Pollini

Pollini opened in Ladbroke Hall, an arts and social club, in the autumn of 2023. This huge building started life in 1903 as a car factory and salesroom. The first car factories in the UK were from Humber in 1896 and Daimler-Benz in Coventry in 1897, but Ladbroke Hall was the Clement-Talbot factory and salesroom. The building was converted to an arts centre in 2023. The Pollini executive chef is Emanuele Pollini, who has worked in restaurants including Maeemo and Martin Berasategui, as well as Lido Lido, Terre Alte and La Buca on the Adriatic Coast. However, he is a consultant chef only, visiting the restaurant once a month. The head chef is Irfan Rao, who worked previously at Hide. The dining room seats seventy people and has a very high ceiling, and there are several additional private dining room spaces. Tables were well spaced, though the lighting was unnecessarily low and the music unnecessarily loud. The venue is sometimes hired out for weddings, and there is a very large garden at the back. Fourteen chefs were in the kitchen on the night that I visited. 

The a la carte menu offered fairly classical Italian dishes. The wine list had 153 labels and ranged in price from £48 to £1,600, with a median price of £145 and an average markup to retail price of 3 times, which is not bad these days. Sample references were Pinot Nero Stocco 2023 at £50 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £28, Flute Enchantee by Vignobles Guillaume NV at £75 compared to its retail price of £22, and Domaine Guerrin Pouilly Fuisse Vieilles Vignes 2023

2023 at £95 for a wine that will set you back £26 in the high street. For those with the means there was Prime Donne Colombini Brunello di Montalcino 2015 at £200 compared to its retail price of £61, and Antinori Tignanello 2019 at £420 for a wine whose current market value is £168. 

We started with some good olives and bread. The focaccia was made from scratch in the kitchen, served warm and was very good, completely avoiding any dryness, which so often affects focaccia served in restaurants. Grissini was also unusually nice, also made in the kitchen and having very good texture.

Pizzetta (£30) was topped with autumn truffle from Umbria. The truffles had a gentle and pleasant autumn scent, though the base of the pizza was unremarkable (13/20). Duck ragu tagliatelle (£28) was very good, the pasta fresh and made in the kitchen, the ragu having good depth of flavour (14/20). Also enjoyable was octopus and artichoke (£26). Octopus can so easily be chewy but here it was tender, as was the artichoke, albeit this was quite salty (14/20)

Marinara risotto (£42) used carnaroli rice and involved prawns, mussels and squid. The seafood was fine, the stock having quite good flavour but the consistency of the risotto was just a little more liquid than I would regard as ideal (13/20). Cacio e pepe (£28) is a dish that is so simple that it is quite a good test of a kitchen. There is just pasta, black pepper and Pecorino cheese, with Parmesan as an optional extra. The one initially delivered had hard pasta and was salty, even to my taste. They remade the dish and it was better on its return, the pasta this time having good texture, though it was still pretty salty. My main issue is that the pepper, which is a major element in a. Dish that literally means “cheese and pepper” was barely detectable (11/20 for the revised version).

Tiramisu (£14) was good, with plenty of coffee flavour and good texture (14/20). Apple tart with vanilla ice cream (£14) used Pink Lady apples, and the puff pastry was made from scratch in the kitchen. The only minor issue was that the pastry had a slightly soggy bottom, but was otherwise good, and the apples themselves were cooked nicely. The vanilla ice cream had smooth texture and a reasonable amount of vanilla flavour (14/20). Coffee was from Trucillo, an Italian roastery based in Salerno, dating back to 1950. It was drinkable but you can get much better coffee in London than this. 

The bill came to £111 per person. If you ordered three courses and drank modestly then a typical cost per person might come to around £85. Pollini is in an impressive building and the menu is appealing. The consistency of what appears on the plate could be improved, however. There was very good bread, and the desserts were good. My pasta dish was fine, the other one that we tried less so, while the risotto that I ate was pleasant rather than anything dazzling. Service was very good, but the problem is that this is quite a lot of money for the level of food that appeared. I have the sense that this is primarily an events space, but the cooking really needs to move up a gear to justify the price point.