Amazing atmosphere... it's part of the church .. super cool .. croquettes with ham is pretty good !

It was so good I literally came here three times in one week. After that I felt too guilty and haven't returned, not due to not wanting to, but more that like an addict, the longer you make a break from that temptation the easier and more manageable your cravings become. Hopefully. It probably doesn't help that I pass by this beaut of a place twice daily. I first went here for a friends birthday and was very pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food, atmosphere and price. I had always thought I would hate tapas. HOWEVER I loved this. It was gorgeous. When we first walked in we thought "oh shit, how are we going to hear each other". We hadn't realised that this place was also a bar. Luckily the bar area is separate to the restaurant. It's a nice atmosphere and when in the restaurant you can't hear the bar at all. The actually venue is amazing. Dripping with atmosphere and history- it is after all in the crypt of a church, and it doesn't disappoint. We had extremely helpful staff who were able to advise us on how to order and how many plates would fill us up. We ordered after trying to decide between many brilliant sounding dishes. The dishes came out from the open kitchen when they were ready. This means you knew you were getting super fresh stuff and didn't have to wait for anything else to be ready. This meant all dishes were cooked pretty perfectly. A few which I would recommend to everyone: The chickpea salad- before this dish I was insistent I hated chickpeas. The roast lamb with potato foam stuff- this is amazingly tender and AMAZINGLY tasty Duck egg chorizo and potato thing. This tasted beautiful. One dish I was under impressed with was the pudding- churros. I had them before in Spain and not surprisingly I preferred those. I'd rather fill up entirely on tapas rather than save myself for pudding. Over all it was brilliant. The only things I would say is.. A. Book a table or you won't get to eat there B. The guy who I presume is the general manager likes to air it about it, don't let yourself get annoyed with him and let it ruin your evening. The service is great and waiters and brilliant and wonderfully friendly. read more

Gremio de Brixton - Some of our tapas - Spanish Near Me - London, XGL

One of my favourite venues in London. I've had some debauched nights here. I'm talking power-sliding across the bar, moonwalking, dancing on chairs, having a lock-in and blasting Spanish music over the speakers. The venue is amazing - it's set underground in the church crypt, so it's very cool and Gothic. The staff are mostly Spanish and they're all super-friendly. Gremio, Gremio, Gremio. It's been beautiful. It's been shameless. They also made me a wheat-free sandwich at 11pm once - it just does not get better than that. read more

Gremio de Brixton Just a short walk away from the hustle and bustle of Brixton is St Matthews Church. A huge, grand beautiful building in the middle of a little green just a stones throw away from Brixton tube. In the crypt of the church hides a beautiful restaurant and very large bar. You walk in to find tables tucked away under a low ceiling, large tables for groups and ones tucked away for a more intimate affair. At the back of the cave style room is a candle lit restaurant. It wasn't obvious where to go at first, but just keep heading to the back of the room. We'd booked a table for two in advance, which was lucky as most tables were taken when we arrived at 8:30pm. Candles and dim fairy lights lit the area, creating a very romantic and pleasing to the eye setting for a cosy dinner. An old man playing a guitar sat in the background, adding to the overall ambience of the venue. When we arrived we grabbed a couple of drinks at the bar, heading over to our table about 5 minutes late, we were told they'd been trying to call me to make sure we were coming. I didn't have any missed calls and when booking via opentable it said that after 20 mins your table would be given away, so 5 minutes late seemed a bit ott. We quickly started sipping at our rose cava, which was lovely but at £24 a tiny bit pricey. The restaurant serves your typical tapas, nothing too out of the ordinary, but plenty to choose from. We opted for olives, anchovies, prawns in garlic and spinach, cracked duck egg over Spanish sausage, patatas bravas (can't have tapas without this dish), Seabass and jamon croquetta. We'd intended to order chorizo in cider but forgot when ordering. There was plenty though, so it didn't really matter. The portions weren't huge, but we'd ordered enough to fill up both up. The croquettes were my favourite, delicious and cheesy! The waitress was polite and helpful, asking if we'd ever been before and when we said no, she explained that dishes would come out as and when they were ready and not all at once. This way of serving led to us having a very relaxed meal, rather than eating a large main quickly at once. We ended up being one of the last tables to leave, which was fine, but as the staff had started clearing up and prepping for the next day, we had to wait quite a while for someone to come past us to ask for the bill. That would be my only criticism. Overall I really loved this place - great reasonably priced tapas, nice drinks, helpful staff, gorgeous and interesting setting. I'd recommend this to friends, and I'm sure I'll go there again! read more

