No reservation counter dining for 27 people, serving American-Italian comfort dishes designed for evening sociality and a casual setting
I love nothing more than finding a non-michelin starred venue that serves great food at reasonable prices. Sadly I think I had my hopes too high for my first venue within the Polpo group as I did enjoy this but not to levels that one could hope. Unlike the Venetian-specific Polpo eateries, Spuntino is mainly American in its design and easy going concept. Almost impossible to find on Rupert Street as the sign is virtually invisible and the outside gives the impression of a derelict building; inside it is one bar and a spill over counter dining area.
It was lovely being able to play by ear and simply order another dish after another until full and I thought the popcorn with optional chili salt was a nice touch. All dishes in general produced contentment and were served on wonderful, period-set plates. It was probably my own fault for expecting too much but I only felt ‘fine’ about the truffle egg toast (nice but not blown away), the egg plant with fenel yoghurt was perfectly ok but I was almost relieved when I had the succulent chicken thighs in batter as this finally made me able to sing. The chicken is marinated in butter milk for 24 hours adding to its already wonderful tenderness.
The pulled pork burger was good as a slider – not too big, but doable in size and with perfectly squidgy brioche with interesting wafer thin slices of apple as well, but I thought was a little too spicy for my palate to properly enjoy. An amazing BBQ zing is what I would have much preferred. However, I will happily go back to try the beef bone marrow slider. Finally, the peanut butter and jam sandwich (which was peanut butter ice cream in the shape of cut slices of bread with rasberry jam) was very good and another huge relief as this was great in comparison.
No telephone here or ability to make any reservations online so is just turn up and wait for a space in the evening and is therefore designed to be a causal, trendy spot with a successful, evening atmosphere. It’s good to know where it is now for a future reference and there were some good food moments so I will get back to it sometime, but just don’t feel the urge to sprint.
Food Grade: 64%
My hobby-turned-passion began to evolve during my assignments to London where I was fortunate enough to be able to explore all the Michelin starred restaurants in my spare time and as a result, I gradually built up a catalogue of all these venues.
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