Polpetto, Soho

Polpetto, sister of Polpo and child of Russell Norman, has re-opened, moving from Dean Street, to a bigger site on Berwick Street.

With rising star Florence Knight at the helm and banking on the already popular, tried and tested Venetian, no-reservations, small plates concept, this was always going to be a good. If you're looking for somewhere in Soho to eat, the Polpo/Polpetto group are always a safe bet.

Starting with a delicious blood orange and thyme alcoholic cocktail and some foccacia to keep us going, we waited for a table for around 35 mins after entering at 7.30 - not too bad. 

I'll admit, Polpo is never somewhere I'm going to be mind blown by the food, unlike say Chiltern Firehouse, the food here is too simple for that, but it is somewhere in Soho that you can go where you know you will have good food and always be pleased by the experience.

First to arrive was the creamy burrata with agretti and chilli. Really good creamy burrata.

Next up came the mussels with wild roasted garlic and canellinni beans. Good, if a little fiddly, having to pick out the beans from inside the sauce and I'm not sure mussels lend themselves that easily to the sharing concept, though the sauce was fantastic. 

The only serious disappointment was the soft poached egg and black truffle. I thought this was going to be so so good. Unfortunately, what came was a rather sad-looking poached egg. 

The black truffle flavour, usually my favourite, hardly came through. Perhaps some truffle oil should have been added for a fuller flavour, or simply a little bread to mop up the deliciously runny yolk. In my opinion this dish needs some work. It could be so so so good.

Then came my second favourite dish, the scallops with creamed and whole white broccoli with lardo. Really good.

And, they saved the best till last, the bacon chop with whitty pear butter and walnuts. The smell was incredible and that butter, more of a sweet jam, was deliciously sweet paired with smokey bacon.

We were stuffed at this point….but still managed to be tempted by the milk pudding with rhubarb and rose. Deliciously sweet flavours all mingled with the tart rhubarb and the texture of the milk pudding was perfect.

So an enjoyable evening was had, and a place in Soho I know I can always go and be satisfied, however not wowed.