I really do love the City of London at the weekend. Some may say it lacks atmosphere or in fact people full stop, but I see that as a perfect opportunity. Whilst everywhere else in London is so busy you can barely cross the pavement, this part of London is free to explore at snail space. An early morning coffee, afternoon shopping with practically the entire floor staff to yourself and restaurants which are slightly less busy than those of central London meaning the chefs and mixologists have more time for their customers.
Firstly I have to give kudos to this place as there is a number of interesting dishes on the menu. For starters, we tried the pork rillettes amd the pigeon. The pork rilettes are almost like a parfait but thicker in texture and it is served with an intricately thin web of crunchy wafer (not quite sure what this is!). Lovely play on textures but not much on taste. I was excited to try the pigeon as it has been a while since I had game. It was quite well cooked and pink in the middle.
For mains, I had the rabbit wrapped with pancetta. This came on a bed of leaves (couldn't tell you what they were as this was
the first time I had them) and had a beetroot jus. Presentation in this place requires a lot of improvement. My main was drenched in the red jus and almost made it seem like the rabbit had died on my plate. The rabbit and pancetta itself was cooked well. There was a tremendous overdose of the leaves and they @were quite tasteless and didnt pair well with the beetroot jus. My friend's lamb dish was also a bit overdone.
The positive about this place is its incredible wine selection which takes up a good third of the wall space in the restaurant.
Pleasant airy space with a brasserie feel. Nice that they have a selection of newspapers for the brunch crowd.
My bavette steak was one of the best steaks I've had in recent memory. Normally served medium rare but I asked for rare. Really smokey from having been seared at intense heat over charcoal. It came with a nice horseradish sauce and some watercress salad. The chips did let me down a bit. Enormous and hand cut but not a nice fluffy texture on the inside. A touch under cooked, actually.
My companion had some grilled sardines that looked great. Served with grilled chicory and rocket. I tasted the romesco sauce that came with this dish, and it was excellent.
9.5/10 The best wine bar/restaurant in London 2013!. I have been the restaurant few years ago, I went there with my friends last friday around 7pm. I remember that why I stopped going there. Cause of no booking for a table .There was waiting list,but we got a table after 10-15mins wait. so worth waiting for!
Well, I had duck dish with matching wine from menu. It was Amazing combo! Great quality of food and wine with friendly service. Food is quite big portion. One main and a glass of wine :£23. I rediscovered that how amazing the restaurant is.
The venue is not so big so it's great to come with two or max four. It's quite noisy .
I'll come back very soon. It's my new favourite wine restaurant in London !
Vine times. Great place i absolutely love it. There's a really good eclectic choice of wines that i have consistently enjoyed. they were also kind enough to keep a bottle of champagne on ice for us that started as an aperitif before lunch at St john and became an afternoon pick me up after lunch. Living in vancouver BC I really miss Vinoteca and their wines.
Fantastic. This is such a good place. Can't recommend enough. Typical of Clerkenwell - small, but classy.
Had to spread the word. My first Urban spoon review- and was prompted to by the sheer excellence of the Sunday lunch I have just enjoyed at Vinoteca. Despite arriving late, they held our table graciously and provided excellent and friendly service throughout. The food was some of the best I have eaten in London. I can highly recommend the scallops with chestnuts and the mussels in cider to start. The Gressingham Duck with chanterelles and farro was amazing, and the bavette steak and chips drew moans of pleasure from my dining companion . They offer wine by the glass to match beautifully with the food, and to cap it all- it was all very reasonably priced with generous portions. The buttermilk pudding for dessert was lovely too. Thanks Vinoteca, long may you continue in this vein.
Good food. Restaurant space is nothing special .. staff are fine and friendly .. food is very good ... 'homemade' bread and oil nice to start .. good mussels and clams , and a very nice steak with tomato paprika butter and top notch chunky chips
will certainly go back
This wine bar / restaurant is a wonderfully relaxed place. Wooden table and chairs match the wood floor, wine shelves and bar. The menu is short and changes daily. A wine recomendation is made with each course and a small 125ml glass is available. This Sunday lunchtime I enjoyed a starter salad of crab, coconut, and chilli. Main course was Gloucester Old Spot Pork Belly with fresh figs; this was heavenly which is an appropriate description on a Sunday in the shadows of St Paul's dome.
Mmm... Love it! love it! love it!
for me, there is no better place to spend drinking great wines with friends. it's a cozy little place, and not overly expensive.
they do great food too if you are drinking more than a little...
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!
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
Food was very high quality. Pasta was delicious and steak was tender and flavoursome. Lovely atmosphere inside, but is slightly loud
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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