All reader reviews by Hedgie

Polpo

Disappointed with the food and it's not worth waiting in a queue for.

They were however, excellent at fetching us a drink and cicheti while we waited. In fact, service, both in the queue, and throughout the evening was good, efficient and friendly. Wine list is nice and concise and very reasonably priced. The two cheapest red wines were fine, nothing amazing but good value and drinkable for a quick budget supper. Chicheti whilst waiting were a bit average - salt cod on polenta was tasty enough, prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella on a slice of bread was fine, but you can't really muck that up. Arancini however was both pointless and tasteless.

At the table we had white bean bruschetta - very nice and the two veg dishes - spinach and roast potatoes were distinctly average. We were disappointed with our meat dishes - plate of cold meats was OK, but overpriced and under sized for £11.80. The bit of mozzarella on the cold meats was too chilled and not the best quality. Slow roast duck with tomatoes, olives and peppercorns was a rather bland and swimming around in so much tomato sauce it didn't look that appetizing. And the Cotechino sausage with Savoy cabbage and mustard - dreadful! My friend commented it was ''a bit German''. Three thin slices of luke-warm, floppy pink sausage, on a bed of shredded cabbage and onions with mustard slopped on the side left us feeling greasy. They actually forgot to bring us this dish first of all (the only point where service slipped up - perhaps they were trying to tell us something) and we wished we'd never bothered reminding them. Desserts were another let down - warm chocolate pot was hot chocolate, orange and almond cake with marscapone had the smallest amount of marscapone on it I have ever seen and i've had better cakes in several cafes, walnut and honey semifreddo, nice but wouldn't go back for it. The panforte were another shock - described as being similar to a toffee, with chocolate and nuts, we were disappointed to be presented with 2 cubes of dry fruitcake.

When mains were cleared and we expressed our disappointment with the sausage dish in particular, our waiter said we really should have had the pork belly, frito misto and the cuttlefish instead. If these are the only things they can do right, why bother offering anything else? And how can a menu as short as Polpo's contain weak dishes? The room and atmosphere is lovely though, and i guess at £30 a head it's not a bank breaker. But if they expect people to leave their house and pay good money they need to improve several of their dishes. If you can book for a quick lunch and have no expectations then it's certainly not bad and it is more rewarding than most other cheap eats in Soho, although with Dehesa, Brindisa and Bocco di lupo round the corner they have some competition.

Thursday, February 11, 2010
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 5