Slow, slow, quick, quick....
Bright and shiny as befits a new eaterie in the gleaming Bloomberg Arcade, Vinoteca City was extraordinarily busy for a Tuesday evening in mid-February. Three of us took up the current offer of a wine flight with a main course, but for the first 15-20 minutes of arrival, we really thought we had come to the wrong place, such was the lack of staff attention. Finally we managed to gain the eye of one clearly very busy server and eventually three tasting glasses of wine were set before us. It took a bit more time before our food order was taken, and then again for it to arrive, but as the room began to empty a little, the attention of the staff improved. Hopefully, this will be ironed out over the coming weeks, as speed of service aside, it was a great place to eat, drink and chat. Food-wise we shared three dishes from the bar snacks menu, two of which, the salty Padron peppers and the Tamworth pork crackling were very moreish. The third, scamorza on polenta would have benefited from more scamorza and less polenta. Between us we sampled three of the eight mains on offer and all were decent quality with fair size portions. The only quibble I have is that as there was no mention of any side dishes to accompany the mains, we ordered a portion of mashed potato, only to find that each dish was then served with mash. But overall this pointed to our overall view that with a few additional staff and/or better training for those in situ, this really will be a welcome addition to the City after work eating scene.