500 Italian Restaurant

Being Italian, I hardly ever eat in Italian restaurants in the UK, as I find their menus unimaginative and the usual rehash of well known dishes. 500, however, has taken the road less travelled and produced a menu to rival any high quality local restaurant in Italy. At one point, as I was eating my delicious roast rabbit with roast potatoes, I had to remind myself I was on the Holloway Road & not in my dad's dining room back in Umbria. My broad beans soup was equally delicious, as were my partner's venison ravioli & my son's strozzapreti with slow cooked beef sauce. Good size portions were also a big plus. I'm looking forward to going back to 500 to try one of the very appetising fish dishes on the menu!

Wonderful staff, good atmosphere . Nice light restaurant. Enjoyed the food. There was a particular dish I was looking forward to which was no longer on there menu. Money off wine on Tuesdays was a welcome surprise.

Lovely local restaurant with interesting choices on the menu. Food was great, very tasty and large portions - good value for money. The staff were very chilled and able to accommodate gluten free and vegan requirements. Would definitely recommend.

I had booked a table at 6pm for 2 and in the end there were 3 of us, but this is no excuse for the restaurant to give us the worst - and tiny-table, suitable for 1 person rather than 2 or 3 and stuck at the edge of a drafty doorway into a corridor. What they said was that all the other tables were booked. But at just after 8, half of the tables were still empty. If there are going to offer a web discount for early diners, then they need to treat these customers equally. This is the second time something like this has happened to me so Im assuming it wasn't accidental. If you still want to go for the early sitting under the web offer, I urge anybody to ask for a proper table-or go somewhere else. The food itself was nice enough but not up to the high standards of the past.

Very pleasant experience. Excellent and imaginative food,well priced wine, and friendly but not intrusive service. Would return there and recommend it. A very happy group of four people.

This is a lovely place with great food and service. Have been many times and it is always great. We're lucky to have it in the neighbourhood.

My choices are limited because of my special dietary requirements, gluten & dairy free, but Ican always find something to enjoy at 500. Service as ever was excellent.

Excellent food; understated restaurant. Well worth a visit. Try the burrata - to die for! We are always made to feel most welcome and find ourselves returning time and again!

Amazing food and very good service! Excellent value!!! We'll be back for sure!

I haven't been here for a while, but I am glad to see that the standard hasn't dropped. The food was as good as ever, and the house wine excellent.

Really good food for a fair price (as compared to other london places with food this good!). Nice ambience, super friendly staff and very close to archway station.

The food was excellent and the service was friendly and efficient. I would recommend the restaurant to other friends who are visiting the London area.

Excellent food, good service but few staff due to lack of customers on a Saturday lunch time. Great value. Atmosphere slightly lacking but may be due to the time we were there. Would recommend

Amazing food! 500 is a true gastronomic experience. The pheasant starter and veal main were particularly excellent. Also has a great selection of good wines.

500 is a great restaurant serving original Italian food. The ever-changing menu has unusual combinations like burrata and fresh chestnut puree or pan-fried halibut with seared spinach. Good short wine list. Charming management and staff.

Another lovely meal at my favourite restaurant. Good service, excellent food, good atmosphere - what more could anyone want. Will be going again in the new year

Always excellent, a perennial local favourite. The food is fresh and delicious, the staff genuine and friendly. I don't go as often as I should!

Everything was wonderful! The service was efficient and discreet, and all of our courses were great. Wine list good and reasonably priced. A lovely evening to celebrate my father's birthday.

The food was very good but I have nothing else to say at all but have to fill 25 words for this silly web site. Done - and that makes 26!

Delicious food in a relaxed atmosphere with attentive human staff. Pasta cooked the real Italian way and ossabuco to die for. You'll have to look carefully to find it!

It was really good food. Opulent. My favourite Italian restaurant in North London. Nice Christmas menu too. Lovely. We always return here as it's so nice.

charming service - tasty osso buco but a little tough but very happy with the evening. It's a pleasure having such a lovely restaurant to go to locally.

Most enjoyable. Friendly service. Good interesting menu. Several starters available as small helpings. Nice buzzy atmosphere. Everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves and in no hurry to leave.

The best sharing platter for a starter, excellent service and a good atmosphere in the restaurant. We would go again if it was closer to home!

We had a lovely lunch here. The food felt properly 'Italian' and the wine was good and not over-priced. The service was attentive and helpful. Will definitely go again.

Really lovely food, service and atmosphere. Lunch is so relaxed and quiet with a warm friendly feel and interesting menu. Really lovely small independent restaurant. Highly recommended.

