La Farola Cafe &Bistro — Restaurant in London

We were looking for a chill restaurant but we ended up in a trash disco music place with food provided. Very nonsense loud music that ruined our 15 minutes dinner. We ordered a fried honey glazed flower as a starter, the ox cheek on parmesan cream ,the black ink squid risotto (arroz negro) and a margarita and a Negroni to drink. The cheese stuffed flower arrived after 2 minutes. Over oiled, heavy but not very bad tbh. Ox cheek (alone) arrived 2 minutes after we finished the starter. I had that dish before and I was simply delighted by it in the past. Unfortunately that lovely experience belongs to the past. Finally they managed to deliver our cocktails (after the starter and ox cheek?!) Negroni was just too disappointing to be true and margarita just fine. The arroz negro arrived 2 minutes after we finished the ox cheek (yes, the 2 mains arrived one next to each others). Like the ox cheeks, the good taste memories unfortunately gone away. Rice overcooked, way too much lemon and not enough sauce to contrast it. For some reasons they decided we had to share the main dishes and then the cocktails had to be served nearly at the end of the dinner. This whole "fast food experience" finished in like half an hour. I appreciate it was Friday night (21:30ish ) but the place was nearly empty, so there was no reason for such a rushed service. We felt like they wanted to get rid of us asap. Sadly the quality of the food went significantly down and the disco club atmosphere was not what we were looking for and it doesn't definitely suit this place. £27 each... It was one of my favourite places but I've been extremely disappointed about everything. I really hope it'll be back like it used to be. P.s. The picture of Ox cheek with peas is the "new version", the other ox cheek pictures is the one I fell in love with but no longer available...

Booked based on the positive reviews here. On arrival you’ll notice the tables are tiny and you wonder how on earth your various tapas can fit in such a small area.

The answer is that the dishes are commensurately minuscule, even by tapas standard, but are priced to make you expect much more. Three tiny chicken skewers £9; four modest prawns £14.50, plus service. The experience doesn’t match the price tag and the chairs are uncomfortable.

Bavette steak is served to their liking, not yours, with no preference on ordering. I ask: medium rare apparently, which is fine. It arrives cold to the touch. Sent back, returns as the same piece of steak and equally cold, and so are the potato shavings with it. It’s meant to be that way, I’m told, because of the dressing.

Coldness is the theme, as otherwise lovely, if small, ox cheek croquettes are similarly dampened with cold tomato sauce.

The portions really are tiny, so much so that if you have a decent appetite you’ll want to be ordering four or five plates each to leave satisfied, but your bill will be well into three figures by then… which is fine, but not for a glorified cafe.

Manager apologetic, steak removed from bill, and two aperitif on the house for which I’m grateful, but nevertheless out the door £80 lighter and...

My paella came with three clams, all of which arrived closed. I ate the dish regardless and it was fine. At the end of the meal I mentioned to the server that none of the clams had opened, perhaps a problem with the clams. He took it back to the chef and returned saying, "the chef was able to open all three clams in the kitchen and he said they're fine. The delivery was this morning and so they're definitely fresh."

There are so many things wrong with this situation it's laughable. A chef who serves spoiled seafood (hey chef, if the clam doesn't open when cooked -- when the mussels did open in the same paella -- that means they were dead already when you cooked it, and you don't even know for how long. So you're willing to serve spoiled seafood at a Spanish tapas restaurant to your guests. Classy.)

The deep fried courgette flowers in honey was delicious. But just thinking about the dishonesty and rhetorical BS from the server and manager keeps this place at one star.

If you go, don't order the seafood unless you want to pry...