Vinoteca in Islington

I had lunch with my daughter at Vinoteca Farringdon. I chose the Cauliflower soup with croutons for my starter. The waitress took the knife and fork away when she brought my soup and left the dessert spoon. I requested a soup spoon, so she brought a serving spoon. I explained I wanted a soup spoon, not a serving spoon. It appears they do not have soup spoons. I do not like eating soup with a dessert spoon. The Cauliflower soup was delicious and filling 😋 The Sea Bass, my daughter, had for main course was well presented. I also enjoyed the chocolate brownie with ice cream for dessert.

Great food and lovely service. Best recommendation.

Very cozy and good atmosphere for a drink. Highly recommended as the wine list is for all type of tastes.

Food and wine are excellent. Understaffed so slow service

Food was very nice. We had a selection of the small plates which were all lovely. Service starred off very attentive then went downhill as the evening progressed.

Excellent food, service and atmosphere. Definitely recommend booking. The menu is excellent.

Worth a visit! Food and service excellent! It all just "happens" without any ado.

Delicious and amazing hospital service

Good restaurant. At lunch time it took us a while to get served.

Absolute joke, our server Joao was just trying to hard to make us believe he has any wine knowledge, because in reality he doesn’t unfortunately. Nevertheless he was just overbearing and over intrusive and making really wrong wine descriptions, we really thought that your team should actually be trained? Also to mention that this same loud server, has real attitude problems. Sadly will never come back to any Vinoteca, if that’s the type of people you hire to work for you.

I had a lunch menu on Wednesday around 2.30, the staff were friendly and brought the food quickly. The fish was delicious and flavoursome

Great snacks and wine by the glass selection. Friendly knowledgeable staff.

Good quality food for the price and relaxed atmosphere, good for informal business lunches

Cosy place, not too busy even during the peak hour.

Nice and cosy place. We enjoyed the dinner and the food was delicious. The lemon chicken was so soft and yummy. The service was a bit slow though and we had to wait for some time to order and be served. It was a busy evening!

Really nice lunch. Unfortunately, they mixed up our order and brought us the wrong thing. However, they did their best to give us an alternative given we had to get back to work, and didn't have much time. They didn't charge us for lunch in the end, which was really nice. On the whole, the experience was really good.

Quality of food really good, but small portions... I ended up paying £16 for a spoon of pasta... a bit excessive! Small space too, so out table was near the stoves: super hot. Loud music did not make our conversation easy. All together, good but I will not come back

Rude staff. Arrived when it was practically empty and asked to be seated near open window and was told no despite not being able to book certain tables. Won't be back. Food was good but stuck up staff ruined it for me

Horribly chewy bavette. The meat tasted like a cheap, low quality cut, was like chewing leather, and lacked taste.

Poor service. Spent £93 on wine and food and was abruptly hurried to make way for new customers.

Great freshly cooked food, huge wine menu in a comfortable atmosphere

Well I don’t know what to say, just had the most shocking experience. So I came with my team for a work event, we all work in tech. We were having a good time, food was okay, Customer service was excellent, drinks were flowing, we were enjoying our time and then our operations manager said we will play a game of pub quiz. We are literally in teams writing down our answers on a sheet, being respectful not too loud because again it’s a work event, we have to be professional. The manager comes in full blazing saying she “doesn’t know if we are gambling or what but this is not allowed, we are not a pub, your time is up, you got go” We are all sat here in complete shock and actually feeling very embarrassed as she was even turning red whilst going in at us. I have never had such an experience. We only spent over 1k for you to treat us like gangsters, just woooow!!!! You could have spoken to us in a better manner. Wont be back even though it’s round the corner from our office!

Food was very high quality. Pasta was delicious and steak was tender and flavoursome. Lovely atmosphere inside, but is slightly loud

Consistently good food and value for money in all locations. Routinely use for work lunches as the setting is light and airy, set menu is tasty without being showy, and the service is quick. Excellent wines.

