POLPO at Ape & Bird (Covent Garden)

• Russell Norman and Richard Beatty opening a pub was music to our ears
• S in an area that is crying out for a decent public house
• A three storey Victorian building on Cambridge Circus that was previously the Marquis of Granby
• On the first preview night on which we visited it was absolutely rammed
• This time an intimate dining room with a large piece of artwork by Neal Fox (no
• Actually there are two dining rooms
• Lee and I started off in the attractive ground floor pub area where there was a solid but unadventurous range of beers including Harviestoun Bitter &
• After a bit of people watching (Russell Norman was patrolling)
• Also worth a mention was our small but perfectly formed side of Oak Leaf &
• The Sticky Date Pudding was the clear winner rich
• The previous pub on this site was called Marquis of Granby
• They decided was far too commonly used to keep
• One wall of the upstairs dining room is taken up by a mad piece of art which
• 4 juleps and 4 martinis are competitively priced at £
• Restaurant and bar are all in the same place
• From the starters I went all retro with a prawn cocktail (£
• The other starter we tried was the penny buns (a type of mushroom)
• Perfectly cooked with charred beets
• Maybe some cream or something else rich and sugary (it was hard to tell after a while) &ndash
• Very central London is lacking lots of good pubs with food
• Norman cleverly spotted a gap with nabbing POLPO at Ape & Bird (Covent Garden)
• Starters we plumped for the pig trotter Scotch egg with apple and mustard mayonnaise and the English asparagus with poached egg and hollandaise sauce
• Sprinkled it with fairy dust and dipped it in magic potion
• The asparagus were perfectly cooked and delightfully accompanied by an oozing poached egg
• Especially in a restaurant which was so far proving its calibre by the second
• The ambiance was nice and relaxed for a Monday night and I imagine things liven up from Thursday through to the weekend
• The apple crumble is the brownie's perfect partner in crime
• That is probably because The Ape and Bird is another branch of Polpo
• It wasn't the best pizza I've ever had but it was certainly enjoyable
• I would recommend POLPO at Ape & Bird (Covent Garden) to couples who are looking to share various dishes
• He also kept the spirit of his Venetian bacaro concept restaurants which is reflected on the menu of small plates
• We fell in love with the zucchini fries (£
• This is pretty good pub grub and is one of the rare few dishes that made me want to drink a pint of beer
• I rarely see whole fish served with its head here so this was quite a treat
• Had a great cook on it and shone through with minimal seasoning
• Except there was just too much of it
• We ordered a variety of pizzas which were admittedly not as bad as we expected
• My favourite was the pork shoulder with pickled pepper (£
• Bird a year on is still standing
• Perhaps the other Polpo locations are worth a visit but it doesn't surprise me that this is one of the quieter locations
• Germeister was the only London Cocktail Week event I tagged along to

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