Polpo

To expensive very anoying french manager that smells of body odour messy plates and off meatballs . absoulute crap to put it mild . Dont go save your money.

Professional reviews for this place have been consistently good, so I was expecting good things. However it was a great disappointment. The food was impressively average. Garlic mushrooms, pleasant yet no better than those that accompany a well cooked breakfast, steak that was well over cooked and covered in a creamy sauce that did it no favours, roast potatoes that weren't crispy and tasted like they had been sitting around for quite a while, olives that were tiny and tasted of little more than salt, etc.

What's more it came to an eye watering £70 for two with only one drink each. Not at all impressed and will certainly not be returning.

One thing I would offer in their defence is that, unlike the comments below, we did not receive poor service and our primary waitress was a very smiley Australian girl.

Not worth over an hour and half wait. Okay food and would have been a good evening but for the wait. Seems like arrogance to expect customers to stand for that long waiting for a table. Time restaurants stopped the no booking trend.

Food is average although the steak was excellent. The night was ruined, however, by the loud and awful music coupled with a manager who was arrogant enough to tell me I should have gone somewhere else if I didn't like the atmosphere when I asked him to turn the music down. I really hope that people realise this pretentious place for what it is and stop going. Never again

If it hadn't been for the company it would have been an appalling night out. I have never been moved to write a review online before but I am so sorry that our group spent our hard-earned money here. Having been to Da Polpo I'd raved to my friends about the place and thought Polpo would be more of the same. The food was delicious, credit to the chefs but I wish the chefs had served us. Standard of cooking doesn't matter one bit if the service makes you so unhappy that you feel actually robbed of your money when you come to pay (and it's not cheap). The poor chefs should understand what a disservice is being done to them by at best complacent and at worst downright rude front of house staff. The general atmosphere created was that the waiting staff looked at us as pieces of dirt on the floor who they had to waste their valuable time serving. I understand that a front of house job is tough with tiring, antisocial hours when you would prefer to be the customer rather than the waiter, however, it is a job. I have been a waitress before and would never think to not treat my customers the way we were treated. In fact even when they were rude to me I would maintain a helpful, happy demeanour. Usually the customer was shamed into apologising as a result. The front of house team (if you can call them a team) so ruined our Friday night that we certainly won't be going back and are on a mission to tell as many people as possible to vote with their feet. The final straw was them getting our coffee order wrong and when we mentioned it to the maitre d she glared at us and said, 'well, I didn't take your order.' I should have said, 'Wrong answer!' I concur with one of the other reviewers below in the opinion that the one redeeming feature was the cheery barman downstairs who was the antithesis of the restaurant staff and made the 3 hour wait for a table bearable. There are so many better restaurants in London. Don't go here.

Poor service, arrogant staff, rude manager, very small portions of food and ridiculously overpriced. The table next to us sat an extra person (3 girls as opposed to 2), who was not in anyone's way (and definitely not in my way even tho we were the closest table to them). When the manager saw the arrangement, he rudely told the extra girl that she was "imposing" herself on others. He continued in this manner for at least 5 minutes, despite me stepping in to tell the manager that the girl was not in my way. The manager continued the ill treatment by also deliberately not giving her any plates/cutlery to force her out (i.e. he gave cutlery to her two friends, but not to her). I have never seen staff treat customers so terribly. Not only did it ruin the girl's experience but it also ruined mine. I personally didn't have a good experience of this restaurant (mainly due to the general rudeness of the staff). Would not go back as there are much better places out there in Central London. Not going to spend anymore hard earn money at this overrated place.

Poor service, arrogant staff, rude manager, very small portions of food and ridiculously overpriced. The table next to us sat an extra person (3 girls as opposed to 2), who was not in anyone's way (and definitely not in my way even tho we were the closest table to them). When the manager saw the arrangement, he rudely told the extra girl that she was "imposing" herself on others. He continued in this manner for at least 5 minutes, despite me stepping in to tell the manager that the girl was not in my way. The manager continued the ill treatment by also deliberately not giving her any plates/cutlery to force her out (i.e. he gave cutlery to her two friends, but not to her). I have never seen staff treat customers so terribly. Not only did it ruin the girl's experience but it also ruined mine. I personally didn't have a good experience of this restaurant (mainly due to the general rudeness of the staff). Would not go back as there are much better places out there in Central London. Not going to spend anymore hard earn money at this place.

**RUDEST MANAGER IN LONDON. **

When the staff were making an effort I would have given it 5 starts. I take clients out all over Soho and West London. So eat out several times a week. Food is pretty good.

I have never come across such unsubstantiated arrogance as I have with the female FOH manager (and I work in Music and Film which is saying something). I have had to go back there a few times (work obligation) and met with the same tilted-head, disinterested school-girl attitude each time. I can't describe enough how amazingly astringent she is.