Starters average, mains average although nicely presented I must say, staff average, price rather pricy, comfort average. Wouldn’t come back for food, didn’t even have wine.

Good food, fabulous wine selection. Professional staff offering excellent service, great atmosphere. Well worth a visit you won't be disappointed. Great location with good train & tube connectivity close by.

I had the porchetta which was lacking of any flavor due to fact that the slice was fried heavily,porchetta should be baked, sliced and served. This was poorly prepared and executed. The smoked aubergine was freezing cold, the confit potatoes were lacking salt and looking unhealthy grey. I tried the bavette steak which was though as old boots not a pleasant eating experience. The only good thing was the service.

Good wine selection and service, but the food… no. I wasn’t expecting fillet levels of tenderness from a bavette steak, but the first one I had to send back as was borderline inedibly chewy. Second one was better - I got through about half.

I have been here before and it never disappoints. My pal with me loved it too.

Had lunch here today as part of an industry meeting and we had the basement private dining room. Host was gracious and looked after us well but the food and lighting was atrocious. Fixed menu selections: Starter: mushroom soup was cold and resembled mushroom flavour porridge Main: Bavette Steak was far too rare for my taste, I noticed most who had it left more than half. Desert: strudel was ok, but just meh. A shame that the food wasn’t amazing but my main issue was the continually strobing lighting downstairs that would flare up every 10 minutes, killing our group conversation and making our guests wince.

Cozy restaurant in Farringdon. Felt a bit cramped given the number of tables in the small space (was very busy when we visited on a Tuesday lunchtime in February). Staff were friendly and the food was freshly prepared and piping hot! Good choice and the set menu was good value for money.

Went for a nice bottle or white wine... We're lucky to get a seat at the bar.

One star only for the atmosphere. Very long wait for getting our drinks and longer wait for the food. Wine was fine but the dishes were below average tasting and portions were very small and prices are unreasonably high. Service was lacking unfortunately.

Unfortunately I think I must have chosen the wrong stuff off the Xmas menu. The pumpkin soup didn't have enough salt. The hake dish had no flavour and the tart tasted like it was out of freezer and not fresh. They took ages with the food even though everything was precooked. Won't be coming here again sorry

Nice cosy place with friendly staff and a great variety of wines!

Starting with the positives the place has a great atmosphere, the wine was great and the food was up to par for a wine bar. We were initially served by young slim guy who was very polite and helpful. Now for the disappointing part we had some friends joining at 10:30 who without knowing the place was closing at 11 ordered a bottle of wine and a cheese board. Then at 10:40 a waitress came for last orders when I ordered I large glass of wine which came at 10:45. A minute later a short waitress brought the receipt and at 10:50 she came with the card machine to get paid when we asked for more time and she replied with a rude attitude that we need to leave in ten minutes. This happened again when she came back five minutes later she rudely again told us we need to leave at 11. Never have I been told to leave a place 5 minutes after getting the last order so we requested to speak to the manager who was a blond lady who came and told us again with an attitude that we came late and we should have known that the place closes at 11 and it’s our fault we came this late. I tried to explain to her that if waiters come for last orders they should allow at least 30 minutes for people to finish their drinks and in this whole time we were met with an extremely unprofessional attitude of this was our fault we can do you a favour by giving you another 15 minutes but you need to leave. Eventually the manager tried to remedy the situation by giving us a discount. As I explained to the manager, when a client provides feedback at the very least you need to listen. If you disagree you can say you will take it into consideration and leave. The role of a waiter let alone a manager is not just to move plates around but to make sure customers feel heard and respected and tense situations are handled professionally. I understand we are human and we are doing the best we can but being polite and showing respect when someone is voicing their dissatisfaction is the bare minimum. Even if we were completely in the wrong giving us attitude and being disrespectful really doesn’t help. Very rarely I write reviews let alone bad but I wanted to make sure the message comes across. Please do better and train your staff because before our night was ruined we really wanted to come back as we enjoyed the place a lot.

Nice food and great wines. Would come again. They forgot my desert but frankly I was full.

