500 Italian Restaurant

Best pasta in North London. Quiet, intimate dining room, friendly staff, good wine selection, affordable. We had an amazing antipasto (Taglieri 500, if I recall correctly) that came with a fine selection of breads, cheeses, cured meats and fish, plus a few fruit and greens. Have been there twice and can’t wait to go again.

You know you’re going to a GOOD Italian restaurant when your Italian friend (who is also an amaaaazing cook) takes you there for your birthday.
Close to Archway on Holloway Road, this discrete restaurant wouldn’t necessarily be the place you would go without a recommendation.
Cosy and simple, you are far from the Italian cliches you might get from other Italian places — also, no pizza, and hardly any pasta.
Well then!
Food:
— Started off with a meat platter and selection of various starters. Well, give me a meat platter anytime and I will be happy — but this was good quality stuff.
— Went for grilled fish with pancetta and sea asparagus salad with raspberries. Simple, but tasteful.
— Went for a sorbet for desert, but one could have gone crazy with a Tiramisu, which I didn’t.
— In short: good food, good products, good noms.
Atmosphere
As said above, the venue is cosy (to not say a bit small). We were a group of 5, and I got to sit at the end of the table — a bit in the middle of the way to be fair (and the chairs weren’t very comfortable, which meant I was fidgeting all evening). Unluckily for us, there was a big group in that night which made it really loud.
However the service was really good, friendly, loved speaking Italian to my friend — again, true sign of authenticity.
Drumroll:
— Great night out, great food. Nothing really groundbreaking and my sore bum took off the 5^th star. Regardless, 500 should be a staple when it comes to going out for a nice diner in and around Archway/​Holloway Road.

What can I say, 500 definitely lives up to the hype, it seems to have been tipped as a diamond in the rough by plenty of people and I have to agree. The local is less than salubrious but the food is superb. Lots of Sardinian wine and food conjures up great memories of holidays in Palau. Everything I ate was great, solidly cooked quality ingredients. The service was friendly and attentive the wine was great and the prices are very good. We had a big blow out meal expensive wine, brandies and 3 courses and only just went over the £100 mark. 500 reminds me of some of the really great family run restaurants you are sometimes lucky enough to find in Italy, its well worth making the trip to Archway for this gem.

Came here for lunch.
Atmosphere was on the cold, sterile side with a tile floor and wooden tables and chairs and no warm light.
After reading previous Unilocal reviews, I decided to come here for good ol’ spaghetti bolognese or the like, but instead found options to be a bit more gourmet: mint and smoked ricotta for their bruschetta, nettles in the ravioli, monkfish with thin pasta. I chose a slow-​cooked beef pasta in some red wine sauce. Portion size was great, but I sure paid for it (12 GP). The complimentary bread was cold, felt old and tasted stale. I didn’t try any wine, but they have a big menu dedicated to solely wine.
Service was professional and fast.
Nothing made me feel like coming back.

Are you guys kidding? How can this place have only a 3 star review average??? I spent 5 months in London this summer and went here probably 6 or 7 times during my stay. Really simple, fresh, perfectly seasoned italian food. The pasta is always the ideal texture, the waitstaff is always the ideal combination of bonkers and friendly. The non-​pasta meat dishes are stunning. This place even revitalized my love for tiramisu, which had grown stale in the late 90s! And somehow it manages to be totally affordable. For instance, two glasses of wine, a bottle of water, a huge bowl of soup, an appetizer, two entrees, and lemoncello for dessert– 45 pounds. You can trust an amercian reviewing italian in london. GO HERE!

This is such a gem of a place. Amazingly fresh, home made Italian cooking. The place is tiny and you have to book in advance as they are always full, regardless of what day it is.
If you’re lucky they will have the backed Ravioli as a special… it is amazing. An explosion of cheese and spinach!

