| Monday 28 April 2008 500 Restaurant opened its doors for the first time! |
| We were 15 years younger. Full of energy, ideas and passion. We didn’t have much money with us. The banks wouldn’t give us any. An old Café restaurant in Holloway Road in Archway is what we could afford at that time. Many people, looking at our menu thought we were crazy if we were thinking to survive with a such unusual menu for the area. We were not a lasagna or Bolognese type restaurant. Even our landlord told us few years later, that they would have never expected us to survive! |
Time Out
Time out was the first magazine to review 500. We just got a phone call from them asking us if we would allow them to print our review in the magazine. We were told they couldn’t tell us if it was a good or a bad one. We were going to be in a popular magazine such as Time Out for free! But we would need to accept the content of the article, whatever that would be.
The Independent
A journalist from The Independent came to 500 to interview us and took a picture of us too.
This was all so exciting!
The Evening Standard
| The evening standard came almost in the same time as The Independent. Article with our proud faces on The Evening Standard too. |
Metrolife
| This is the last article we know about, from Metrolife. |
We don’t know why we had so many articles. We never invited any newspaper nor asked any magazine to write an article about us. We never paid any of them whatsoever. They just found us and did an article about 500 restaurant in their newspaper or magazine just because they wanted to.
Those were the golden years for 500 where you had to book days in advance for a table during the week and even weeks in advance for a table in the weekend. We still cannot believe it, even after all these years. Many, many of you are coming to 500 since the very first beginning. This means really a lot for us.
It means that we never disappointed you (hopefully). It means Mario’s cooking over the years hasn’t changed. It means our food quality hasn’t changed and hopefully, the service I give you on the floor hasn’t changed either.
A Tiramisù from us
A thank you from us. A portion of Mario’s Tiramisù per table at the end of your meal.
We are a little late on organizing. Although our anniversary is on Friday 28 April, Our little thank you Tiramisù per table will be given on the first week of May.
From Wednesday 3 to Sunday 7 May 2023
Our chef’s Tiramisù never disappoint. It is one of those dishes we cannot take off the menu or we’ll get some complaints!
For one week only, one Tiramisù on your table, from us.
Thank you to all of you and…
Happy anniversary 500
020 7272 3406