Ristorante Al Mercante is a nice, moderately priced restaurant offering traditional Milanese and Tuscan fare. Set in a Medieval square (Piazza Mercanti), this area of Milan once served as a center of civic activities and housed a prison. Al Mercante was very conveniently located for us, directly between the Piazza del Duomo and our hotel, the Gran Duca di York.
This little restaurant is apparently well known for its selection of antipasti, and the huge antipasti table dominates the restaurant's lower level (you can clearly see the antipasti table just inside the front door in one of the photos). On both of our visits we were led to a table in the upstairs dining room.
The menu at Al Mercante is very extensive; you'll have your choice of pasta, beef, chicken, seafood, and pizza. We found that the pasta dishes, seafood and stuffed vegetables (ripieni) were all excellent, and the house wine was of good quality. The swordfish I ordered one evening was grilled to perfection.
Menus in English are available. We were amused that our Italian must have improved over the course of 24 hours; on our first visit we were presented with bilingual menus, while upon our return the following evening the same host gave us menus in Italian.
Al Mercante is closed Sundays and August 3rd - 28th.