Gremio de Brixton - Cute little guitar player! - Spanish Near Me - London, XGL

Brixton's newest culinary addition, serving a variety of tapas dishes. We booked a Friday evening with 8 of us dining. As it is newly opened they are experiencing telephone problems which means changing the booking was a little difficult and resulted in a quick visit to the restaurant prior to the meal. Ranging from £3 to £6 the dishes are all equally as tasty using great produce and cooked superbly. We ordered the majority of the menu. I would recommend the octopus and pancetta skewers, the Cuttle fish and black rice along with the chorizo al vino. We ordered the Sangria, however after 3 jugs and not one of us having knocked over a glass or fallen off our chairs we all agreed that maybe there was very minimal alcohol in it considering the £19 price tag for a medium sized jug. With the Sangria and enough food to feed a small army the bill totalled about £25 per person which was really reasonable. The staff were very attentive however a couple of our dishes were missed, but this may have been due to us having 8 people in the group all ordering 3 dishes. Due to our highly British expectation of dessert being available 24 hours a day 7 days a week we were quite surprised there was nothing available as a sweet apart from a dessert wine. Because its in the basement of a large church the atmosphere here is fantastic and there is fairly low music playing which is quite ambient. However when 10'oclock came around the music switched to quite loud Spanish pop covers, which was totally random and slightly out of place. I would definitely go here again, it was great. I would probably book a little earlier so that we were finished eating before 10pm because of the music and I probably wouldnt order the sangria again.... but everyone enjoyed the food and the atmosphere so that more than makes up for the little teething problems. read more

Amazing cocktails and great food and just down the road from brixton tube. Love the location, under a church but not spooky, actually really really big, would be great for parties. Only down side was that it took aaaaggges to get served, was quite annoying when your with a big group and most of them were waiting at the bar read more

On a warm summer's evening, their outside tables are perfect for a drink. The service was good. The waitresses were attentive and friendly. I have no comments about the food but the place was empty on a Friday night. The inside looks like it should be more bar/nightclub than tapas restaurant and just has a sort of sad feeling about. read more

This is definitely a four start place in terms of food, but at most two stars in terms of service. It's really disappointing as well. We came by on a Saturday night having been to Babalou quite a few times, so we knew what to expect: a stonkingly gorgeous venue and, we hoped, still good food. Gremio hasn't worked out how to capitalise on its location and pack the punters in. There were several people drinking outside, the the resto was empty as of 8:30PM, and it stayed so throughout our meal. The servers were inattentive - perhaps annoyed that they only had one table -- and generally fairly lost, forgetting dishes and all. The food, on the other hand, was gorgeous. At least the kitchen bothered to turn up. Patatas Bravas were crisp and not greasy at all. Specialties - from pork belly to artichoke and boquerones ensalada - were fresh and delicious. Fabulous. The venue is gorgeous. I honestly don't know if they'll have any luck, though, if they do fill up - the staff seemed lost in translation. Or maybe they'd just hit up some Brixton green. read more

Hate to be a bad news reviewer but I'm hoping it will save some other people some time and money. Do not go here for food OR the sangria. A Google search of "Best Sangria in London" boasted that this was a must visit. As a sangria lover I was majorly disappointed. Pros -Cool ambiance, the catacombs are beautiful lit by candle light. -Staff was attentive and friendly, at least until we declined the second pitcher of sangria. Cons -The food was terrible, very greasy, very plain, and priced competitively considering it was cheap ingredients and covered in oil. I don't doubt that a majority of the foods were frozen prior to that night. The fried squid was by far the worst Iv ever seen served. It was cheap imitation squid cut into strips, they weren't even trying to hide the fact it wasn't real. -The sangria was awful! We split a red sangria pitcher which tasted more of a sparkling fruit punch. There was barely any alcohol in it, if at all. I'm a light weight and a traditional sangria even at a cheap Mexican place i start to feel it after one glass. I had three glasses and felt nothing. I don't even think real wine was in it. Just a couple of orange slices for show, some cheap sangria mixer, and soda water. -Like I mentioned earlier the staff was friendly until towards the end and our waiter asked if we wanted another pitcher. Considering how poor quality it was, we declined and an immediate thin line frown came across his face. Iv heard that after 10:30 it turns into a fun bar, but I can't speak to this. My boyfriend and I left immediately after our disappointing dinner. If you love sangria and real authentic tapas I'd suggest trying El Ganso in Stoke. It's really lovely and so much better food and drink wise. read more

