Sangria

alisonelm

Mediocre 3rd September 2008

0 found this helpful

I went to Sangria for a friend's birthday and had read some pretty awful reviews so I wasn't expecting great things which is good as it's pretty mediocre and certainly lived up to its poor reputation.

The food itself was ok-but nothing out of the ordinary. Some dishes were bland, some dripping in oil, some lukewarm and some just nothingy. The paella they served was possibly the most tasteless thing I've ever eaten. There was just no point to eating it.

However, the food was the good part of the experience! The staff were woefully disinterested in actually waiting on their tables. It took me 6 requests to get a glass of lemonade, including my walking to the bar where the barman refused to pour it for me as my waiter had not asked him to. I then asked the waiter again and he blamed the barman. They said they would leave if off the bill and then didn't. Of course.

Service was haphazard, slow and at times rude.

There are many many restaurants I would far rather go to again than this one. Avoid at all cost.

Georgiou

Sangria, Upper Street, Islington 3rd August 2008

2 found this helpful

I have yet to eat in delicious tapas in London and after last night I am still waiting to. We arrived when the restaurant was very busy and were quite impressed by the warm greeting extended by the waitress and how quickly she showed us to our table and took our drinks order. However the drinks took about 20 minutes to arrive and the 14 dishes we later ordered about 45 minutes. Unfortunately we were not able to say afterwards that they had been well worth the wait. With the exception of 2 or 3 dishes they were bland and quite tasteless.

thelawnet

Good food 9th October 2007

4 found this helpful

We have been here twice, and the tapas were on both occasions delicious - no stody omelettes or inauthentic food here. It's as good as Spain.

On one occasion the waiter wasn't that great though.

They have a buy one get one free on tapas at lunch time, which is good, although I wasn't impressed at having bought 4 meat dishes at £4 and 4 veggie at £2 they charged us for the meat ones and made the cheaper veggie ones the free ones, even though we'd got two dishes at each price point.

idoru

The Good and the Bad 11th March 2007

4 found this helpful

Sangria – Good and Bad,

This is the second time I've been to this place and both were pleasant experiences. But a lot of the other reviews I have read about it have been negative, so I guess it really depends on luck of the draw, and with so many other great places in angel why would you take a chance?

The first time we went, we were in search of tapas having just come back from Spain and hungry after an afternoon at the Nags Head drinking beer and cider… the group of 6 of us was easily accommodated for, the service quick and the jugs of sangria were cheap. The food satiated those beer-fuelled munchies and the table favourite was the albondiga meatballs. We ended up paying about 20 a head.

The second time I went in seek of refuge from the rain, I had done a typical blonde move where I had rushed to The Green Cinema to buy tickets for a movie (“The Science of Sleep” - Gorgeous!) at what I thought was 6.50pm… in a pretty embarrassing moment to the audience of about 6 attentive cynical filmies I was informed it was at 8.50… hmm it was then I decided when I'm ruler of the world everyone would use 24 hr clocks.

Sangria is only 2 doors down form the theatre, and for 6.30 on a Friday it was quiet and inviting. I found my date wouldn't be arriving for at least another hour so I ordered a bottle of wine, plate of cheeses and a bowl of olives. The waitress who looked after me knew the wines and when I told her what I felt like she pointed out her favourite from the list.. not just the most expensive. I went for a 15 bottle of rjioca. When I told her how much I loved manchego and asked if perhaps she could interchange the stronger cheese for more on the cheese board she told me she couldn't as they were already pre made. Not really ideal but not a real issue. She instead offered to just add more on top.. Which I was delighted with.

The boy finally arrived and we ordered lamb chops, calamari and whole fried white bait, with a tomato, avocado and buffalo mozzarella salad for greens. I loved the lamb chops smothered in garlic, I was eating them with my fingers and sucking the marrow out the bones, I did have a moment of wondering if it was bad manners at a restaurant. But I'd had my hour with a bottle of wine beforehand so the anxiety passed pretty quickly. The white bait were super fresh and I enjoyed eating them whole a fairly new experience for me as I spent years as vegetarian.

The place had filled up quite quickly and there were two girls sitting next to us who didn't understand what the whole tapa experience was about. The waitress didn't seem very helpful, as they looked quite confused by it all. They both ordered the same thing and didn't enjoy their experience at all.

The table that arrived after them had issues with a missing dish and left quite abruptly with fairly surly looks and their faces, I missed what had happened there but they weren't happy either, it had something to do with a paella taking over half and hour.

I think my best advice with this place would be to go in casual and expect casual back, take some friends and drink a lot, then when things do go wrong which I think happens quite often it won't phase you. It's cheap and if you pick the usual suspects off the menu (not the paella though) you shouldn't be to disappointed.