Paella Shack in Islington

Excellent food and good value and excellent service from Spanish waiter. We both had sea bass main course which was excellent....tapas dishes and paella on other tables looked very good.

We visited Bar Rioja on a Saturday evening. The venue itself is lovely, small cosy and intimate. The young lady serving us was great, very friendly and and had good knowledge of the wines. Unfortunately the food was a complete disappointment. We ordered 5/6 different tapas dishes. The croquettes were cold, the pork dish had a hard stone in it which could have been either an olive stone or a peice of bone, I was lucky to not chip a tooth on it. All of the food was under seasoned, bland and luke warm at best. We ate it anyway, as we wanted to stay at the venue to try the extensive wine list. We stayed and tried 7/8 different wines which were all nice, but didn't make up for the poor food. All of the food was added to the bill, dispite us flagging the cold food / bone in the pork being flagged to the staff.

Nice vibe place with a good playlist. Love finding happy hour time that actually works. Already planning return here with friends

Amazing food. A real hidden gem. Portion sizes are big and there was nothing to fault. I left my scarf behind and they kindly posted it to me promptly with no charge for postage which I was more than happy to pay for. Great service and we will be returning.

Lovely wine but the food was very underwhelming and expensive . For example the patatas bravas looked like frozen potato cubes with a blob of sauce. The croquetas were decent