Reviews Polpo Smithfield

I'm going through a real 'late to the party' stage with my restaurant reviews at the moment. I mean it took me ages to discover Herman Ze German - and this next one has been on my 'to-go' list for so long, it's almost embarrassing!. Plus, it only really got ticked off the list by accident. Tom and I met for a drink after work in Farringdon, decided to grab a bite to eat, looked across the street and there it was: Polpo!

Walked past this restaurant on Thursday night with my boyfriend with the intention of going to another tapas restaurant down the road. We changed our minds when we saw the crowds spilling out of the restaurant and the incredible atmosphere. The setting is intimate and warm. The loud music playing in the background only enhances the experience. We shared the arancini, pizette with bresaola and rocket and the spicy pork and fennel meatballs. The highlight for me was definitely the meatballs - I absolutely love the combination of pork and fennel. Highly recommended! Darren Grindlay

A Venetian bàcaro in London. Polpo is London’s answer to Venetian bàcaro. Serving well executed dishes that focus on drawing out flavour of good fresh produce – simple but skilled in its attention to detail – the dishes are designed to be shared similar to tapas. The menu offers a large selection of meat, fish and vegetable dishes, so whatever your preference there is something to suit your taste.

Food ordered on a recent visit were arancini – delicious crunchy risotto balls, succulent pork belly radicchio and hazelnuts, fennel meatballs in a rich tomato sauce, tender flank steak with rocket and parmesan, smoked salmon beetroot with horseradish and a dish that cannot be highly recommended enough – Italian chicory and anchovy dressing. Every dish cooked to perfection, busting with flavour and well seasoned – no complaints to be made!

Not to forget drinks and desserts; we started our meal with an aperol spritz – one of the best to be had outside of Italy and including the traditional olive. Wines can be bought in 25cl, 50cl and 75cl measurements – something there should be much more of in restaurants and bars around town – this time we had the house red which was smooth, light and a pleasant accompaniment. Last but not least the mouth-watering desserts; flourless orange and almond cake and a gelato cone. Happy days!

Impressive Italian cooking outside of Italy, served in a fun relaxed environment. Whether you’re looking for a fast drop in-and-out plate at the bar, or an indulgent prolonged meal, Polpo is a wonderfully satisfying experience you’ll definitely want to have again and again.

www.foodforaking.co.uk

But what I really love about Polpo (and the rest of the group) is how much fun I always have when I go. They all have such a relaxed atmosphere, the waiters and waitresses are always smiley and helpful but never pushy, and I love ordering a load of different things to try for the table. As far as I’m aware they were the pioneers of the now ubiquitous medium plate trend (NOT t

Monday night is probably a good day to go out for dinner as there is no queue, only problem is that not many restaurants are opened on Monday night, but hopefully around my flat they are.  I went for the first time to the restaurant Polpo Smithfield with a friend James, I didn't know what was the concept of this restaurant or their menu as I never watch their website, so it was interesting to choose this place for dinner. Polpo is a Bàcaro which is the ancient Venetian name to refer to a bar/restaurant for a quick lunch /dinner stop,  it is the same concept as a tapas bar in Spain but more sophisticated. We ordered different dishes that we shared :  potato & parmesan crocchette, anchovy & chickpea crostini, breads with goat cheese & nettle pesto piadina, asparagus, taleggio, speck pizzette, classic beef & pork meatballs and  end by a prawn & asparagus risotto.  We ordered with our dinner 50cl Polpo Red house wine which they changed recently (according to the waiter) and two double Aver

The chick pea, spinach & ricotta meatballs (£6) were surprisingly tasty and I didn't regret ordering the vegetarian option at all. I suspect it was the ricotta which made them taste so good. The prawn & artichoke linguine, bottarga (£8) was a generous serving for the price with sweet prawns.

Polpo is one of the most difficult restaurants to go around Smithfield on a week night as it is always packed. My secret to avoid the queue is to go there on Sunday late lunch. Smithfield market is a dead but nice area on Sundays. 
If you are lucky too, you could probably get a table straight outside to enjoy the sun while having lunch.
Last time I went with my sister, we shared a potato and parmesan crocchette. They were as good as the one I had a year ago (Review HERE). 

As a second course we shared Tuscan bread salad and heritage tomatoes. I was a bit disappointed as I forgot tomatoes in England don,t have much taste, I was just coming back from Spain where I had nice, juicy and tasty tomato. These tomatoes were a bit watery. 
One of my favourite dishes which I always order is pizzette bresaola, rocket and parmesan. I never share it so my sister ordered one too. 

As a main we shared beef and pork meatballs and spaghettini. I like the little spiciness the meatballs had. They gave a good kick into your mouth. 

If you get a chance to have a table outside on sunny days or during a warm night, I think Polpo is the best option around Smithfield market for any occasion. It is often very busy, that's why I don't go there as much as I'd like! 

9/10

Polpo Smithfield had its soft launch last week if the number of people inside as we walked by was anything to go by, but it officially opened yesterday, and to kick things off they were offering a 50% discount on the total bill. Drinks included! This was too generous an offer to pass up considering I had been wanting to try one of the branches in the Polpo kingdom for some time.

I think Russell Norman was probably at the vanguard of creating these stripped back, shabby-industrial areas for eating, and he has done it again in Polpo Smithfield. We arrived at about 5:45 and were immediately seated at the window table, all of us commenting on how impressed we were with the décor and ambience. I love a place that lets you eat at the bar, yank-stylee. Within 20 minutes the rest of the restaurant had filled and there were people waiting at the bar, or outside with drinks, and we were feeling very pleased with ourselves.

