Polpo - aperitivo a go-go

Polpo touts itself as a Venetian bacaro in London. I've never been to Venice, so far be it for me to say how authentic it may or may not be, but frankly it looks just like an enoteca to me... It serves the Italian equivalent of tapas, "cicheti" the kind of small, taster dishes you'd find in any good wine bar in the major Italian cities.

The place is always buzzing, it's worth booking from Thursday to Saturday and don't expect to find a quiet table. The one truly authentic Italian element to this place is the noise level, and that's without the massive family christening parties with screaming babies.

I visited in the quieter hours after three, with a vague hangover that needed nursing. One Aperol spritz later and I was struggling to decide on only three dishes (these are hard economic times) from the menu as it frankly all sounds good.

I began with Spratti in Saor - marinated sprats in a citrussy, salty sauce served on small crostini. Gone in a flash, they whet my appetite perfectly. C. had the wild mushroom piadina, which was stuffed to the gills with a variety of funghi, although the bread was a touch chewy and dry.

For some reason that confounds me, I opted to follow with cotechino, essentially a type of sausage made from pork, fatback and pork rind, usually stuffed into a pig's trotter. I've yet to meet an Italian who eats this outside of New Year's eve where it is considered traditional and symbolic of good luck. It was probably since I'd missed out this New Year on my pig's trotter helping that I felt a twinge of nostalgia. It was, in fact, delicious. Nothing like the squidgy, boiled-to-misery salted mush I'm used to having in a drunken state towards midnight on the 31st, but delicate and handsomely flavoured with pine nuts and savoy cabbage and mustard.

C. had the pork belly, with radicchio and hazelnuts to balance out the sweetness and add bite. Equally tasty. 

The big mistake? The fritto misto. Not that it was bad, it was crispy enough and not terribly greasy. But after narfing through all the rest, the portion just didn't seem so small anymore and the squid, inevitably, had that rubber band texture that I couldn't really stomach after pig's feet and, yes, another Aperol spritz.

Neverthelss, between the two of us, we pretty much polished our plates. No sign of a venetian either in the kitchen or in the bar though, which made me wonder at the tenuous connection to the city of water... But the wine list told another tale, with a great selection of big and lesser-known northern Italian producers. Shame the hangover had me stuck on the Aperol, but I shall return to get my nashers round a Tocai soon...

Prices are around £3-£6  per dish, three dishes makes an ample meal.

Polpo

41 Beak Street 
London W1F 9SB. 
020 7734 4479.

GUSTO - gastronomic complex in historical centre of Rome

Residing in a fascist-era former government building behind the sleek, minimalist Ara Pacis exhibition space Gusto occupies several buildings on various floors, more of a brand concept than just a restaurant, combining chic Italian style with a laid-back dining atmosphere, intimacy and good modern Italian cuisine. What's the catch? The expensive prices. The food is good, but not deserving of a price-list more akin to a high-end eatery or set-lunch michelin star menu. Plus the wines by the glass in the restaurant start at 8 euros, despite the fact that many bottles on the menu are affordable and you can get a very good glass of wine almost anywhere in Italy for half of that.

The Gusto company itself runs a cookery shop, an enoteca (wine bar), retaurant and pizzeria, an osteria (similar to a trattoria), a cocktail bar, formaggeria (cheese tasting bar) and finally a fish restaurant. These all adhere to the crisp white walls, oak tables and exposed metal design ethic but each conveys its own ambience geared to reflect the product it is selling. The cocktail bar prides itself on its selection of martinis, inlcuding the famed Bond favourite, the "Vesper"which I admit to being rather partial to. At aperitivo expect to find baby squid, marinated anchovies, mushroom tapenade and home-baked foccaccia brought to your table by any one of the handsome, part-time model waiters. 

We dined at the restaurant, a two-floor affair with small rooms leading in to each other so as to enhance a sense of warmth and keep the noise to a minimum. You'd hardly know there was a large pizzeria downstairs heaving with Friday night work groups and hungry 30-somethings but the delightful smell of fresh baked bread fills the room. 

I had a sformato al nero di seppia e crema di patate allo zafferano to start with, a smooth, sweet golden potato veloutè with a rich and creamy mousse of potato and squid cooked in its own ink. The flavours were spot on, as was the consistency. We drank a pouilly fumè there were no Italian white wines by the glass (not that i'm complaining about what we drank which was very good, but i'm sure a tourist to Rome would want the option of a local wine by the glass). 

Francesco chose a millefoglia of aubergine, which was tasty enough, but not worth the price. Food like this can be made at home, and being all vegetable you really can't justify the 9 euro charge unless you're sitting in a real gourmet establishment. 

For primi I had spinach tortelloni stuffed with buttery rich burrata cheese, a sort of soft mozzarella with a fondant cream-rich core, pacchino tomatoes and deep-fried basil leaves. THe pasta was excellent, the flavours fresh and the cheese just enough not to be filling, although the sauce was a bit watery and the deep-fried basil simply didn't taste of anything, and looked rather like wilted leaves as they were transparent and disintegrated at the touch of the fork. 

Francesco had ravioli with cacio e pepe, the consistency was perfect, creamy, pungeant and peppery as good cacio should be. A working class roman trattoria classic well adapted for the restaurant scene. 

For dessert we shared a dark chocolate soufflè with strawberries and peach cream. No denying the chocolate was rich and indulgent and yummy, but I was expecting a runnier fondent centre and the two little slivers of strawberry were pretty bland. THere wasn't much of a peach flavour either as there literally were two dots of the stuff on the plate. But overall, we somehow finished the whole lot very quickly and were still licking our lips for more...

THe secondi sounded wonderful,  although we simply weren't hungry enough. I would return again to try them, although I do believe the restaurant is a bit too pricey for its overall quality and the wine al bicchiere list needs revising. You can't bully people into choosing a whole bottle because its cheaper if you want to be taken seriously as a wine bar/enoteca as well. 

I haven't eaten at either the osteria or the pizzeria, although I have heard very good reviews of the pizzas. One little black spot was the sight of a Coeur de Lion cheese in the window of the formaggeria. I know that the aim of the cheese tasting bar is to showcase the variety and wealth of Italian cheeses primarily, and I also know the great rivalry between France and Italy on ... well... just about everything culinary, but frankly it's insulting both to your customers and to the French to offer Coeur de Lion as your token french cheese seeing as it's simply a low-end supermarket camembert of very little flavour. You wouldn't put "invernizzi" packet supermarket mozzarella on the cheese list of a posh Italian cheese-tasting delicatessen or serve it in a high-end restaurant. This made me pretty angry as I assumed it was part of an ongoing campaign to convince the Italian public that the French can't make cheese, when of course, the French make outstanding, world-famous cheese that can easily rival the best Italy has to offer.

Altogether, Gusto was tasty, with well-balanced and interesting variations on Italian classics and good, efficient service. The prices were too high and the wines-by-the-glass list a little bit restrictive but I would come here again to try the mains and the pizzeria. If they were not absolutely magnificent I might reconsider.