Good food and wines, excellent desserts, nice venue with high ceilings

Really lovely evening, excellent menu and drinks choice and staff were e tremely pleasant and knowledgeable. A really buzz about the place.

Delicious, particularly the trout

Nice set menu for lunch. And a get choice of wines. Friendly waiter

I've been here twice for drinks. Unfortunately it never had the chance to try the food. In the summer it was really lovely as they opened up the massive doors and had some seating outside, and more recently just popped in for some wine and cocktails at the bar. It has a great atmosphere the staff are very lovely. A lot of choices for wine as the name would suggest, lots of new world wines too.

Good food, excellent wine knowledge and interesting range of wines.

Good wine bar in London. The staff is friendly and has a nice selection of wines

Good food, great wine and excellent service

Great place to meet for a quick and friendly meeting with good food and drink.

Staff need serious training - no idea about their wines or how to wait tables. Food was average, no interesting flavours.

Good spot in Farringdon with a decent priced menu and wine list. We had a couple of courses each and a few bottles of wine and it was about £50 a head. Helpful and friendly staff too.

Phenomenal private room experience. I'm sorry if I misheard the name as it was quite loud, but a big thanks to Tony. Very gracious hosts who continued to look after us after the night formally ended.

The meat platter was like something you’d buy in sainsburys for a picnic. The cheese platter for two was for one if that one is a tiny mouse. Lovely wine - as you’d expect.. it’s in the name after all

Serate a Londra alla ricerca di ristoranti un po speciali ,questa vinoteca è piccola, ma offre una vasta scelta di vini, anche una buona qualità di carni e dolci. Unica pecca essendo piccola risulta un po rumorosa.

Great place with very polite and friendly staff.

Had a very nice meal with my team here. The environment is very nice and relaxed. The doors to the outside were open because it was a very warm day. The food was very nice, I had a steak and was amazing. Unfortunately I didn't like that there were so many chips on my plate, I wish there were more greens, or vegetables instead of so many chips. The horseradish sauce with the dish was very tasty. I finished my meal with the Moscatel de Setubal and truffles and it was amazing, I would definitely recommend it. I was very happy with the meal, and the full team enjoyed the restaurant also. Great and quick service. Will definitely return.

I made a ten person reservation for my birthday - very simple, booked online and followed up with a phonecall and e-mail. Staff lovely, food great, all came in a timely fashion, and large group managed really well. Nice atmosphere in the restaurant.

Great wine menus, the sharing platters could be broader however the staff are amazing. Love this place

Not entirely sure what is going on with their booking system, but I reserved a table 2 days ago via Google. Took them until the day of the booking to tell me that they actually had no availability and my booking was cancelled.

Had previously been to the Chiswick Vinoteca where I was pleasantly surprised. This was a very different experience. Ordered a bottle of red, they brought the white one which, had I not been paying attention, they would have opened. Starters were fine. I had the bavette medium rare which comes with "thick cut" fries. The fries were about the thickness of McDonald fries, dried out and bland, unlike in Chiswick where I had chunky fries. The steak immediately started drowning my plate in juices. When I mentioned it to the waitress she talked to the chef and proceeded to explaining how I ordered it medium-rare and this is normal. Yes it is normal when you do not rest your steak which any chef should do. Really only two ingredients, steak frites and you got both wrong... I was not in mood to complain further as we were there on a special occasion. We both left very disappointed definitely not going back to this branch.

Amazing food, amazing wine and great service. We will definitely come back :)

A buzzy spot with great food and wine. Good value too.

