Garufa - Islington

The restaurant could have been much better. We visited after the Arsenal game last Saturday. We had a few beers, but overall, our experience was disappointing. The service was lacking, with not enough menus and confusion over our orders. The food, a parillada and rib eye, was decent but not great. Comparing it to Buen Ayre on Broadway Market, there is a stark difference. Adding to our disappointment, the manager criticized our inexperienced waiter for a mistake with our Amex payments, which we felt was unfair.

The restaurant is fairly good especially in it's area where most of the competitors are much much worse. Yet I would not list this place among London's top steak houses at least based on my order which admittedly was not fillet . The meat is not tender enough even at medium rare. Also, prices are not lower than in comparable class place in central London. Still, if you live around Holloway Arsenal this is probably the best place in walking distance.

Read urbanspoon reviews after booking the restaurant and was open, worried. 3 stars, and a full of bad reviews. I noticed that all the comments were over 2 years old, but so hoped for the best and the best I got. from the comments seemed to be the main problem of service. I don't know how it was 2 years ago, but at the moment everything is top-crease machine. no sweat. that is a quality restaurant that serves high-quality dining. the personal was extraordinary; super friendly but not familiar; and we talk about the main event of the flesh. oh mann. against buen ayre it certainly keeps its own. for me I prefer the ambiente and the styling of Garufa....read more

The service at this restaurant was terrible and it felt like we were being scammed. My friends and I ordered the lunch special for $12.50 which included steak and a glass of wine. However, when we left we realized that we were charged $60 instead of $37. We went back to discuss this issue and it seemed like it was intentional. We had to argue for 15 minutes just to get our bills checked. They finally did so, but then we noticed that there were 3 extra glasses of wine added on top of the 3 that were included in the special. Since we were one of only 2 tables, it should have been easy for them to see that this was incorrect. They refused to refund us and only gave us back money for 2 glasses.

Avoid them. that was really not what we expected. poor service and very average eating. they tried to cheat us with the bill