I thought it must be me she hates, so have sent others up to arrange a table with the same results. The last time my colleague's wife was left so infuriated we left (party of 6 if the owner is reading this) with no backup plan for dinner.

Seriously, if the owner is reading this you could dramatically improve the fading reputation of your restaurant if you fix you front of house manager. I know a great psychotherapist who could possibly help her, possibly.

J

PS. The only saving grace is the unbelievably polite and gracious cocktail barman downstairs. Who described your FOH as a 'special character' and was able to placate our fuming guests. He's a huge asset.

Polpo is rather overrated if you are going for the food or service.

We went to Polpo tonight and it was a mixed experience, massive highs and massive lows. Firstly I would highly recommend any of the small starter plates - each one we tried was simple but delicious. The purple sprouting broccoli was perfectly cooked and wonderfully flavoured with anchovy sauce that was not too overpowering. One of our waiters was well informed and provided good service when we needed, even though we clearly weren't in his section. Our 'actual' waitress however was dismissive, rude and had no idea about the menu.

The major disappointment of the night was an extremely overcooked flank steak which was served with a porcini sauce. The steak was so overcooked that it completely ruined the delicious sauce it was with. My partner and I tried one slice of the steak and couldn't physically eat the rest of the dish. I politely informed the waiter that the reason why we didn't finish the dish was because the steak was inedible and the response I received was 'oh'. No apology was made and no deduction from the bill. It seemed like they were too busy to care about the quality.

In the end it was a mixed evening and unfortunately I probably won't return. If you do go to Polpo, make sure you ask to wait downstairs in the cute little bar and order some snacks to tide you over!

Lovely inventive sharing plates of food, decent wine selection (Berbera from Piedmont was excellent) not bad value. But the raucous music is a huge problem unless you can do sign language. Would gladly have given 4 stars if it weren't for this. As it is, I can't see us coming back unless and until the music is turned down, or preferably off altogether. Which is a pity because London needs places like Pulpo.

Been there twice, the first time, food was ok, standard salty heavy southern italian food. But the second time, the manager was soooo rude. he insisted on putting us right underneath the mega loud speaker, and would not move us elsewhere although there was table available. We could barely hear each other although we were shouting at the top of our voice. Definitely not worth the suffer, so we walked out.... Will never go back there again.

What terribly overpriced food and deafening music. When we asked to move to an empty table due to the noise, the manager couldn't hear us and the wouldn't help us...... despite the table next to us also complaining about the noise. i would add rude and obnoxious to the service recieved from the manager. Pity becuase the rest of the staff seemed quite sympathetic. definately would NOT recommend this to anyone, unless you are sat near the entrance away from the loudspeakers and don't mind overpriced and underwhelming food.

Food was awful. Generally over cooked, swimming in oil, or salty. I had squid, calamari, and fried white bait, spinach and dessert Risotto and calamari was OK. Almond and orange cake was the only thing I'd give a decent rating too. Service was good don't but food bad. I won't be going back again.

Polpo is almost everything I like about a restaurant - informal, well-priced and portioned, unpretentious, rustic but refined at the same time. Get there early, we arrived before 6pm and still plenty of seats available but soon filled up, and people don't seem to move very quickly, we sat on the bar stools and didn't feel pressure to go, maybe that was why!

Food is good but the place is crowded with lots of noise (low ceiling) and music is too loud. Overall, it's not the place where you would like to stay more than the time strictly necessary to eat.

food good, service bad. won't go back

Completely over-rated. Food is ok not great but priced well, what well stop me coming back is the really hostile service. How you can style yourself as an informal eatery and treat people as if it some kind of priveledge to eat there is beyond me. Will be interesting to see if people will return what it's no longer "so hot right now". Bocca di Lupo is far superior on the food front, and Dehesa on the casual front with excellent service.

Overrated. Deafeningly noisy and overcrowded. They forgot our order. Food was hit and miss: mackerel tartare was great but the pumpkin dish (undercooked) and broccoli spears (swimming in oil) were unpleasant.

Foot stamping joy and conversation halting food.
Each one of the tapa size portions caused my partner and I to do a 'When Harry Met Sally' scene of orgasmic joy.
The service is informal yet quick and attentive.
Yes; the tables are close together and the music is a little too loud however this is not the place for a formal meal out or for a romantic evening. We waited about 30 minutes for a table being seated at 7:30. There was no pressure to give up the table and no rush to order the next dish which is an annoying policy of many Soho restaurants.

Stumbled pass it by accident today and delighted that we discovered it great food, atmosphere and good value. Staff were great!!

Totally delicious! Portion size was pleasing as was the bill.