On a crisp winters Tuesday night in December, Adam and I ventured out for dinner in Soho when we stumbled across 'Polpo' a restaurant I had been wanting to try for quite some time. Polpo had been recommended to me by numerous friends and work colleagues, serving Italian-style tapas it was right up my alley. After dining there and reading more about the restaurant it is in fact a bàcaro which is a
Venetian word to describe a humble restaurant serving simple food and good, young local wines (
www.polpo.co.uk).
I had heard it was very hard to get into (another 'no reservations' culprit) but as we were there for a quick, early bite to eat before a movie we entered and were seated at the bar within a couple of minutes, which suited our agenda just fine.
After being served with menus from the helpful bar staff we decided on a MGM (an elderflower, ginger beer and lemon concoction) and a Birra Moretti beer. As we were seated at the bar our drinks came out reasonably fast which gave us a good few minutes before we were served again to peruse the menu and order our food.
We settled on the arancini, potato and Parmesan crocchetta (croquettes) and chicken liver crostini to start, however we ordered all the food in one go, which also added to our palate; lamb and pistachio meatballs, pork belly with radicchio and hazelnuts, and roast potatoes with rosemary. These all came out within very reasonable timing and we just had enough space on the bar to accommodate all the plates. The arancini, crostini and crocchetta cicheti (small plates) were gone within moments. For those of you who don't know how right up my alley arancini is, they are crumbed, deep-fried risotto balls... total indulgence in one mouthful, and these in particular did not disappoint. The croquettes were pretty standard and to be honest if we were ordering again I think these would miss the cut, as five dishes were probably enough to feed us both comfortably.
Being lovers of pate, the crostini was a favourite however it was the lamb and pistachio meatballs in a thick tomato sauce that really hit the home run. We only wished we had a couple more of these to gobble down (they have even inspired me to create my own recipe - watch this space on LoveBites). The pork belly, (crackling and all) was a delight, its succulent flavour oozing with tenderness really complimented the hazelnuts and runny gravy, although I did find the bitterness of the radicchio a bit much. The roast potatoes were the perfect accompaniment to the pork and meant that we were still attempting to get our 5+ a day and lets face it, as roast potatoes are in my top five foods, they really can't go wrong in my book.
The meal came to under £40.00 for food and drink (service not included), we were fed and hydrated within an hour and were more than satisfied with our spread. I would highly recommend visiting any of the Polpo restaurants sprinkled around London and I myself will definitely be calling in again, that sliced flank steak with portobello mushrooms and cured pork shoulder with pickled pepper pizzette looked too good not to go back and try. I also look forward to visiting the other sister restaurants owned by the Polpo crew, Spuntino and Mishkins, if they are as good as Polpo I can't wait to devour the treats they have installed.
