There are not many advantages to a loved-one’s sudden hospitalisation, but it turns out that it does give you the chance to try out some new restaurants.

The visit to Côte (review here) a few days earlier had almost ended up with me ending up in Accident and Emergency due to stress, but I had higher hopes for Polpo. There are not too many well reviewed restaurants near Sloane Square, but we have been to the Covent Garden branch of Polpo a few times, and while it appears I have a rosier recollection of the food quality than Mrs C, the atmosphere was fun and buzzy, and I was keen to try their other outpost.

Also, they were offering entry to a £500 prize draw if you agreed to review a dish online, so the Cambridge Street Kitchen will have to wait for the next time someone is ill.

Of course taking your mother who is not that keen on sharing plates of food to a restaurant that specialises in Venetian sharing plates, might not have been the best of ideas…

There is a huge outdoor space, and had it not been raining hard (and had we not been accompanied by said mother), we would definitely have eaten outside. Fortunately we had booked, so we had no issue getting a table, but the interior is small, and was very crowded by the time we left, so I would say booking is essential.

We had the usual issue of being given a menu and then being abandoned for 15 minutes. Irritating at two levels, firstly because it is nice to have a drink while deciding on food (and it must be more profitable for the restaurant as people drink more), and secondly because there is no indication at all of how many plates to order, and they come in a wide selection of sizes. We had to look at the pictures on the website in the end, which were incomplete and a little inconclusive.

Anyhow, we muddled through, and ordered a pretty wide selection of dishes.

I am not a fan of the underseasoning of food. A chef should be trusted to know how to get the best taste out of their food, and salt, in particular, is an important flavour enhancer. We have pushed kitchens to cut back on salt, but at the expense of taste. I, contrary to the amount I post about food, don’t eat every meal out, so if I have a little more salt than I might at home, because the chef thinks it will enhance my meal, I am grown up enough to accept that.

But if you aren’t willing to season the food, at least put salt and pepper on the table! It was a noticeable absence at Polpo, and affected my enjoyment of some of the dishes, especially the rigatoni. The pasta was perfectly cooked, but the sauce lacked “middle”. Some salt would have sorted that out.

If you had never been to an Ivy Cafe, you would have loved the Polpo Zucchini fries. However, while not a pale imitation, they do not match the Ivy’s (generally) more crispy offering and unidentifiable (but complementary) pink sauce.

The salad was taking the mickey, to be honest. A small bag of catering salad for 7 quid is a bit rich.

Things go sharply uphill from here. The Liver Pate was pretty good (but you’ll have to visit Seville to get the really good stuff). The Chicken Saltimbocca was tasty, moist and not overcooked (well worth it). The Sardines (Sarde) were very fishy and tasty. Weirdly we only got two sardines where there appear to be three on the website.

The piece de resistance was the Chickpeas, which we almost didn’t order. What you don’t see on the photos is that they have a very spinachy centre. But they are made by the tomato sauce, which adds an incredible richness to the dish. Well worth ordering.

Final bugbear. The “Champagne” coupe.

Yes, it looks lovely, but there is a reason we don’t use them any more. Apparently when we drank much sweeter sparkling wine (in the 1920s), the coupe kept its fizz. But the drier varieties we use today need a flute, otherwise the bubbles disappear from the wider surface area too quickly. And also, they are too easy to slosh on the table (not suggesting that anyone in our party was that clumsy…)

Overall, a very good meal, and one that even those generally reluctant to participate in plate sharing enjoyed. Better seasoning would make this a perfect spot for lunch or dinner, especially in the summer.

Rating: 4.5/5

Pulpo, Sloane Square: https://www.polpo.co.uk/