Polpo comes to Exeter

A new Venetian Italian opening in Exeter? Get us a table!

When we heard the news that Polpo, a proper Italian, and not another burger restaurant, was opening in Exeter, we rejoiced.

Being opening week, we were presented with complimentary starters in the form of arancini balls and basil, mozzarella & tomato skewers. Also, complimentary drinks; soft and alcoholic. We went for the alcoholic option of belinis (peach puree and prosecco).


The skewers were the first thing we tasted in this restaurant and as soon as popped them in our mouths, we smiled and knew this was going to be good. There's no hiding from low quality ingredients with something this simple, but this was gorgeous, Polpo clearly know how important good ingredients are.

The first plates to come out were the fennel, green bean & almond salad and roasted red chicory with grana padano. Both delicious veggie plates with plenty of flavour and a nice crunch of almonds.


We then chose another drink. I went for an Aperol spritz, which came with an olive stirrer, yum! K went for a more bitter Americano (Campari, Sweet Vermouth and soda.)


Next came our meat, fish and pasta. We had a pork chop with white beans & wild garlic; roasted sea bream with grilled fennel, brown shrimp & capers and cacio e pepe spaghetti. The pork chop was tasty and soft, the fish cooked nicely with crispy skin and the spaghetti was perfect; simple, very buttery and with a generous helping of parmesan.


We were pretty full after these six plates but the desserts sounded so good we couldn't refuse. We decided to share a lovely flourless chocolate & almond cake and some chocolate salami! The chocolate salami was similar to fridge cake; dark chocolate with pieces of nut, dried fruit, biscuit and salt. It was delicious and I may try and recreate it at some point.


The whole evening was relaxed and we enjoyed lots of great tasting, non-fussy food. The best Italian food (outside Italy) we'd had for a long time. We enjoyed it so much that we returned later in the week and had a completely different but equally delicious selection!

Comments

  1. Unknown18 April 2017 at 02:10

    What a wonderful insight to a lovely new place. Could not agree more!

    ReplyDelete

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