Polentina — Restaurant in London

I could not have been more excited to eat at Polentina. I had seen the great food that they have been cooking and have had a booking for over a month to look forward to. Yesterday was finally the chance to try it out and see what Polentina was all about.

When we arrived at the restaurant we had a 30 minute wait, which happens so we weren’t phased by it. We were finally sat down just after 9pm. We had to figure out the table situation ourselves as multiple different groups of guests were spread out between tables meaning about 3 different groups of diners had to be rearranged before we could finally sit down. It took some effort to reorganize the seating, delaying our dining experience further.

We ordered our food and the waitress showed good knowledge of the menu and wine list. She even took the initiative to check with the kitchen regarding allergens, which was reassuring since we had someone with gluten intolerance in our party.

After that, everything from there was downhill. We waited 1 hour for our 3 starters to arrive, which were all cold dishes. A ridiculous amount of time to wait for something that didn’t need to be cooked, just prepared. The beans and peas dish was a standout. The rest were incredibly simple, hard to fault but nothing to write home about either (Mozarella & Panzanella). All dishes were small portions for the prices that they were charging.

Then we waited over an hour for 3 pastas, 1 soup, and 2 “room temperature” baked rice dishes. We were constantly misled by our waitress, who kept telling us our food was being plated and would be with us at any moment. It would have been tolerable if she had provided accurate timing, but being consistently lied to was immensely frustrating.

Finally, our main courses arrived in a staggered manner, with the pasta served at 11:02pm and the baked rice dish at 11:11. The pasta was okay, but the stand out was the prawns. The pasta dish cost £18, which was absolutely criminal considering the portion size — regardless of how late the dish was served.

The baked mussel and rice dish priced at £14, was easily the most limp, overcooked and flavourless dish I have eaten in years. Receiving a baked dish that is served at room temperature, 2 hours after initially ordering was the most offensive thing I have ever received out of a kitchen.

After all of this we were asked how the food was and we were honest about everything and praised them on the good points. However when we complained about the wait time and the disappointing dishes, we were met with an argumentative response and were told that “everyone is in the same boat” and that “this is normal”. We did not receive any apologies either which would have been the bare minimum. Which if anything, this should tell you that this is not the place you should ever consider spending your money.

I have never felt so cheated and enraged by a...

Seeing some of the (massively pretentious) negative reviews of a small independent restaurant doing Italian home style comfort food, faced with an influx of new diners from a positive Guardian review, doesn’t sit well with me - so let me begin.

I’ll start with my experience as a (I like to think) reasonable, empathetic, seasoned diner & amateur chef. We arrived at 8.30pm for our table, and were promptly greeted by the lovely owner who is first & foremost a real sweetheart.

It took a bit longer than usual to eventually order wine & food - we wanted a light red & were recommended a perfect San Giovese, really amazing selection of wine, if a little on the expensive side (£49); having one bottle option around £25-£30 mark would be a nice addition - but then everything was smooth. Feedback: If drink orders are taken a little more swiftly think those initial 15-20mins first impressions will be improved dramatically.

Food arrived well-paced: we had focaccia which was light & fluffy, coco beans with olive oil & garlic & mozzarella with peaches & green beans to start, and then shared tagliolini which was perfectly al dente & moorishly sticky, and spinach & ragu-filled cannelloni for mains. Finished the meal off with La Grotta Green gooseberry & brown breadcrumb ice cream & white peach & blackberry leaf ice cream (really fabulous palette cleansers).

The food took me back to when I stayed with an Italian nonna in Florence doing a language course - really authentically Italian, unfussy - perhaps not the best I’ll ever try, but food that makes you happy & fills you!

Now to the more scathing, empathy-lacking reviews here: setting up an independent restaurant, in this day & age in Conservative-ravaged Britain, is a big undertaking. If you can get hold of semi-decent staff post-Brexit, you then need to manage to find a space affordable enough to pay that team & your living wage, as well as the extortionate running costs including energy (see: British Gas profiteering thanks to the Tories!).

One reviewer Ian (the male equivalent to a Karen it seems), in his review turned his nose up at the place being “full of Guardian readers hoping to rub shoulders with the factory workers over lunch”. Now first up Ian must have also been one of those Guardian readers to have any prior knowledge of the review. Secondly, if you’d rather another Nando’s or franchise restaurant to pop up in place of somewhere like this, created with real heart & soul & love, keep leaving scathing reviews like yours.

Can the service & first impression timings with drink/food orders be improved? Sure, and I know this place will get slicker on this front as it learns. Could they introduce a more affordable couple of options on the wine list? Definitely. Should that put you off? Absolutely not! Go eat here to make up your own mind 😄

Tories out, independent...

There was a bit of hype on social media about this place but as with most things I see I tempered my expectations. Once you find it and are able to get in it's lovely and intimate. I really liked the small menu and based on the pedestrian offerring I expected the food to speak for itself. We ordered the foccacia, mozzarella starter, parmigiana, and chickpea dish. The food took a very long time to arrive. You can clearly see into the kitchen and I felt that they weren't prepped for service. When you've got a dish that is literally mozarella, peaches and beans all of the ingredients need to sing but outside of the olive oil used it was flat. Parmigiana was very different from what I've had previously, the aubergine felt a touched undercooked for me as there was more bite to it than I'm used to. The added mint was different, neither good or bad for me. I think the chickpea dish was supposed to be chicpea done 3 ways with chickpeas, chickpea crisps, and chickpea pasta (not sure if that last one is correct). Again, just an ok dish.

Overall it seemed slightly over-priced, but I think maybe £1 or $2 per dish, however, the 3 small slices of foccacia for £3 annoyed me the most.

A very homey feel with the whole experience, but not the sunday lunch that nonna made vibe. It's more like visiting a friend on a weekday after work who made a meal with some ingredients bought at the famers market the saturday before. I don't think I'd take the 45 min drive again to visit. If you live in the area I think it's worth a dable for some variety but nothing extraordinary.

My humble opinion, even if you have to charge more switch out the mozzarell for burratta and select peaches that are more tart or add acidity to the dish in another way. The parmigiana I think is just based on preference so I'll leave one alone. For the chickpea dish I would find a way to add a bit more fat, however, if the chef's intention was for something super light then it's fine as is.

Please add more signage out side for better visiblity - not crucial but would help. Finally, the menu it's too foreign and youre unnecessarily increasing the workload on servers rather than finding a way to describe the dishes instead of them...