Popolo Shoreditch

Just a stone’s throw away from my office popped up Popolo. With new openings on the increase around the City and in particular, expanding into the East, there are no shortage of great places for a bite to eat. Whilst Popolo is not reinventing the art of Italian dining as a whole, what it offers is a quick, informal but wholesome dining experience.

For our quick lunchtime visit we were the first in the door. The team where still polishing off their set-up, Chef’s finishing their mis en place and we reveled in it’s shiny brand newness. The layout, reminds me of Barrafina. Bar top dining with a voyeuristic view of the Chef brigade as they rustle up gorgeous dishes from a small and well thought out menu.

I am a fan of bar top foodie places as it lends itself well to solo dining, a pastime I actively champion. You may not always have a partner or group of friends with you, so it is important to feel comfortable and this is one of those places. I think at some stage I have to do that “Guide to solo dining” which I have been mulling over for ages. Anyway, I digress, back to Popolo. With these things, there is always a background, a curated press release of sorts to wet your appetite. I like to go in cold turkey when I can. That way I have no expectation and am not influenced by others. You will see that in my not so complimentary review of Padella which the whole world and it’s mother seems to dig. Personally, I think Popolo poops all over Padella.

For our express visit mid week, we opted for a starter of pimento padron (a little more Spanish than Italian) as well as some fried coated olives and morita chilli with labne. For our main courses, I had ravioli with ricotta and sage butter, from the specials my companion had pappardelle ragu. Both were great, in particular the gorgeous beef portion of ragu and perfectly al dente pastas.

Popolo is definitely be on my list for when I want an Italian lunch.

Very nice and cozy place we met for dinner. The concept of the restaurant is to share different dishes to try as many as possible. It is an Italian fusion cuisine specializing in fish and shellfish. We decided to order two pastas and the scallops. The experience and favours were 10/10 and the treatment received by the service was incredible.

Superb! Recommend to sit at the bar top for a front seat to see the magic happen in the kitchen. Was also a palate expanding experience for the kids :-)

Great food, fantastic and genuinely friendly service from people who are great at what they do and care about what they do. Everything we ate was fantastic. Our two favourites were the honey pannacotta and the pork agnolotti.

The food was very good. Friendly waiters. Wait was not too long. We had a booking. The menu changes regularly. The highlight for me was the agnolotti – pork cheek & porcini butter. The pasta and the meat were cooked perfectly, and the accompanying sauce was amazing as well. The other two I really liked were the octopus with paprika and the calamari with the white sauce - very tasty as well. The crab spaghetti were alright. For dessert, the rosemary, olive oil, almond cake was a very good blend of savoury and sweet tastes (I was excited when I saw it was with olive oil). Overall, strong recommendation for the place!

Our party or 4 men on a weekend trip ate here last weekend and I could not have been more glad that we did; indeed, it was the best meal I've had in long memory. I had been teasing the barman, who I later learned was also the chef and owner, about the menu and he informed me that it was an authentic Italian menu "but with a twist." The only twist that I could determine was that the ingredients are hyper fresh and seasonal and the dishes are created with loving care and hyper ingenuity. Elegant simplicity. The 4 of us order the entire menu - 13 small plates- and each one was better than the last. If someone pointed a gun to my head and forced my to choose my favorite I could name any one of the dishes, but that would be a lie. It was a lot of food for the 4 of us but just shy of too much. Our meal was then followed by 3 shared desserts. Our volume of food was indulgent but just a hair shy of gratuitous. Popolo is a treasure and I would dine here again and again, and so should you.