Scorpion chef strikes again

10 April 2012

This review was published in May 2002

MVH stands for Michael von Hruschka who launched the restaurant of The Hempel hotel and later opened his own place, Birdcage, in Whitfield Street, which is now called Archipelago . He has re-emerged in Barnes, not doing all the cooking due to a spinal injury, but orchestrating a menu which he describes as classic. His partner in Birdcage, Caroline Faulkner, is again the inspiration behind the design.

The design deserves some explanation. The ground-floor restaurant signifies Heaven in shades of white with Murano chandeliers in clear glass, a white-painted shop window dummy holding a white feather, a rather rude representation of an angel plus a scattering of organic materials such as wood and stone.

A wardrobe door opens onto a staircase, which leads up to the bar painted in red to introduce the idea of Hell and chaotically decorated with tributes to its path, the Seven Deadly Sins. We confined ourselves to Heaven apart from a visit to the lavatory, which is lined with 500 silk roses on the theme of hot flush.

You can probably infer by now that Von Hruschka's notion of classic in food is not that of your ordinary mortal. He labels his first courses with names such as bisque, assiette, carpaccio, tataki, essence and then spoils the impact by serving a little bit of most of them as the amuse-gueule.

They arrive on platters too large to be easily accommodated on the small oval tables for four, and in their composition of ostrich and beetroot tartare, frothy soup, shellfish in a spoon, some mysterious substance wrapped in a ribbon of daikon and maybe other things (it is curiously unmemorable food), do more than take the edge off the appetite. It is the generous gesture of someone fascinated by his craft, but rather a misguided one.

Of the first courses tried, the bisque with foie gras, kaffir (presumably lime leaf rather than a black South African) and galangal (similar to ginger) was preferable to the parsnip, chestnut and cinnamon soup. More of the carpaccio of lobster and crab was eaten than the seafood and seaweed items served under the heading of assiette.

In the main courses, which arrived after a very long wait, wild boar was surprising in its presentation as thin slices and the inherent sweetness of carrots overwhelmed a poussin. The recipient of salmon served on a spaghetti of vegetables described it, impertinently I thought, as feminine and flabby.

The vegetarian option was more mystery packages, which didn't seem to get eaten even when the music - a theme on the menu covers - stopped. It took so long to reach the dessert moment that kalamansi torte, cassonades trio and caseus board (among others) did not appeal.

Barnes has nothing else like MVH, an observation you could safely apply to other boroughs. I dare say that the kitchen will eventually settle into doing something a bit less febrile and awkwardly time-consuming. Meanwhile, the staff are dedicated and sweet and very keen that you should enjoy the fruits of their boss's imagination and ambition.

Top Fives: South London eateries

MVH
MVH, 5 White Hart Lane, SW13

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in