Spuntino
61 Rupert Street Soho London W1D 7PW
A cool place? For sure. In fact we’d go so far as to call Spuntino a too cool for school place. The edgiest member of Russell Norman and Richard Beatty’s restaurant family – that includes Polpo, Polpetto, da Polpo – it’s another superb restaurant whose high-concept design is backed up by great, zeitgeisty food. Spuntino’s sputtering, bare bones website announces that there is no phone and no reservations – reservations are seriously uncool in Spuntino World. The distressed exterior is just as mysterious as the website, with just a scrawled sign and cloudy windows that you must press your nose against to get a look at the place. The grungy-chic scene within, with its bare bulbs, cracked ceramic wall tiles, high-spirited crowd and hipster staff is all very New York circa 1975 (as is the scene outside, on one of Soho’s less salubrious stretches), but the food, served on chipped tin plates and eaten at the bar or in one solitary booth, is totally now – Italian-influenced sharing plates and small dishes with a witty North American twist. Make sure to order the truffled egg toast, a selection of their overstuffed, juicy sliders (mini – very mini – burgers), the calamari in its ink with chickpeas, and the ham hock, chicory and seeded mustard salad.
