Ali-Ioli Spanish Restaurant — Restaurant in London

We’ve ordered 3 paellas and the food was quite good in general. However, the lobster that came with the paella was spoiled and had an extremely pungent, ammonia smell to it, which clearly indicates that it’s a dead and spoiled lobster. A good lobster should taste like a less flavorful shrimp and the one in the paella was definitely not it.

We asked the waiter about this and he said that since the other parts of the paella is okay so he can’t give us refunds on the dish. It is quite funny that we had to pay 36 quid for a spoiled lobster dish which could potentially get us food poisoned.

We were customers to this restaurant a few times in the past and it’s sad to see the quality of food deteriorating. If you’re concerned about food safety and food hygiene, I’d recommend you to refrain from eating here.

reply to the owner: It's sad to see that you think I'm lying about the quality of the lobster.We don't eat lobster that often so we didn't initially think this smell of ammonia is abnormal. It is only after a while did I found on google that it is a sign of spoiledness. I only ate a small piece of it because the smell was so pungent. Also, we gave almost half of the lobster to the waiter, and he took it back to the kitchen and never returned it. He also acknowledged that the lobster had a terrible smell to it. Please don't make execuses on quality control...

What an amazing find this restaurant was! Amazing food, made simply so that the flavours of the ingredients shine through. The padron peppers were astonishingly good - just peppers seared in olive oil and sprinkled with seasalt, the three ingredients were perfectly combined. I seriously could have sat and eaten dish after dish of them for the rest of the evening. The vegetarian/vegan options were delicious - my carnivorous friend tried one of my vegan meatballs and wished he'd ordered some for himself (well he definitely wasn't getting any more of mine without a fight). It's the sign of a gifted chef, that the meat free options aren't just some limp afterthought tacked on at the end of the menu (spinach and ricotta canelloni anyone? The lazy restaurant's drab vegetarian offering!) but are delicious dishes in their own right. The staff were friendly and helpful, and the loos - ah, you can always tell the quality of a restaurant by the quality of the loos! These were spotlessly clean, smart and pretty, the women's loo had a nice picture on the wall and a basket of flowers on a shelf. Oh and by the way - try the fried aubergine slices with honey to dip them in. Go on, you know...

A friend told me about this restaurant, and I was pleasantly surprised to find such a great and affordable tapas place so close to home. It's extremely close to Finsbury Park station, so an ideal location, especially before going to Park Theatre, and the atmosphere is instantly warm and relaxing. My friend and I had the Galician octopus (divine! Very healthy tasting oil and spices), the potato omelette (which came with a salad and great garlic aioli), grilled artichoke (surprisingly but pleasantly a bit sour), black rice (which had a great amount of spices and came with one big prawn on top), and the cheesecake (which was wonderfully smooth with fruit compose on top that wasn't overly sweet). The octopus was my favourite but everything was wonderful. I had a glass of red wine (prices for wine glasses aren't bad as well) which went well with the menu too.

The staff was friendly as well and able to recommend dishes if you're unsure. Overall, a fantastic experience and will definitely be bringing more...