Polpetto proves small is beautiful

Possibly to give their PR company something to write about, Russell and his business partner Richard Beatty have announced that baby octopus Polpetto, which was launched this week, is their third restaurant even though the second — Spuntino — has yet to open. Go figure.

Polpetto sits snugly in the first-floor dining room of The French House in Dean Street, a site that saw the stirrings of the ethos of St John — and also later Rochelle Canteen — when Margot and Fergus Henderson and Melanie Arnold and Jon Spiteri worked there in the early 1990s. That the cooking which emerged then was heroically British perhaps excuses an Italian restaurant lodging at The French whose legendary proprietors — Victor Berlemont and his son Gaston — were anyway Belgian. And no one is quite certain that General de Gaulle did in fact compose his rallying speech A tous les Français on the premises.

Evocative black and white photographs line the narrow stairway up to the diminutive restaurant which seats 28 at handmade zinc tables under a ceiling of hammered tin. Through the open windows the Union flag and the French tricolour flutter contentedly side-by-side.

Tom Oldroyd, head chef at Polpo — who learned a thing or two when working for Jacob Kennedy at Bocca di Lupo — oversees the kitchen. Some of the dishes have made the short journey between the two restaurants but there are several new items to try, with one of the cicheti (small plates) of anchovy and chickpea crostino offered at the totally decent price of £1.

Polpetti at £3 obviously had to be tested and what dear little cephalopod curly-wurlys they were; marinated before being sautéed with the anise of fennel seeds and the kick of red chillies coming through (clutched in the tentacles). A business card-sized slice of melanzane parmigiana at £2 was too small to convey the potential deliciousness of that assembly.

After cicheti, prices rise but not steeply. Pigeon saltimbocca, a new entry, was a clever and rewarding notion, the sage and prosciutto doing even more for ruby-red pigeon breast than usually they do for veal escalope. Ham hock and parsley terrina was lifted and flattered by chopped hard-boiled egg dressed in a creamy mayonnaise, a version of what in dinner party days we used to call egg mousse.

Cuttlefish in its ink was suitably murky but so much so that there was no trace of the trailed gremolata. I rather wished we had gone for chilli and garlic prawns or crisp soft shell crab in Parmesan batter with fennel salad. Pea, mint, fennel and ricotta salad from the Vegetable & Salads section was terrific, fresh and frisky. From Breads — and every meal should have at least one — cured pork shoulder and pickled pepper on a pizzetta base was so good I made sure our new best friends, Stephanie and Jamie, made on the night from the close neighbouring table, also ordered it.

Our choice of desserts was pannacotta with blackberries and biscotti and that lovely word sgroppino, a liquid dessert from Venice made by blending lemon sorbet and prosecco. Here strawberries were also incorporated. A choice of seven each of mostly northern Italian red and white wines is served by carafe and bottle with small wine glasses rather than tumblers as at Polpo. Spritz made with Aperol or its cousin Campari is the ideal summery aperitif. Young staff were delightful, one pretty girl with delicately tattooed arms and red ballet slippers looking like an escapee from a Stieg Larsson plot.

Polpo and Polpetto — and presumably in the autumn Spuntino — represent a new way of eating exemplified by the recent opening of a bunch of small, quirky, independent businesses in Soho.

Koya (Frith Street) celebrating Japanese udon noodles made on the premises (kneaded by feet in the basement) has packed out the former Alastair Little site. Mooli’s (50 Frith Street) has former Benares chef Raju Rawat making sensational stuffed roomali rotis. Gelupo (7 Archer Street) is an offshoot of Bocca di Lupo. selling not just the traditional sweet things of a gelateria but homemade pasta, sauces, sausages and the like to take away. Jad Youssef’s Yalla Yalla (1 Green’s Court off Brewer Street) serves Beirut street food to an appreciative clued-up clientele. Bibimbap (11 Greek Street) offers the eponymous healthy rice-based assembly tossed in a hot stone bowl, the depth of flavour increasing with the wrist action.

It is the way forward; the way a lot of people want to eat a lot of the time.

Polpetto
Upstairs at The French House, 49 Dean Street, W1D 5BG