Yet another case of where my hopes & wishes were sky-​high, but where they were plummeting pretty soon…
Let me elaborate: I’ve seen this place buzzing with activity — one time I tried to get a table for myself (on a Tuesday night), but it was all full! Tutti booky! In addition to this hype, I read a Time Out article and some other pretty promising reviews that were hanging outside the restaurant. All that, made me think to myself: this must be THE place in Archway!
Well, last night, before the Harry Potter movie, it was time to put it all to the test and my verdict is a: Meh. I’ve experienced better! The bread selection was nice, but we had to ask for the olive oil-​balsamic vinegar. Both my +1 and I chose a vegetarian entrée (tagliattelle with vegetable & ravioli with lemon-​ricotta), but both of them were not really rocking the boat… it was tasty enough, but I feel that could’ve just whipped up the same at home. Maybe this was all aggravated by the fact that I had just recently returned from Italy and had experienced what real Italian food is supposed to taste like?
The service was also not on par with my expectations: I know it’s a cheezy stereotype, but in an Italian restaurant, I want to be served by smiling & «singing» waiters and that just didn’t happen. The waiters were attentive, but just not very forthcoming
Nevertheless, this place seems to very popular with the local crowd, as some of the guests were greeted as returning guests. Maybe I need to come back to receive the same warmth of attention? Maybe… but not for a while…

It is jolly annoying. I used to live in Holloway, since I moved the area has been blessed with a few fantastic local restaurants. 500 is probably the best. Every area should have a 500, it is reasonably priced, the food is excellent (and I’m snobby about Italian food, having lived in Italy for two years), the wine list is great, the staff are delightful and even the décor is above average. Why did I move away, why?
Food wise two of us shared a board of gorgeous antipasti (far too big for two people), followed by generous rich venison ravioli and a much lighter dish of scallops with potato and leek purée. All cooked perfectly, magnificent subtle flavours. We couldn’t really manage any of the deserts, which was a shame as I saw some on other tables and they did look enticing. Instead we squeezed in some Vin Santo and cantuccini, all that for less that £30 a head!
I loved 500 and would happily go back, it is one of those places where you have groups or an intimate dinner and it will always feel like a special occasion. The only warning I have is that 500 is not big, it gets busy, very busy. Definitely book ahead.

I’ve heard a lot of people talking about this restaurant recently and I have to say it lived up to the hype. A great little Italian restaurant, tasty food and very resonably priced. Well worth a visit.

Good wine food & service. I reccomend the sampler starter plate, which is very generous.
Everything else we ate as very good indeed, and we will be returning.

For honest Italian cooking you cannot beat this local restaurant which is truly worth a detour. Angela Hartnett should come here to see how good a meal can be with all of the pretense stripped away.

What a little gemmy gem gem around the corner of my old flat. Definitely a star amidst the slightly grimey, but dubbed as «colorful» area of Archway, north London.
A lovely breadbasket with the complimentary balsamic and EVOO, that seals the deal right there. A good breadbasket, EASY. come on people get that right!
I’ve had the rabbit (coniglio) THRICE, as well as the seafood linguine and both have been stupendous. Nothing complicated or pretentious, just fresh Italian food at its finest. People forget how amazing food tastes in its most natural form, without any molecular gastronomy flair or French-​inspired immaculate presentation… I don’t mind either of those though, when my wallet feels slightly obese.
Portions were awesome, and it’s cheaper than chips (by that I mean crisps not fries muahah). But so long were the days when we could walk into this place that only seats about 30 or so, now you have to book a week or two in advance! Good luck yall, it’s worth it.

What a great local gem! The food is wonderful and the prices are very reasonable! Not at all like the same old pizza and pasta chains, this place is very authentic, doesn’t serve pizza and has some amazing italian starters I haven’t had anywhere else. Like it’s namesake the Fiat 500, the wine list is small but perfectly formed! By the glass wines are a bargain too. There’s a lady who’s always there, not sure if she’s the manager, but she gives a very warm and friendly welcome. Book ahead — they seem to be booked out most nights (yes even on a Tuesday) since the observer and time out discovered them. Well worth a visit for some great, homecooked italian food. Try the risotto, its the best.

OK so the name isn’t the best but you can’t beat the price and the quality of the food here. Some very nice Italian and Sicilian dishes; much better than the generic pizza and pasts joints in the area. Very friendly service and near the tube. Give it go.