Da Polpo: New York Italian Style in London

What can be better than Italian cuisine with New York influence in the middle of London? Well that’s what Richard Beatty and Russell Norman figure it out when they open their fourth venture Da Polpo. The restaurant has the same style as their brothers Polpo, Polpetto, and Spuntino, no reservation policy, pretty similar trendy industrial decor, great food, and good service.

da Place

Deja Vu

I was wanting to visit the place after I felt in love with Spuntino, I don’t know if it was because it remind me Manhattan or just because it is a great place, with simple food, and amazing flavours. So my friend Reter came to visit and I couldn’t resist taking him to the place.

da Bar, this time more tables than bar as opposite to Spuntino

The menu based on Cicheti, Pizzette, Vegetables & Salads, Meatballs, Plates, and Desserts. Funny enough no octopus at all in the menu, but plenty of options so we decided to try as much as we can.

da Menu

First the cicheti which means a small snack or side dish typically from Venice, we got two of them, a potato and parmesan croquette, and an arancini, both extremely tasty. Then we share two pizzette, the first one with mortadella, gorgonzola, and pickled radicchio, and the second one with pork shoulder and pickled pepper, quite good both, and inviting to order more, so we then went for the meatballs, our choice lamb and mint, excellent flavour. Last but not least we got two plates, the fritto misto which is seafood deep fried, and the grilled asparagus buttered eggs and parmesan, amazing, excellent way to end a superb meal.

Cicheti 

Pork shoulder and pickled pepper pizzette 

Mortadella, Gorgonzola, and pickled radicchio 

Fritto misto 

Meatballs, probably a favourite for a Swedish colleague

Eggs and asparagus, breakfast?

Now I’m intrigue and will have to visit Polpetto and Polpo to see if the older brothers are as good as the two youngest. In conclusion Da Polpo delivered as good as Spuntino, a little bit of déjà vu, in this case a good one, New York not over complicated Italian tasty food style, just another great place.

Wine to share

Make one thing in another fellow blogger

Octopus reminds me the Seinfeld episode “The Marine Biologist”.

George: Then of course with evolution the octopus lost the nostrils and took on the more familiar look that we know today. But if you look really closely you can still see a bump where the nose used to be.

Diane: Really?

George: Yeah, but enough about fish I can talk about other things like architecture.