Friday food heaven.

 My boy and I had rocked up to Spuntino a few weeks ago, a little bit pissed and very hungry, only to be told there was an hour and a half wait for a table, which we couldn't deal with. Last night, I went back to this uber-cool New York style diner with a friend, prepared to wait to see if it lives up to the hype. 

And ohhhhh, it lived up to the hype. It was Friday night after work, we were both a touch tired and a touch hungover and we needed stodge. Fay Maschler in her review described the food as "slightly white trash, comfort-eating easy pickings" -  perfect. 

I got there first and secured our place in the queue. Only a half hour wait this time, and with a glass of Prosecco and fellow queuers to chat to, this flies by. Spuntino has only one table at the back, the rest of the seating is around the bar, where we sat. We upgraded my glass to a bottle, and were given an enamel mug of freshly made popcorn (they have a machine behind the bar), heavily salted and dressed with chilli oil - yum.

Popcorn

Menu

I don't think there was ever much doubt about what we were going to have from the menu - sliders and mac and cheese. We had pulled pork and pickled apple and ground beef and bone marrow sliders. Both were fabulous, but the beef and marrow slider was exceptional - when you squeezed the bun to take a bite it would ooze with meat juices and the mini burger was juicy and full of flavour. Calorie confession number one: 'off camera', we ordered another beef and marrow slider - each. 

Ground beef and bone marrow and pulled pork and apple sliders. Manna from heaven.

In a vague attempt to inject something green 'n' good into our meal, we ordered spinach and pine nuts to go with our mac and cheese. Bloody hell, even the spinach was good, heavily garlicked and dressed with butter and pine nuts. Then the macaroni cheese arrived. Served in a hot iron pan this was just what we needed  - proper carb and cheese laden loveliness, all crispy on top and stuck to the bottom to scape off. Oozy and delicious, I think everyone in the place had ordered one of these. A very wise choice.  

Mac and cheese with spinach on the side

Were we, by this point, stuffed to the gills, not able to eat another thing? No ladies and gentlemen, we were not and there was pudding to contemplate. Calorie confession number two: we ordered three puddings between two of us. We had to, we couldn't choose between the three we really wanted and I'm so glad we did. 

Chocolate, pecan and whisky cake.

My friend Vicky desperately wanted the chocolate, pecan and whisky cake, and very nice it was too.

I desperately wanted the brown sugar cheesecake with drunken cherries, and this was utterly divine. 

Brown sugar cheesecake and drunken cherries

And neither of us were leaving there without trying the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I had visions of this being bread based and was a little dubious, but couldn't have been more wrong. To use a really annoying Americanism: OMG.  It was two layers of peanut butter ice cream sandwiched together with raspberry jam and topped with sprinkles of peanut butter brittle. It was utterly divine. 

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich. My new love.

Apparently, the model Kate Moss has been known to say in the past that 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels'. She's obviously never eaten at Spuntino.