40-41 Rathbone Pl, Fitzrovia, London W1T 1HX
As we sat, chatting at the end of our recent lunch at Circolo Popolare, I noticed that we were the last guests left in the restaurant…except for two young tourists, who were taking selfies and photos of each other, against the backdrop of the restaurant’s extraordinary interior. It was the perfect metaphor for the restaurant, because Circolo Popolare feels like a place created for, and reflective of, the Instagram generation.
Instagram has had a profound impact on the way that London restaurants – at least those which hope to capture something of the zeitgeist – promote and present themselves, and nowhere is this more strikingly observed than at Circolo Popolare. As a feat of “set dressing”, the restaurant’s décor is (for some, literally) jaw-dropping. Meant, apparently, to invoke a Sicilian trattoria, a huge barn of a site (formerly part of a Royal Mail sorting office) has been transformed, so that not an inch of the walls or ceiling has been left unadorned. Most dramatically, 8,000 backlit bottles of booze line the walls of the main room of the restaurant, whilst “foliage” and fairy lights hang from above. Postcards, paintings, cushions and trinkets abound. The toilets have a “Blade Runner meets Lourdes” vibe. Everywhere, more is very much more, and kitsch is embraced with all the enthusiasm of a tacky seaside gift shop. The seating is an eclectic mismatch of garden furniture, long sharing tables and whitewashed “stone” booths. Young, enthusiastic waiting staff (most of whom appear to actually be Italian) add to the energy of the place. Whether or not you feel transported to an Italian island, it’s certainly easy to forget that you’re in Fitzrovia.
The almost unprecedented publicity that has accompanied Circolo Popolare’s launch – including a profile of the co-owners, still riding high on the success of their first UK restaurant (Gloria, in Shoreditch) in The Sunday Times’ Style section – has seen celebs, Instagram influencers, tourists and the rest of us stampeding to the restaurant, smartphone cameras at the ready. Arriving for a 1.30pm lunchtime booking on a Thursday, there were people queueing out of both restaurant entrances and onto the street for a “walk-in” table. Circolo Popolare has approximately 250 covers and, according to the restaurant manager, they are currently serving 900 covers a day. Those numbers must be the envy of all restaurant operators, but it remains to be seen whether, and for how long, they hold steady. At some point, the celebs and influencers will move on, photos taken and posted, leaving just la plebe as potential visitors.
For those tables to continue to be filled, the restaurant has to offer good value for money, and it does. Almost all starters and all deserts are under £10, with main courses (pizzas, pastas and grilled skewers) all under £20. Apparently, the target spend is £30 per customer and, whilst most may spend more, (particularly once the – again, reasonably priced – drinks are factored in), the truth is that you can eat at Circolo Popolare for not much more than any of the other high street Italian restaurant.
Needless to say, the restaurant’s most noteworthy dishes – the carbonara, the lemon pie – are all over Instagram, but don’t ignore the less-hyped dishes. Amongst the starters, a simple plate (and generous portion) of San Daniele ham was much enjoyed, and the sea bass crudo, curiously served in lettuce leaves, offered an acidic freshness that stood out against the other dishes. The deep-fried courgette flower was a disappointment though: the brittle batter and anaemic vegetable, unaccompanied by the creamy stuffing that normally serves as the crucial textural counterpoint. We had the carbonara, because of course we did; when were you last offered that ubiquitous dish tossed in, and served out of, a giant, wheel of parmesan?! For all I know, nonnas are spinning in their graves at the thought, and for some, the thick coating of cheese dredged up by this method of presentation, will produce a dish too cloying for their taste. I loved it though, along with the bit of theatre that came with it. Again, though, the less-heralded crab pasta (“Crab me by the Paccheri” – what’s up with naff dish names, by the way? Who are they meant to amuse or impress? Certainly not the cool Instagram kids, one imagines…) had more admirers at the table, thanks to its tarragon-infused tomato sauce, and the plentiful crab and mussels. The skewers of meat and fish lie somewhat curiously on the menu next to their carb-y bedfellows, but they were nice enough. The sausage, grilled peach and salsa verde version was the most interesting selection, whereas the cuttlefish skewer felt rather overwhelmed by its accompanying confit lemon. We had the gigantic wedge of lemon pie – natch – but preferred the Meraviglioso (literally, “wonderful”), which is nothing more than a plate of whipped cream, shards of meringue, nuts and chocolate flakes. Next to no culinary skill involved, but sometimes, you just have to give people what they really want.
And that’s the thing about Circolo Popolare; beneath all the hype and the styling, there’s a restaurant that has a nice buzz to it, and which offers decent, crowd-pleasing food, for a reasonable (by central London standards) price. I wish I could be sure that a place like that will survive in the ultra-competitive London dining scene. It will be interesting to see whether Circolo Poloare’s energy and value holds steady, once the spotlight moves away or whether, like so much else that features prominently on Instagram, it is quickly relegated to a mere memory.
https://www.bigmammagroup.com/en/trattorias/circolo-popolare
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