finally stopped in at east hill market, have been wanting to try them since they opened and for one reason or another we just have never been. had gone to the palafox farmer's market and worked up an appetite looking at all the food there and hightailed it over to ninth ave. afterwords.
we found the inside to be quaint, and part grocery store and part retail space for artsy items (see pictures). the ordering process is not completely obvious but the staff was very helpful and we got our food ordered with little difficulty.
there are three places you can choose to eat, one in the market, one behind the kitchen, and then you can sit outside and eat, if the weather suits you. we chose the quiet area behind the kitchen and that is where the first two inside pictures i uploaded were taken. it has a cute almost coffee shop feel to it, and it was out of the way of the customers milling about the market part of the business.
we both ordered soup, and found both to be fair, and in need of salt, but something more, i expected my sausage soup to have been more hardy, but was similar to a watery minestrone. we split the fish tacos and the avocadosandwichand it was a bunch of food.
the avocadosandwichwas the favorite of us both, and it must have had one whole avocado on it, and a nice olivada spread that was like a tapenade that added a lot to what can be a ho hum sandwich. very solid!
the fish tacos were good but very messy!!!! there was way too much extra going on with the black beans, mandarin oranges, pineapple salsa, slices of avocado, and lastly the slaw, and everything just fell out onto my plate. i understand plating, and making a presentation of the dish, but it also has to hold to its intended purpose. you can not eat a taco with you hands that you can not close. the flavors were there though, and after i removed a lot of the debris, i could eat the taco and enjoyed it. they did a great job of not allowing the salsa to get too sweet (i have made it clear before that i do not like sweet on my meat).
i will be back, i enjoyed myself and so did my wife. i like the cute concept and want to try a few more items on the menu. if you get the tacos, you will need extra napkins.