This is a lovely restaurant. Small, bustling (you really do need to book). The service is attentive without being intrusive. The menu is always quite short - which is a good sign, meaning that a lot of attention goes into each dish to make it special. We both had the crab starter; I then had the hake and my companion had ravioli. All delicious; the only criticism we had of our food was that there wasn't enough of it. Hence only a five!

Excellent, as usual - spaghetti with a buttery sauce and white truffle (freshly grated at the table by the chef), saddle of lamb and a coppa 500.

The service was impeccable and the food good but the restaurant is very noisy as are so many London restaurants. Overall a good eating experience.

Excellent food and very efficient and friendly service An outstanding Italian Restaurant with a wide range of starters main dishes and desserts.The wine list is excellent with a wide choice. The Nero Diavola is particularly good.

This restaurant was amazing ,the service was brilliant even though it was extremely busy,the food OMG ! absolutely delicious,cannot recommend 500 enough. we will definitely be returning again and again .

Always a warm welcome. Great authentic Italian food. The Sardinian bread, truffle and ravioli have great flavour. Kids loved it. Lovely family dinner with treats.

This neighbourhood Italian restaurant, run by Sardinians, serves excellent food in very agreeable surroundings. The service is excellent, and the menu interesting. In addition, it is terrific value considering the quality and choice of the food. I cannot recommend it too highly

Excellent as always staff very friendly and helpful Four people each had a different main course and everyone was happy with their choice Highly recommend

It's our third visit: it's uniformly excellent. Also, always friendly. Like eating in Italy, but here. Frankly, this place is a treasure; high quality Italian restaurants are rare in London, and this (without being wildly expensive) is one.

Very good meal, good value wine, friendly staff and service! Italian food with a twist and very good value for money. Recommended for Italian foodies

Super imaginative food and friendly attentive staff. The option to order small size starters is great and allows you to try all the flavours without feeling too full.

We've never had a bad meal! Fabulous food, great service and a good atmosphere. The menu is a bit different, not your average Italian. There's usually also a seasonal specials menu too. There's so much you would like to order, it is sometimes to decide what to go for.

Dont make our mistake. We went for the prix fixe 6-8pm menu. I made sure to mention this when we first arrived and was assured that was understood. We then each ordered one main course and one desert. Imagine my surprise when we got the bill and were told that the prix fixe did not apply to us as it only worked if one had a starter and a main course, not a main course and a desert. We had gone at the v early time of 6 specifically to get the cheaper menu. Why did they not tell us when we ordered that this combination didn't qualify? And what is the reason anyway? Though paying separately for the courses cost us more than it would have done, from their point of view, it would have been a 'better' deal than if we had taken the far more expensive starter rather than the desert. The food was as good as ever but Im now unlikely to return and, unlike in the past, I will not be recommending 500 to friends.

Lovely little restaurant with great Italian food and service. A real treat. This is the fourth time we have eaten here and it's always fantastic. Don't be fooled by the outside !

The restaurant looks basic when you first walk in but the friendly, attentive staff make you feel comfortable. The food was fresh and delicious and the red wine was excellent.

Both my friend and I enjoyed our meal with 500. I do gluten and dairy-free and the Chef was very attentive and all staff very helpful. Lovely relaxed atmosphere and wine was good too! Thank you 500.

This is a lovely local restaurant. It has delicious traditional Italian food with a modern twist. Nice relaxed, casual style and atmosphere combined with good service.

Food and service really good have been there many times would really recommend this restaurant for a very enjoyable evening. Would definitely go back again.

We had the turbot, veal and the veg pasta, the fish and meat werevgood, but unremarkable, the pasta was incipid. With ingredients like fresh peas and asparagus should have burst with flavour, so was a disappointment. The price for 2 courses plus a bottle of ordinary wine at £40+ was a bit steep.

Very nice restaurant with friendly staff, good food (with regional specialities and wines) and very reasonably priced. Quiet when we arrived but got busier as the evening wore on. Would recommend.

A fantastic, low-key little restaurant which does the best Italian food in London. The chef came out to see us, which was really nice and the waiters friendly and non-intrusive. Prices good too

We had very tasty fish. Loads of veg. Good unobtrusive service. Only slight complaint was it was a little noisy. Left feeling contented after happy and delicious meal.

Lovely home made type of good! Best home made tiramisu. Good selection of wines and friendly staff. Berm gong there for over 10 years now!

Delicious food, choice but not too much, all really good. This place remains a firm favourite which we will continue to go back to often.