Poli

JUST THREE DAYS LATER…

Click here for a more recent review of Poli (June 2021)

With our daughter at Truck festival we’re debating where to go for Sunday lunch. We run through the usual gastropub options, but decide we don’t want to travel far given we’ve got low grey cloud and persistent rain that’s so typically British festival weather. I suggest we go to Poli, our fairly new local pizzeria that does small plates, that we’ve yet to try.

It’s already busy and just after 1, so rather than a bottle and the potential for the afternoon to slip into chaos, we choose a wine by the glass. It’s the Di Major Norante Sangiovese 2016 and Katrina suggests it’s like an Italian holiday in a glass. I couldn’t have put it better myself. 

There are six options and we decide they’d work perfectly as a cicchetti-style lunch, without the need for pizza. We order a chargrilled broccoli with Romesco sauce, roast potatoes in lamb fat with mint and a roasted bone marrow with sourdough. The combination of these plates is a divine twist on a Sunday roast so much so that I can only assume there’s some sort of black magic at play.

We’ve got roast potatoes that are beautifully cooked and crunchy to the bite with enough of a flavour of mint infused lamb that it has me searching for some. The ‘meat’ on the table is actually provided by the bone marrow sat in a pool of oil that oozes flavour even deeper than my love for it. If that’s not enough it’s accompanied by some warm sourdough that’s like the precocious offspring of a ciabatta loaf and pizza crust. The tenderstem played the role of the ‘vegetable side’ and was chargrilled to add a layer of caramelised nuttiness with the Romesco sauce, providing a ray of Mediterranean sunshine.

Roast potatoes in lamb fat

Roasted bone marrow with sourdough

Keeping us grounded in that part of the world, we also ordered a Burrata with heritage tomato, toasted crumb, strawberry dressing and basil. It provides the perfect foil to the other dishes. The creaminess of the Burrata with crunch of the crumb, the firm fleshy bite of tomato and a sweetness intensified by the strawberry and chilli dressing, which comes across like jam is a dream dish. It’s also quite dessert-like. That is not at all a complaint, although I do think given the size of the Burrata it was screaming out for some more tomato on the plate. 

Burrata with heritage tomatoes and chilli dressing

All in all, this is a really great option for Sunday lunch over this side of town. With one extra small glass of Sangiovese (for me) a sparkling water and an extra House sourdough for the mopping up, the total bill comes to £50.50. 

It took all our willpower to resist going for the desserts but with a holiday on the horizon it just about won through. Never mind though, as we did book again for the day we fly back. 

We really are love struck. 

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

21 York Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham B14 7SA

www.wearepoli.co.uk

Photos © Poli - used with kind permission