Just to let you know this is the review for the restaurant, not the bar. For the restaurant, after you enter the venue, keep walking in to the furthest space in the back by the barrels. The service and food were both awesome, in such a nice setting. I took my girlfriend's mother on her birthday here, and it was one of the best meals of last year. The aioli, the tapas, the wines, were all very well sourced and were authentic. A lot of my friends took me to great restaurants in Barcelona, and this was definitely on par with the great food from there. The servers were fantastic, I always try to pry my friends away from the Brixton Village to take them here. read more

I haven't tried the food here but as a bar it's a great place. In the vaulted ceilings that used to be home to Mass club, they've made great use of the intimate atmospheric space. A dark red decor, quirky mismatched furniture and a fabulous giant bulls head that watches over you while you break open the cava. I've had a great many crazy nights here. Bar staff are really friendly and attentive. ...did I mention the amazing but cheap cava already!?! Really perfect during winter for a cosy night out away from the cold. read more

Great food and the service was good too, though it took longer than I expected (for the main course) to be served. Great atmosphere and good music too. Has a large bar within - yet to check it out though. read more

Gremio is one of my favourite places to go for drinks around my area, it has a great buzz and is always very busy on the weekend evenings. I absolutely love the bar area, its super quirky and fun! Its unique yet stunning location, being in the crypt of St Matthews Church (5 minutes walk from Brixton tube station) has a great appeal. I really really wanted to give this place a 5 star review however I had a really bad experience in the restaurant area. We had a long wait before we were offered a drink, a longer wait still for our drinks to be delivered to our table and an even longer wait for our food order to be taken. The staff were rude and were acting as if we were being impatient and a nuisance. After a good 40 minuet wait our first dishes were served, taking up to 45 minutes for the last dish to be served. I understand that with tapas style food you get your dishes served at slightly different times however our food was delivered to our table in very slow drips and drabs. It was a painful slow experience to say the least! All could have been forgiven if the food was exquisite however I have to say that the food was a little below average at best. I do visit the bar area quite frequently but I will not be going back to the restaurant in a hurry. read more

This is just for the bar: service is glacially slow (15+ minutes for drinks...in a queue that was only 3 people deep...) and inattentive, and the drinks are not cheap. I would like to come back and try the food at some point though. The atmosphere and music (salsa first, then house later on) were both quite good and the crowd seemed well up for a good time on a Saturday night. Also it is nicely located right in the centre of Brixton. read more

Nice atmosphere, attentive staff. Food decent, but far from spectacular... everything seemed to be covered in a rather bland aioli mayonnaise. The spinach salad with grilled artichoke used canned artichokes, the deep fried squid ("Andalucian style") was definitely from the frozen foods section. Highlights: the shrimp dish and the bacalao with swiss chard. All in all, nice venue with lots of potential, but don't think I'll return for the food. read more

Went here for Valentines Day, had the best time! Only problem is their lack of entrance welcome, we wondered in with not much idea of where to go, no one came over to help/welcome, seat us at our table... in fact one waiter just looked us over before mincing off... You really to need to improve your customer care on entrance. I've worked front of house before so know this was poor. However that being said, we had such a fantastic time once sat, with great food and a different attentive waiter, that the whole night was amazing. read more

Great atmosphere; it's a massive space which they've managed to make work. I thought it was in slight danger of trying to be all things to all people, but the restaurant and the bar/dance space work in perfect synchronicity, and the food is top notch and reasonably priced. Good job Gremio. read more

Went here for a birthday dinner tonight, and it's a really cool place. Great ambience. The staff were also really nice and helpful. Good food, only downside was one of our dishes was forgotten. I think it would be a good place for drinks as well as dinner. read more

Excellent tapas menu with all the favourites and classics. All the dishes we had were very good and up to standard. Service was very good and friendly. The location is very different underneath a church but I really liked it and the atmosphere was great. read more