| Ambiance: |  (3.5 / 5) |
| Service: | (3.5 / 5) |
| Value for money: | (4 / 5) |
| Toilet: | (3.5 / 5) |
Loving all things Italian but not wanting the standard pizza offering, I was recommended 500 Restaurant. Doing my standard ‘go online, check out the menu’, I was immediately impressed as the dishes seemed authentically Italian and some of the things on the menu were similar to what I’d eaten in Italy. So, I was looking forward to seeing whether the taste would live up to my expectations.
The Menus
We had an 8pm booking, on a Sunday night. I always worry about going out on a Sunday – Tuesday as restaurants are typically empty/considerably less busy on these evenings, and no-one wants a restaurant without any atmosphere. But, in 500’s case, I was happy to see there were a couple of other tables and decent music in the background. We were also greeted by Italian staff, meaning I got to practise a bit of my last remaining remnants of the language. We were seated towards the back of the restaurant and presented with a wine list, a la carte menu and an A4 papered special menu. On the menu stakes, I wasn’t overly impressed – the paper looked cheap and didn’t reflect the calibre of the restaurant. However, the wine list was marginally nicer, and the choice of wines (and prices) was even better. We had the intention of going through the wines by the glass, as there was a good selection of both white and red, however, as it turned out Alex drank so slowly that we only got through four. Marginally healthier I guess!
Deep Fried Pasta!
I loved the food menu; there was the perfect amount of choice, with 6 – 8 options for each course. We started with their special of deep fried pasta, followed by the crab salad and basil gnocchi with swordfish for primo and fillet steak and rabbit stew for our mains. We were served our first wines – a Rose and a white Fruilano with some complimentary bread, all of which was pretty dry so nothing to write home about. But, this seemed to be the case throughout Italy so you can’t blame 500 for not being “authentic”! The fried pasta reminded me even more of Italy, but tasted 100 x better than anything I had out there (crazy really!). Filled with pecorino and mint, they offered a completely different taste to anything I’ve found in other Italian restaurants.
Me with the Gnocchi
Our primi or ‘starters’ looked great, and were decently sized. The crab salad was fresh, with hints of lemon sharpening the subtle flavour of the crab. However, I think my gnocchi won star of the primo show. Alex said he’d rather the gnocchi was a little more al dente but I liked the mashed potato type texture, and with the chopped swordfish, it tasted delicious and despite his criticism, Alex still kept coming back for more, meaning I ended up with about a third of a plate of gnocchi.
The Rabbit
Fillet Steak
For our secondo, I ordered a glass of Pinot Grigio and Alex had a Nero d’Avola. On looks alone, our food looked colourful and rustic. Both of our meats were served with the same rosemary sautéed potatoes and buttered green beans. Unlike Charter, the steak proved perfectly cooked and seasoned and definitely proved much tastier than the rabbit. I ended up palming more than half of mine onto Alex’s plate as I found the meat quite dry, but the flavours were nice and everything was seasoned well.
We turned down pudding and felt like we should really be saying our goodbyes as we were the only people left in an empty restaurant.
Recommendation
I really enjoyed 500 and would recommend it to anyone looking for somewhere authentically Italian.
Extra Information:
Address: 782 Holloway Rd, London N19 3JH
Phone: 020 7272 3406
Website: http://www.500restaurant.co.uk/
NTK: Like the food, the service is very Italian, aka they leave you ‘to it’ – meaning you may find yourself having to ask for more drinks.
