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Poco Wins Hearts with Fresh Pasta, Authentic Italian, Indulgent Roasts and Great Wine

Life’s not fair. Everyone discovers this sooner or later. Fortune smiles on a few, and titters at the rest.

For proof, take Alfriston…

While many villages limp through with an out-of-service phone box and maybe a chippy, Alfriston (population approx 800) has been showered with an almost comical embarrassment of riches.

Four pubs (yes, four.) A charming array of independent shops. A tea house. A lovely church. And the first building – the Clergy House – deemed worthy of saving by the National Trust. All nestled in the lovely downland countryside of East Sussex.

And now – tangible evidence that Alfriston was first in line when the universe was handing out nice stuff – it has Poco too.

Poco Osteria, Alfriston

Poco inhabits a 13th-century coach house that’s previously been a cookware shop and a deli. Walk in off the street and you can tell Poco is cheerfully continuing this old building’s centuries-long legacy of making people full and happy.

A Cosy, Romantic Mood

It basically gives you the restauranting equivalent of a hug. There’s an iron stove over in the large red brick fireplace; the place has a pleasing amount of wood – floorboards, ancient beams, mismatched chairs; and Poco is full of people but the acoustics and lighting are intimate.

The cosy, romantic mood is topped off by Vincenzo – an 85-year-old perched on a stool singing gentle Neapolitan songs of amore.

six bottles of wine on the wooden shelf at Poco

Poco models itself on Italian osterias – simple restaurants serving wine and good food sourced locally. The owner Jamie is born of Italian stock. His grandparents emigrated from Abruzzo to Sussex in 1946, and Jamie was taught to cook as a child by his Italian nonna.

Poco’s Many Hats

Poco wears a number of different hats and all of them fit snugly. It does legendary all-you-can-eat Sunday roasts of porchetta and saltmarsh Sussex lamb. You can treat it as a bottle shop for excellently sourced wine. And you can come here for its pasta-making courses.

Pasta is the soul of this osteria. It’s made fresh on-site every morning. Poco loves pasta. And anyone who’s seen Lady and the Tramp knows pasta IS love. That makes it the perfect setting for a romantic meal.

‘Small Menu, Big Wine List’

After he’s sat my wife and me down, Hayden the maitre’d happily explains Poco’s approach of ‘small menu, big wine list’. This allows them to nail everything that comes out of the kitchen, and find a perfect wine for everyone.

He recommends a lively, peppery Austrian white – Weingut Türk’s 2022 Grüner Veltliner from Kremstal. It’s become rampantly popular and Hayden laments the Austrians aren’t letting much of it beyond their borders anymore.

It goes down so nicely that there isn’t much left of my glass to pair with my starter of beef carpaccio. The wafer-thin, ruby-red slivers melt creamily in the mouth, with salty parmesan and spicy rocket giving the mellow meat some balanced drama. The beef comes from just 4 miles up the road.

beef carpaccio

My wife opts for a salad of whipped gorgonzola with radicchio, walnuts and pear. It’s a beautiful balance of milky, bitter, and sweet flavours.

salad of whipped gorgonzola with radicchio, walnuts and pear.

But then it’s time for the main act – the pasta.

My wife’s choice is the Beef Shin Tagliatelle Ragu. The ragu cooks for 8 hours on the bone so the marrow melts into the sauce… and then another 4 hours for good measure. While that rests overnight the bones are turned into a stock that’s added to the ragu. It’s a banger, and the most popular thing on the menu.

Beef Shin Tagliatelle Ragu

I go for something a little more delicate. The Spaghetti al Granchio mixes fresh dark and light crabmeat sourced from a fisherman in Eastbourne with white wine, a dash of chilli, and garnished with samphire. It’s subtle but flavoursome with a wonderful warmth from the chilli – and that unique salty crunch that only samphire gives.

The Spaghetti al Granchio

Hayden tells us that we’re both doing VERY well at cleaning every last morsel off every plate he gives us. He’s impressed, and we feel quite smug.

Sicilian Lemon Sorbet with Vodka

Then it’s pudding time and Hayden’s ego massage has made me feel brave. I choose the homemade Sicilian lemon sorbet with a cold shot of vodka. I’m instructed to pour the vodka over the sorbet like a zingy, boozy version of an affogato and I’m 100% there for it.

homemade Sicilian lemon sorbet with a cold shot of vodka and tiramisu in glass

It’s also 100% there for me. My first mouthful corrects my posture, and had I been wearing a tie, this dessert would have straightened it. The sorbet is almost impossibly tart, while the chilled vodka warms me at a cellular level. I feel like I’ve had a system reboot.

It’s here that Jamie comes over and says he’s recreated the sorbet vodka desert from memories of 5-hour family lunches in Sicily when he was a kid. Some people’s childhoods were more raucous than mine.

Lost In Tiramisu

Meanwhile, a Tiramisu has stolen my wife. She coos at it. Murmurs a little. And when I’m allowed to try some I see that I’ve been bested fair and square and there’s no shame in being cuckolded by a desert when it tastes like this.

We say goodbye to Jamie and Hayden and step out into the Alfriston night, breathing the air blessed enough to have been invited into this charmed village. And we feel just as lucky.

(RB Loves Poco for Valentine’s 2025!)

Want to know more about Poco Alfriston?
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Getting there
Opening Hours

Wednesday 6:00pm9:00pm

Thursday 6:00pm9:00pm

Friday 12:00pm3:00pm

Friday 6:00pm11:00pm

Saturday 12:00pm3:00pm

Saturday 6:00pm11:00pm

Sunday 12:00pm4:00pm