Lola Roja

had fun here last night. food was good, and wine reasonably priced and tasty. place was buzzing and service was just fine. yes, the patatas bravas was not 'authentic' in the way they are served in Barca, but they were tasty nevertheless.

Strangely hit and miss this place. The first time we ate there was deeply underwhelming; a rather bland, unmemorable array of tapas, that appeared to have been left lingering, sad and forlorn, in some warming draw somewhere. This was about two years ago. Went back two months ago and was truly astounded by the improvement. The pork belly was delicious, puddings superb and I've bored my friends endlessly describing the utterly delicious PX reserva dessert wine. I think it's well worth another go to those who've been stung before.

Great atmosphere great food true 5 Star service Highly recommended

The place looks lovely from the outside, and when you first sit down it seems very cosy. Then you clock the prices - and hope that it is worth it. I'm sorry, but it's not. It started well: the tomato bread was nice. However, the house red was not good, which is a shock at a Spanish restaurant charging this kind of money for tapas. The patatas bravas are like yesterday's roasties with mild thousand Island dressing on top.
I felt completely 'had' leaving this place, and I can't wait to go back to Carmen at Clapham Common.

Service is quite bad, food is so so and portions are like some kind of fusion/minimalist restaurant but more important the quality is not very high and not worth the money. Bit over priced for what you get. I have been there 3 or 4 times but i will not go there ... there is actually an other spanish taps just 400 meters down the road and is less expensive and food is very genuine and good.

Ok, this is probably the first proper Spanish restaurant that I go to. I have been twice to this place and I quite like it. The restaurant has a selection of tapas at about 5-8 pounds and various Paelias. All the tapas we ordered were very tasty. I must add to that, that some of them contained raw ingredients - such as prosciutto. I consider their taste indicative of the overall quality of the ingredients used in the restaurant. Both times I had the seafood Paelia with lobster which was fantastic. Also I loved the Catalan bread, even though its nothing more than bread with tomato. We had sangria, a red wine punch at around 17 pounds per pitcher - which for sangria felt a bit much. The service is very polite, however not always available and not the fastest you have ever came across. The place is also very clean.

This red and black themed venue has a great spot right on a suntrap corner of Northcote road.
I really got into the 'tapas way’ (as I now refer to it) on a trip to Barcelona this year, and I felt I got something authentic here.
The service was that typical slightly vacant friendly style, dishes would come and go without rhyme or reason, but that was my experience in Spain also. Everyone was friendly though so I wasn’t really bothered, it was kind of comical!
The food was great- and it was cheaper to get the set menu than the regular, with the right amount of food for a tasty lunch made up of bites.

Seasoned tapas fans, a few friends and I went here for lunch and the service was appalling. The food took a long time to come out and when it did only one person at a time received a dish and in no order so I had my main course finished by the time my starter arrived! We all ate at seperate times (without any opportunity to share different dishes at the one time) so the entire meal took a very long time and was really unpleasant. When we complained a rude manager told us that tapas are meant to come out individually (what?) and made no apologies. The portions were very small and it is expensive however the food is quite nice. But the experience and the hunger ruined it for us not to mention the unpleasant management.

Nice little place serving imaginative, delicate variations on traditional tapas. They do a pretty good job of presenting them in a contemporary, minimalist quasi-Japanese way, such as the bravas, which look more like sushi on a long, white plate. Some dishes even come with foams, in honour presumably of “molecular gastronomy” pioneered by Ferran Adrià of elBulli. But at their core these are good, reliable tapas. Of course it’s much more expensive than in Spain, but you have to live with that. The wine list is limited and a bit repetitive (same labels/brands in white and red), but not too overpriced, and the service is friendly if a little vague. It’s not very atmospheric, perhaps too much white and bright light. The best thing about this place is when it serves food outside on weekends, adding to the lively Nortcote Road market atmosphere - the little potato or spinach omelettes are truly excellent and inspired.