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Phone: 020 7734 4479
Open: Mon-Sat noon-11.30pm.
Neither Russell Norman nor Tom Oldroyd are Italian monikers, I think we can safely say. Yet this pair have just opened a resolutely Venetian bar-with-food in central Soho. It’s quite a bold initiative. Would a Venetian judge Polpo to be wholly authentic as a neighbourhood joint? Maybe not — but maybe partly because it is, in some ways, too serious, even too good.
Russell Norman was previously the operations director of Caprice Holdings and before that general manager at Zuma. For his own first venture, he’s taken a step back to create a smaller, more personal place. Tom Oldroyd, the head chef, has the key credential of having come from packed-out Bocca di Lupo. So there’s considerable expertise at work here from the off.
Even in visits made during the slightly disorganised, discounted soft opening, that showed.
The building, on Beak Street but looking down Lower James Street toward Golden Square, was apparently once lived in by Canaletto. A lot more recently, it certainly housed Aperitivo, a reasonably useful bar serving “Italian tapas”, that ever hopeful hybrid. Polpo actually delivers much the same format without the dodgy name, a list of tiny snacks (Cichete & Crostini) priced at just £1-£2.10, being followed by smallish platefuls of proper food, priced at around £4-£6, so that you can eat as much or as little as you like.
With a lot of exposed brickwork, cream-painted wood and a curious glossy brown coffered ceiling, the place feels unexpectedly familiar straight away. There’s a bar at the front which can seat 10, and behind that a long back room for about 50 more diners, disparate, low-key furniture adding to the long-established feel. The lighting — candles and carbon-filament bulbs — is dim and yellow; the menu is printed in classic typography on absorbent brown paper of the kind you might find your cheese wrapped in at a small alimentari. It all feels casually right.
The little bites would all go well just with a drink, if you could confine yourself to that. Arancini, little fried riceballs, are great — though on a first visit, they seemed a little more moist with mozzarella than the second time around, when they included slivers of zucchini. “Mortadella, Gorgonzola, walnut” was a sinful little wrap — this often offputtingly bland and fatty sausage here being outdone by being rolled around a rich filling of soft cheese and crunchy nut.
Where fresh sardines or anchovies would be served in Venice, they are using sprats here, surprisingly successfully. “Spratti in saor” was a good sweet-sour fishy mush, served on a crostini. Another whole sprat appeared in a well-cooked, crisp and dry Fritto Misto (£6.60) alongside plenty of squid rings and a couple of prawns in their shells.
From the meatier plates, “Grilled sliced flank steak & flat mushrooms” (£6.90) was a fair-sized serving of good tagliata accompanied by decidedly English-style field mushrooms, none the worse for that. Three meatballs (Polpette, £4.60) were dense and full of flavour, made mainly of pork, with a bit of beef or perhaps even veal mixed in. “Slow roast duck, green peppercorns, black olives, tomatoes” (£5.80) was soft shreds of meat off the bone, much enlivened by these tangy additions.
All the main fishy stuff was just as good. Most memorable was cuttlefish served in its own ink (£6.20), one of those really thrilling tastes of the sea, deep and intense, covered in a thick black goo, which went wonderfully well with an excellent plate of loose wet polenta (£3).
Mackerel tartare (£5.40) was brilliantly fresh fish, tumbled up with cucumber and horseradish and served with carta di musica (unleavened Sardinian flat bread) — much more rewarding than the often tired and insipid tuna tartares to be met with in trendy Italian restaurants which leave you wishing you were eating proper sashimi elsewhere. Polpo’s apparent policy of using relatively humble species of fish from Britain seems vindicated by these tasty dishes.
The vegetables kept up the standard. A plate of fennel, green beans, cobnuts (£4) was a revelation — the fennel, whether it had been blanched or not, had been sliced so translucently thin that it changed its taste from the usual aggressive aniseed to something altogether subtler and sweeter, that went so well with the sappy cobnuts and fine green beans, all judiciously dressed, making a really refreshing salad.
From the puddings, a sweetish honey and walnut semifreddo (£2.80) was served in a chocolate-edged cone, perhaps a bit over-gamesomely. Poached autumn fruits — pear, blackberry, fig — came pleasantly warm in an Amaretto-flavoured syrup (£4). The coffee is good.
The all-Italian wine list is approachably priced, with a house Merlot or Pinot Bianco £9 for a 50cl jug; bottles start at £14.50 for a Ponte Pietra Trebbiano from the Veneto and £15 for a Terre Forti Sangiovese, with nothing going over £40.
Prosecco is £28 a bottle, £5.50 a glass and there’s no messing with champagne. In another pitch at Venetian taste, they offer a spritz with either Campari or Aperol, either way served with a giant green olive on a stick (£4).
Modest as these prices may seem, you could end up with quite a bill, as in all small plate places, if you keep on ordering. As you will. If you can get in. For this one’s a winner, for sure.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