Thanks to the discount, and there being three of us, we were able to sample quite a few of the dishes, choosing three each but sharing most of them, and also getting dessert. Instead of listing them all here, I’ll just dive straight in to what we thought of them.

The favourite dish of the evening was unanimously the cured pork shoulder with pickled peppers pizzetta (above). That truly was delicious. But then, when you think that for a pound less, you can get a huge pizza from Franco Manca, you appreciate it a little less.

I also really enjoyed the rabbit, chicory and radicchio salad – it had shaved radish and thinly sliced red onion and the dressing was fresh and pleasantly tart. It was like having a chicken salad but leveled up. I could easily eat that again. I thought the arancini were pretty good too – nice and crunchy on the outside, a pleasant surprise of some creamy mozzarella (I’m guessing) in the middle, and very herby – thyme and oregano I think. But it needed something to dip it in, some aioli would have gone down a treat. I think the same can be said of the fritto misto (squid, prawns and octopus) – Stephen kept dipping his into the meatball sauce, which suggests it needed something to give it some moisture.

The steak flank with truffle cream, which sounded the most luxurious of all the dishes, was in fact a bit dry and boring. (Not a patch on the one I had on Friday at Flat Iron.) I didn’t really partake in either of the seafood dishes enough to judge them thoroughly. The one prawn I had was nice, and the potato and celery I had from the octopus salad was also fine. But the fact that the guys didn’t feel the meal was outstanding probably shows that I wasn’t missing too much by not eating them.

Of all the various things you can do with meat, making them into meatballs is my least favourite, second only to meatloaf. However, Polpo’s pork and fennel meatballs were on Time Out’s 100 best dishes so I thought ‘when in Rome’ and ordered them. Stephen ordered the veal and porcini versions. They both came slathered in the same tomatoey sauce which Stephen and Ifran thought was underwhelming but which I quite liked. And my veridict on one the 100 Best Dishes in London? Well, I guess for meatballs they were nice, but they didn’t wow me or convert me to a meatball lover. But what do I know? I don’t really like the form. The guys, however, who do, much preferred the veal and porcini, which they seemed to really like.

The cotechino sausage with borlotti beans tasted it good but I thought the texture was too mushy. This didn’t bother the others who gave it the thumbs up though.

And after all that we managed to squeeze in dessert. I had the tiramisu pot, which I loved. I love Tiramisu anyway, but this was a really good version. The guys shared (aww, sweet) a strawberry and pistachio cake, and a couple of cannoli with strawberries. I didn’t try either of these, but when I asked Stephen how the cake was, he said I wasn’t missing much.

So, a bit of a mixed bag then for Polpo. Maybe if I hadn’t already been to Salt Yard last year I would have loved it. As it was, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations, though my expectations were extremely high, given all the hype. With the discount applied (and tip only added on to the final discount amount) I was happy with the meal. (It came to £20 a head.) If I’d been paying full price, I think I would have been more irked with what we got.

I may not go back for the food, but they have a Negroni bar downstairs, which we didn't visit, and I'd rather like to give that a shot.

Tucked away on Cowcross street Polpo offers people working nearby the opportunity to indulge in some lovely Italian cuisine. Like the name suggests their speciality is fish! I went for a sharing option where we ordered lots of different small dishes, of deep fried octopus, fish cakes, and squid, for a very reasonable price. We order a house white, which was very affordable. This is a really nice alternative of food, and for all those who like fish, the quality is very high.

Went for a dinner for 4 on a Monday night. It was noisy and packed, and for good reason. This place is a little gem. Helpful unintrusive staff. And the food - delicious, authentic, good portions and great to share. You have to try the gorgonzola pork bruschetta and the strozzapreti!

Nice and chill place! The waiter and waitress are kindly and nice 💪🏼The food is good but the portions are too small...you have to mix some plates before your belly is full. I reccomend if you are lactose intolerant!

Interesting sharing plates, recommend the different types of arancini and croquettes to start. The steak and mushrooms was pretty good and the meatballs and spaghetti was very good. Little pizzas also decent

Lovely little Italian restaurant. Offers small plates. The mini pizzas are cute but, perhaps because they are so small and thin crusted, they arrive pretty cold. Still yummy, though. Fast service and friendly staff

Been here on multiple trips to London already and keep coming back. This place has a nice price-value-ratio with good food and drinks. Usually the house wine is a solid choice as well. Only downside is that portions are rather small (kind of a tapas concept) and to be really full you need to order 2 to 3 main dishes. Service is friendly and relaxed.

I took my husband here for an early evening birthday dinner and we were very impressed for our first visit to a Polpo. The food is (Venetian) tapas style but the potions are bigger than we expected, always a pleasant surprise and luckily we didn’t over order. The food was delicious. The wine list was very good, the service was great- they happily accommodated our last minute request to eat outside, even though it was very busy. The tiramisu dessert was amazing- We will definitely return, as it was also really good value for money! Definitely recommend.

The food was utterly delicious. It's definitely worth visiting as a group because the shared style of eating allows you to try a wider variety of dishes. We went during a lunchtime and the service was reasonable. The staggered delivery of the dishes meant we could enjoy each dish at a nice relaxed pace but you weren't left waiting. Highly recommended.

Slip through the opening curtain into dark surroundings, where interesting staff will show you to a table should there be one available, you're recommended to book ahead. This follow up to the original is as good, the individual dishes we enjoyed were great and the combinations recommended worked well. The only regret was eating quite so much good food at lunchtime in a dark setting, I'm sure you can imagine what that did for the afternoon.