Vinoteca in Islington

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Went there for a quick bite and drink on a Saturday afternoon. Friendly and knowledgeable staff. I was a bit hesitant about this place, considering that they have a few locations, but I was pleasantly surprised. The food was nicely cooked and well seasoned. The wine selection is nice, with some interesting and unusual wines. The place was laid back and not pretentious.

Love Vinoteca. Pleasant staff are happy to serve you, the menu is approachable and, guess what, the veggie dish is at the top of the list!! Who'd have thought?!There's good wine pairings with every course and, as you'd expect, a huge wine menu. If you don't have half an hour to peruse it, there's a more succinct wine menu on the reverse of the food menu.The steak was superb and the thick cut chips just perfectly fried off. Also had the risotto with roasted squash, both dishes were great, served promptly and wine selections were spot on.