Food and Drink - Restaurant review - Verru in Marylebone Lane

Published: 17 February, 2011
by MATTHEW LEWIN

Northern exposure to some unusual high-speck ingredients

SUDDENLY, Scandinavian food is in the spotlight. Noma in Copenhagen has ousted El Bulli from the top spot in the San Pellegrino best 50 restaurants in the world, and in London Danish chef Chris Hruskova’s North Road in Clerkenwell is blazing an acclaimed new trail.

And now we have Verru, which is described as a merging of Baltic and Scandinavian cooking (or Baltic and French cuisine, depending on which description you read), ensconced in a diminutive (just 26 covers) but well-designed little place in Marylebone Lane with raw brick work and oak parquet flooring.

Chef/patron is Estonian Andrei Lesment, who has worked in a variety of places around the world, including my own personal favourite, Pied a Terre in Fitzrovia.

He has some lovely ideas, and uses a lot of unusual ingredients (things like hop shoots, speck, forest mushrooms and beer, spatzle, roasted beetroot and goats’ cheese curd are common), and while we were impressed with a lot of the food, we were also just a touch disappointed at the lack of attention to some details.

The food ranged from really excellent to not quite good enough. Two of us started with a rich and flavoursome Scandinavian bouillabaisse served with a little slice of sweet onion tart on the side, and we were very happy.

Two others had roasted quail with some boudin noir (black pudding) in a mandarin sauce with almonds. This looked excellent – but would have been a lot better had the quail not been rather overcooked.

There was also a very nice salad including roasted beetroot, dried fruit paste, fresh goats curd, grapes and quince.

The main courses were equally mixed in quality. I loved my traditional pork on the bone (the Germans call it eisbein) served in a cast-iron pot with braised sauerkraut, cabanos, barley and caraway.

But my Chief Culinary Advisory found her sea bream unpleasantly salty – but there were some lovely tempura-like fried mussels and excellent caramelised leek.

The two who ordered the rump of lamb with an aubergine “sandwich” were delighted. But a breast of Barbary duck with creamed cabbage failed miserably to impress one of our party. That could be, mind you, because she is not overly fond of duck, and only ordered it because the waiter said it was one of the signature dishes of the house. A mistake, perhaps.

The bill came to more around £40 a head (including wine and service) and, given that we had only had two courses each, that felt just a little steep.

I note that there are cheaper lunches on offer – £12.95 for three courses, £10.95 for two – from a special menu that looks like a very much better deal.

SUMMARY

Small but cleverly designed new restaurant with a blend of Baltic, Scandinavian and French food that could be even better. Open all week for lunch and dinner. Expect to spend around £30 each before drinks and service. Cheaper lunch menus.

Rating: 3 1/2 Out Of 5 Stars

VERRU
69 Marylebone Lane, W1
020 7935 0858
info@verru.co.uk
www.verru.co.uk