Spuntino
Spuntino likes to think of itself as a downtown NYC Italian diner with a slightly grungy feel. It’s going for the ‘effortlessly cool’ vibe in the simplicity of its formula. The place itself is a manifestation of this: it is one room where the only seats are high stools arranged around a large bar area and an additional small alcove at the back with a table and benches.
Spuntino's bar seating with the solitary table in the background
Paper menus act as your placemats and feature a selection of diner-inspired dishes, such as pulled pork buns, ground beef with bone marrow sliders and cheeseburgers. There are the usual side dishes but, as with all food offerings here, there are little amendments or quirks in their conception and execution. The Spuntino Slaw, for example, is not your average coleslaw. It’s just a fresh mix of shredded cabbage, courgette and carrot, and hardly anything else. I was expecting a richer bowl of the aforementioned veggies tossed in anything from lemon to mustard to the obligatory mayo – preferably all three! Having said that, I think the slaw was the most enjoyable dish I had, because the rest was merely average. Actually, I lie – the chips were below average. In typical quirky fashion, these are Shoestring Fries and not your average healthy-sized cut potatoes. Consequently, you’re presented with a bowl of soggy, greasy potato shavings with no taste. Underwhelming.
Shoestring Fries
Another small dish I ordered was the promising-sounding Eggplant Chips. Since aubergine is my favourite vegetable by a country mile it seemed destined to be pleasing. What arrived, however, was a bowl of crusty, thick chunks of batter covered in sesame seeds. The taste of the batter was… unpleasant. The aubergine within the crusty, thick batter was almost a side note and a stale-tasting, dry slither of one at that. How could they turn me against aubergine?!
Eggplant Chips
My main choice was the Pulled Pork Slider, which came as a cute little bun filled with shredded pork meat. It does look undeniably appetising in the photo, doesn’t it? In reality it was pretty bland and did little for my disillusioned taste buds. The meat, like the fries, was lukewarm. The seasoning and sauce were not strong enough. The bun was unmemorable. It may be unfair to compare, but this dish has nothing on the Pitt Cue Co. version. The difference in their two approaches, moreover, is that Pitt Cue take meat seriously and pride themselves on authentic cooking techniques to produce fantastic grub. My experience at Spuntino just seemed amateur. The guys behind the bar are a pleasant bunch but, in the words of another critic, “with their T-shirts and tattoos [they] look like roadies”. Even the guy bringing our food out of the kitchen directly to us (was he a cook?!) had an overwhelmingly rough-edginess that casts doubt over the origins of your meal and its authenticity.
Two Pulled Pork Sliders plus a bowl of Spuntino Slaw
This is the third restaurant created by Russell Norman, the man behind successful eateries Polpo and Polpetto. In terms of presentation and premise, Spuntino abides by recent standout restaurant trends in London: a simplistic American-inspired menu, no reservations, an abridged website, old-school white metal plates with blue piping, young staff and a Spartan setting with little character. It’s a formula that’s winning when the food is exceptional (a la Pitt Cue), but it’s sinning when the food is poor. Spuntino is a sinner.
Spuntino
61 Rupert Street
London
W1D 7PW