a beautiful presentation but the fresh garlic was overpowering. With less garlic it would have a perfect balance.
While browsing the selection of goods they offer, everything was priced extremely high. I would come to eat but not do my grocery shopping.
I would say this, they offer a cheap happy hour. $ 4 wines and beers.

Had a great steak cooked by an amazing chef I highly recommend for anybody that loves a good steak cooked very well an amazing customer service I fully suggest that you come and visit and have your food cooked by Mariano Ojeda and they have a wide selection of beer it will go well with the steak.

The café is great! Best happy hour in East Village. $ 5 ahi tartare… amazing. Burger is perfect. Such a great edition to the neighborhood. Staff is so friendly too. Well done!

Awesome place. I live next door so I’m in often. Very much like a European deli and one of the highlights is their expertise with cheese and wine. I’m a bit of a cheese snob and short of specialty shops, the only place I enjoy buying it at is Costco. But the quantities are too big, and the selection narrow. Here at Market Hall there’s an excellent selection, portions are available in sizes you can immediately use, and the prices reasonable. The wine is well combed through where the offerings are such that you can tell that whoever is buying them knows what they’re doing, and the prices are very reasonable. Especially considering the gourmet status of the store.
A few very notable things:
1) Happy Hour offers amazing values. The Ahi Tartar at $ 5 has to be a big loser for them. Do the math at the wholesale value of the fish!
2) The ready to go lunch and dinner offerings are one of downtown’s best bargains. The sandwiches are creative and are wonderful tasting. Biting into them reminds me of take away deli sandwiches in Europe.
3) I just discovered that the prime meat and fish counter is so much more than just that. Buy something and they’ll cook it to take home including saucing it up with unique and well thought out reductions that only a master chef can create.
4) A big one! The baguettes are worth stopping in alone. You won’t get better bread in San Diego. I stopped buying other bread in our home. Eat it fast, it’s fresh and doesn’t last long!
5) Again, not sure how they do it, but the place is extremely well staffed. Everyone is extremely friendly and out to make each visit a nice experience. Hiring must be done by a genius, other than the bar/​restaurant side there’s no tipping. No place to add it when signing your card, and when I first started coming and felt weird about it I was told that tips weren’t accepted in the retail section.
I read a few comments about waiting a long wait for food. I don’t know how they make money doing it, but everything outside of the counter is prepared fresh. The portions are not pre-​measured and stored in the fridge to lose their flavor. Every sauce and reduction is made to order, and you taste the difference. In a hurry? I usually am and buy from the counter where the choices are a plenty. There’s some variance is flavor because each cook/​chef does things a little differently, but always pridefully, and well.
Try it. Spread the word. San Diego needs more places like this.

This place is a great new addition to east village! I haven’t had anything bad thus far, products are pretty good, but it’s a little pricey.
I wanted to study in the café but unfortunately they don’t have Wi-​Fi for the customers.

Burger Week Review
They have the $ 11.75 Bacon Cheeseburger for only $ 5 during burger week.
Good value. Lots of quality meat. It was a good burger but I found that the flavors of the meat bun and ingredients didn’t combine to excellence. So good burger… but ordinary.

I happen to stop in for The Market Hall’s first brunch service on a lazy Sunday morning. I was in the mood for a scramble, so I opt for the Farm Scramble with the Hobb’s Bacon, «a Califrnia Style bacon,» ham, brie, and avocado with a side potato cake and some sliced toasted baguettes served with butter and jam. For my beverage, I had the barista make me a Café au Lait.
The scramble was on the small side but was quite tasty. It came with a very good amount of the bacon and ham. The bacon was crisp and had a good chewy texture. It flavor was of a mild smoke and a but of of an apple flavor. The ham was tender and firm and tasted good. The eggs were well scrambled to a fluffy consistency and were mildly seasoned. The brie was excellent and an over indulgence. It was melted throughout the scramble and gave the whole scramble a creamy appeal, not to mention another flavor profile, in a good way of course.
The Potato cake was okay and was mildly crispy, but it was a little on the cold side and the inside was a gray color that did not look very appealing. Its flavor was a little bland and it definitely needed seasoning. I think they need to work on this one.
The Café au Lait was terrific and well balanced between the robust coffee and semi sweetness of the hot milk, not to mention the creaminess of the mild. The barista who made it not only did a great job making the coffee, but provided great service plus conversation during my entire visit.

Came here with my fiancée for dinner last night for something quick. This place is really needed in downtown, a quick stop shop to grab and go.
Unfortunately, we were not impressed. They had dinner sandwiches and entrees out so we went with that. The owner/​manager (not really sure?) came over and kept trying to up sell the entrée when my fiancée said he wanted the sandwich. He wouldn’t even let us know what the choices were for the sandwich. He repeated «ah I’m not sure about that, but if you get the entrée…» when we had a question. That really rubbed us the wrong way.
The food was good, but half of it was cold! I got meatballs (only 3 which was supposed to by my main course), with mac and cheese and beans on the side. Meatballs and macaroni were cold.
This place needs more food selection, we were pretty limited. Downtown desperately needs a place like this, but I don’t think Market Hall is the winner.

What a fun, trendy super market — it’s a pleasure to go grocery shopping. Feels like a European market that is exclusive yet comfortable. The displays and lighting are really beautiful. They carry anything from specialty cheeses, wines, cold drinks, prepared salads and sandwiches and cooked food. The brisket is especially tasty — a definite must try. They make nice European sandwiches as well. Great place to pick up a prepared dinner/​lunch or anything you may need for home as well as gifts (chocolates, wine etc.). Coffee is amazing too — much much better than Starbucks so that one is a no-​brainer. Can’t wait till the restaurant part will be open for brunch! Very nice place and perfect for those living in the building.

Been here a few times for an easy quick and delicious dinner. We get the prepared foods, and seeing as I’m not a chef, I’ll leave it at the simple fact that the food was really good. And thats what matters seeing as many Unilocalers whine over stupidities. Haven’t been here as a restaurant, always for takeout dinner.
The staff is great, friendly, and attentive. The location besides the obvious convenience for my laziness, is clean, cool, and inviting. And the prices are right on what you’d expect for a high quality, good food marketplace i.e. Affordable for what you get.
Highly recommend it for good food (their coffee was legit European espresso too). Look forward to eating in sometime too!

Really good home style lunch for $ 10. If you live in downtown and want home cooking, this is the place to go. I’m very glad they opened!
Just like mom used to make… Not my mom, but one that knows how to cook.
They have hot plates and hot sandwiches. Everything is slow braised and excellent.
They also have a high end cheese shop, fish market and butcher. Top quality stuff… Especially the tuna.

Living a block away I’d been waiting for this place to open for a while now and after coming in I’m not disappointed at all.
It’s East Village’s latest opening and contains all sorts of goodies. Basically imagine a grocery store without all the boring stuff like paper towels and laundry detergent and you’re left with the edibles.
There’s a great selection of uncooked meat and seafoods, as well as a cafeteria like selection.
You can get a sandwich with one of their bbq meat selections or get an entrée with two sides which included mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts, Mac n cheese and others. The lunch combo is 9.95 and dinner is 12.50.
Will definitely be back here either to pick up a meal or something to cook at home.