We were there for a large group dinner in the private dining room, and I should say the rest of the party enjoyed their food. Sadly this was just the worst meal I've had out for a very long time. I was offered a milk free selection as an alternative to the limited menu due to me having an allergy. The starter wasn't awful (cold meats and bread) but was really oversized, and lacking in something to make it less dry. The main, however, was really terrible. It was roasted cauliflower with couscous - which had two major flaws: 1) The cauliflower was not cooked through so basically raw, it was really tough to even cut it with the knife provided. 2) The couscous was literally swimming in oil and basically inedible as a result. Not sure why it needed any oil at all, let alone a swimming pool of it! I mentioned it to the waiter and he shrugged and walked off with it but no comment or apology. Dessert was not a great favourite (rhubarb with lemon sorbet and almonds), the almonds really didn't seem to go with the flavour and the rhubarb was still quite tough to eat (needed a knife to cut it but only had a fork!). For the price paid, it felt like a very poor meal and absolutely do no recommend here for anyone with allergies. They tried, but fell seriously short of the mark.

Great spot for Italian tapas and enjoy their huge collection of wines. We had an enjoyable Xmas party at the private room

This would have been a 5-star but we had two good reasons to knock off two stars. Firstly, the food, the wine, fantastic. Great location, cosy venue (bit loud). The paddles are a nice way to sample a couple of different wines, would recommend if you go. First Minus Star : We ordered a cheese selection and were asked if we'd like some additional house bread ordered with it, we said yes, it didn't come, we asked after it, it never came. Second Minus Star : Upon payment time our receipt arrived with the aforementioned bread on it. One of our party went to the till and they sorted it right away. Then one of the servers came over to take our card payments and made as if the first persons payment hadn't gone through. The first person when to try paying again, same. Whilst this person tried to check why it didn't work a second person went to pay, £16, and was charged £60 (tapped and didn't realise). The first person then saw two charges on their account, they were rather annoyed. The server went back to the till to sort out the remaineder, came back and said only £22 remaining, which was too low. Person 3 paid that, at which point is when we realised Person 2 had been charged £60 instead of £16. I understand the 16->60 mistake in a noisy room, Person 2 should have checked the screen, but double charging someone and making out like it might not have gone through (might have been strong miscommunication, I want to give the benefit of the doubt) is very unacceptable. If we hadn't been checking and just paid our splits as we had all planned to, the Restaurant would have received over £100 more than it should have. If this wasn't mostly the fault of just one staff member this would be a 1-star review, but the food and drink here is legitimately good. The service (apart from the missing bread) was otherwise perfectly acceptable.

very good food, courteous staff

Wonderful 2 hours spent and huge value on this gorgeous SA wine 😀

Amazing, creative food, extremely well prepared. Huge wine bottle selection, very decent and interesting open ones. Indeed recommended.

What a fun place. We hired downs stairs for an event. The wine tasting was great and done in a fun way! The food was DELISH!

Amazing choice of wine and good food

Great choice of wine. Good atmosphere.

Friendly with fantastic choice of wines

Loved this place, great wine, great cheese and meat boards to share or something more substantial. Very relaxed and informal to just catch up and slow down

Top quality food, great value and good choice of wines.

Prosecco and food was lovely. Nice atmosphere as always. Unfortunately staff kept taking plates away before we'd finished. Felt they were in a hurry but we had only been seated less than an hour.

Great place to meet your friends over a meal.

Beautiful wine selection, really well informed and friendly staff. The location is ideal being next to so many other places. We ate some of the smaller food offerings and enjoyed it all. Tried their wine flights which were really good value for money. Would return.

A nice wine bar with a good selection of wine (we had the Albarino which was great) and tables inside and outside make it a great location for an after work drink 🍷

I've always loved this restaurant and now I have a dog and realise it's also dog friendly. Makes me a very happy girl. I had an amazing time and a beautiful meal with my friend last night

Good, friendly service. Nice food.

Great food from a fairly a small menu but a massive wine list with knowledgeable staff to help you select a bottle. Great fun, worth a visit. Also serve gin!

Found this lovely little place quite by accident.Excellent food excellent wine and friendly relaxed atmosphere.Well worth looking up.

