Popolo Shoreditch — Restaurant in London

Summary: Incredibly overpriced, with uncomfortable seating and dissapointing food.

Went to visit them based on the overwhelmingly positive reviews from people. Honestly, i have no idea where these people went, but it couldnt have been this restaurant. Every review is RAVING about how the food is amazing.... Seriously, did we go to the same restaurant, guys?

First of all, it is packed. And i dont just mean with people - i mean they did their best to pack as many chairs and tables together as they could, to make more money. While understandable, it also means that a lot of these places are absolutely impossible to sit it. Our spot was near the window, and we had to be moved elsewhere because it was actually impossible to fit there - there literally was not enough room for our legs to sit down.

But thats tables and chairs, restaurants are famous for the food, right? Well, food was incredibly dissapointing. Menu choice was very limited, portions were small, and despite us trying a total of 8 different dishes (across our 3 people party), not a single one of said dishes made us happy. At best, the dishes were lacking something that would make them stand out. At worst, we were confused as to who thought this was a good idea. For example, when we ordered focaccia (you know, the famous italian flatbread) we were given... toasted sliced bread. No, im not kidding.

All the above would have been enough to give this restaurant MAYBE 3 stars at best. However they are also INCREDIBLY pricy. We ended up paying almost £150 for a party of 3, getting starter-sized dishes each, no alcohol/wine/etc, and leaving semi-hungry (and with sore legs due to bad chairs/tables) - how on earth do they survive charging premium prices for sub-average food is beyond me.

Im giving this 2 stars, because honestly i've seen far worse places that would get 1 star. But i had to consider giving it 1 star. Keep...

The food here is good but unfortunately, way over priced.

We tried most of their food and they were in large good to very good. Best dish was squid ink risotto was full of flavour, soft but not mushy rice without any fishy taste you get with badly cooked squid ink. Crunchy olives were exactly what it says on the tin and an excellent appetizer with drinks. Calamari, although smelling a little fishy taste fine and peel cheek pasta was full of pork flavour without it tasting too gamey.

So why the 2 starts? Unfortunately I don't think the price matches the portion, ambience or service. Upstairs sitting was like sitting in a canteen. Cheap tiny tables (we didn't have enough space for the wine and we had to put it on the floor. We're we offered any wine cooler holder? No). Bare walls can be chic - but not when your are squeezed in and offers no insulation from neighbouring sounds. Despite the being only couple more groups, lack of furnishing made the place a bit too noisy. I'm all for vibrant atmosphere but there is a difference between noise and background chatting. Whilst the waitress was lovely and responsive, it doesn't compensate for above. At almost £60 a head with only 1 bottle of wine and no dessert, you'd expect to leave full - the portions were so small, wet left hungry. In fact we ended up stopping over in supermarket on the way home to buy donuts. Lobster pasta (linguni I think) was tasty but we found only 3 bite size lobster and £28+service charge is just not value for money in above setting. All other dishes only really provided couple of bits each.

I might have forgave the high price of this was in an expensive venue with formal service but unfortunately Popolo isn't that. It's unfortunate as the food is good. It's just that the ambience and price doesn't...

I hate to do this, but I must agree with some of the other negative reviews I’ve read. I took my mother to Popolo for dinner last night.

First of all, we wanted to sit at a table so we were taken to the first floor. It was absolutely freezing (even with the heat on) so we had to wear our coats/scarves the whole time. We were tightly packed in with other customers so could hear their conversations to the whole time. The vibes were not there.

Secondly, the food was extremely overpriced for the quality and portions. We were instructed to order 4-5 dishes and were barely full. The burrata starter and focaccia were nice, but the burrata was not worth £17. I’ve had much better burrata in London. The fried olives and chickpeas on the burrata were interesting, but not my favourite. We also had the seared tuna steak, crab pasta and pork cheek pasta (costing around £22-27 each). I agree with the other reviews - portion sizes weren’t large enough and everything lacked clear flavour. And the sauce was too light or just pooled at the bottom. We didn’t have any drinks and our bill came to £108 which was pretty shocking.

Our waitress Olivia was lovely. We had nice chats with her. However, because we were so cold (after switching to a warmer spot), we put our coats on to leave and had to go down to the ground floor to pay. Overall, I had high expectations for this place and sadly I will not...