I visited Vinoteca Farringdon on Thursday (10th December). Excellent food (bavette steak + desert) and we (my companion and I) were treated to a complimentary glass of fizz. Very nice thank you. But I almost didn't go in as the restaurant did not appear to be complying with social distancing regs apart from all waiting staff wearing masks etc. Tables were less than 2 metres apart, no tables had been left vacant and as the evening progressed I felt increasingly at risk. I wonder if the management is trying to fit in too many guests? Also no effort was made on arrival to implement track and trace.. in contrast the costa coffee shop at my hotel was rigorous in this regard and as i did not have the NHS app on my old smartphone had to go to the costa website and provide my details etc. Perhaps it was an oversight but on that evening Vinoteca appeared not to be in compliance with Covid-19 regulations which are designed to protect diners. If I contract Covid as a result of my visit would Vinoteca pay compensation?

very good international selection of wines - fair prices - usually possible to get spot here. I like it

Great tasting food. Good service.

This is the only vinoteca that matters, the others that opened up later don't match the cosiness and atmosphere. Pasta was ok, perhaps too rich for my taste. Fish was perfect.

A lovely, cosy restaurant with great food, wine and friendly staff. Super dog friendly too. Our Cocker Spaniel was very impressed with all the attention she received from the waiters! A really lovely Saturday evening dinner experience.

It was great. Its always casual and informal, while the staffs timing is always right, neither lazy nor pushy.

Lovely lunch menu. Great wine selection and wine shop.

Great food and friendly service!

A seriously good post-lockdown Saturday lunch. Vinoteca bavette has been one of those key things missing from life, and this lunch corrected that. Great food, great service, great wine. Vinoteca is back: hooray.

Really good food, wine and service.

Excellent meal accompanied by unique wines from an extensive selection. I enjoyed a roast ricotta salad with blood oranges to start, followed by risotto. My friend chose the cod for main. Everything was tasty and cooked perfectly. This was a great place for a casual mid-week meal. The service was friendly and knowledgeable about the wines at different price points.

Tremendous staff - one guy in particular was on his first shift - had he not told us we would have been none the wiser! Chapeau!

Good for a glass of wine. Attentative service.

Great wine selection with reasonable prices! The staff is amazing as well and their cheese plates delicious.

My favourite location of all the Vinoteca's. Casual vibe, great food and excellent wine choices.

La Vinoteca original en Farringdon sigue siendo mi favorita. Funciona realmente bien como una especie de lugar íntimo para ponerse al día con buenos amigos con una buena copa de vino y algo de comida sin pretensiones. Es un lugar pequeño con una cocina abierta y un bar concurrido. Esta vez me sorprendió gratamente que pudimos conseguir una mesa a las 7:30 pm sin haber reservado. Se llenó poco después y zumbó con un agradable zumbido de gente pasando un buen rato. El personal siempre es muy amable y conocedor de la gran selección de vinos. El agua del grifo se deja servicialmente en una botella sobre la mesa y tampoco tiene que esperar mucho por su comida. Por lo general, tengo uno de los platos principales de aves: paloma, pato o esta vez gallina de Guinea y nunca me ha decepcionado. La bavette de carne también es un placer placentero. La tabla de quesos es una necesidad absoluta para terminar la comida (¡esas galletas!) Con otro vaso de excelente rojo. Me alegro de haber redescubierto este original después de haberme desviado a su sucursal de King's Cross un par de veces el año pasado.

Absolutely loved the place, wide selection of wines, great food, super quick service!

The food was OK although not a huge choice. Disappointed in the quality of service

We had lunch and found the menu choice a bit limiting. The food was slightly oily and the portion size quite average. The service was cold, distant and not up to the standards we were expecting. Would not consider it again

Realmente disfrutamos de nuestra visita aquí debido a la fantástica selección de vinos disponibles y recomendados por nuestro experto y amable camarero.Solo una pequeña crítica fue que pensé que las porciones podrían haber sido un poco más grandes. Sin embargo, todo estaba bien preparado y combinaba perfectamente con los vinos elegidos.Definitivamente regresaría.

Great choice of wine in a lively atmosphere - downstairs room is great for a big group. Not cheap