Verru

Looking for a quiet spot to dine and indulge in Scandi-​fare? Look no further…
Icelandic Cod, crab appetizer, green fresh salad, cheesecake. Great service, and very quiet. Tucked away on Marylebone Lane — Verru is sophisticated, subtle and will most likely exceed your expectations. Satisfying food and a robust wine list.
If you’ve been looking to impress a date, catch up with a friend or need a quiet lovely place to dine solo, I highly suggest Verru.

I can’t believe I had to learn about Verru from a friend who was visiting! It was so good I should be hearing about it from people who live here:)
My friend told me that Scandinavian cuisine was «in» and I had to try it. I didn’t know much about Scandinavian cuisine but I’m so glad I was went for it because it was delicious.
The evening we went to Verru it was mostly empty, I think we were too early to see how busy it gets in Marylebone. The staff was attentive and lovely and when we wanted to order a vegetable appetiser that they didn’t have, they were very nice about it and their chef offered to make us something else instead with the vegetables he had. I am grateful that he did because eating that appetiser was a culinary revelation. I never knew someone could do such things with tempura! It was the lightest, finest, melt-​in-​your-​mouth tempura vegetables I’ve ever had. We were dying over it and the staff was nice enough to answer our rapturous questions. I don’t think I have ever asked so many questions about a carrot haha. Their carrot was made with too much love, the recipe (the waitress kindly informed us) involved it being marinated for ages in a plastic ziplock in the freezer and then dropped into boiling water at a very exact temperature for a very exact number of minutes. It was definitely worth the amount of work they put into it but I am so glad it’s not me doing all that cooking for a small sliver of perfect carrot!
Everything we had was made with skill, presented beautifully, and tasted great. The steak was excellent and cooked perfectly. It was not as expensive as I was expecting, considering how fancy it seemed, which was nice. The venue itself is alright, it didn’t impress me too much and not particularly memorable or well-​laid out, and the portions are not too large but it was such a culinary experience that it hardly made a difference. I only wish their menu had more choice and was larger. I went home feeling very happy to have partaken in such delicious and talented cooking.

Verru is a gem of a find in Marylebone. Excellent high-​end «Batlic» fusion food. Worth a visit for any foodie.
For a starter I had the seared scallops served with press chicken wings. Unusual combination for sure, but it actually worked. The boneless chicken wings were fantastic. For a main I had the «perfect steak» served with chips and a glass of wine for under £17. Unclear if the steak was «perfect» but it was properly cooked and sure was tasty. My friend had the halibut with pork belly — stunning presentation (see pics). All in the food was very well executed with a unique twist — I’ve never seen halibut paired with pork for instance. Portions are very small, but prices are reasonable for the quality. My only compliant is the layout of the restaurant is a bit awkward, it’s very long and a bit crowded.
I’ll definitely need to come back as there were quite a few other eclectic dishes on the menu that sound great!

The tiny portions of food rather reminded me of the old nouvelle cuisine — but with added swirls, dashes and dots of other flavours, as is the fashion at the moment. I’m not sure I approve of reducing excellent ingredients to tiny blips of babyfood in this way!
Some of the dishes were very tasty but my squid starter was rather odd and disappointing. Three teeny-​weeny swirls of squid with a couple of sauces that reminded me of home-​made tomato ketchep and brown sauce. Not really very nice.
I think my friends made better choices from the menu. Their food seemed to be a lot nicer than mine.
It was quite hard to identify all the ingredients listed on the menu amongst all the blobs and splashes on the plate. Also it’s hard to see what any of it had to do with Scandanavian or Baltic food.
Went here with some rather alcoholic friends so the outrageous bill at the end over £50 each was doubtless caused in part by them gulping far too much wine.
I’m not sure whether I’d recommend it or not. Definitely don’t go there with people who’re going to drink way too much unless you’re the money no object type. Ouch!

I don’t frequent Marylebone very often but I know this northern end of the wonderfully squiggly Marylebone Lane has foodies coming to establishments like Golden Hind for fish and chips and Relais de Venise for their famous steak with green sauce
However, Giles Coren’s Times enthusiastic review of Verru led me just round the corner from these 2 culinary heavyweights to this little restaurant serving food with a Scandinavian base with accents from other culinary traditions
My friend and I were on a schedule as we were going to the theatre straight after our meal and our servers were lovely at making sure that we had a great dining experience but with enough speed in the service to get us away in plenty of time
I like the elegant menu offering 6 dishes in each section. Trust me — 6 is plenty when everything sounded so yummy, making choosing your dish extremely difficult, with the constant fear that you may be mising out on another even more delicious dish! As a sign of just how yummy the menu is, I actually turned down foie gras (probably a first for me!) because something else tasted more tasty and intriguing!
I went with the pan-​fried scallops, pig trotters & crumbs, nashi pear and red curry. Just by reading the description, you can immediately tell that combination is going to work. Giles Coren said this was the first restaurant in which the various blobs of different coloured sauces are actually for taste rather than some cheffy attempt to be arty. The sweet scallop, unctuous trotter, crispy pear and slight curry kick ate well as a single bite
My friend had the crab cromesquis, crab mayonnaise, sweet’n’sour melon and frozen citrus yoghurt. It’s easy to overwhelm the wonderful flavour and texture of fresh crab but these light flavours lifted the crustacean meat to new heights
For main, I went with the loin of Berkshire deer, crispy suckling pig belly, baked beetroot, rhubarb and treacle jus. Pairing gamey deer with sweet pork gave a lovely contrast on the plate. The pork had been pressed into a uniform slab but importantly, there was crunchy crackling on the top
My friend had the wild halibut, roast cauliflower, buckwheat, summer garden, mussels and lemongrass sauce. A most summery dish with the use of lemongrass rather than lemon making the citrus sauce more mellow and rounded
Unfortunately, time dictated that we had to leave for the theatre without indulging in dessert. However, we had a splendid meal with nice innovative use of ingredients and flavour combinations

Had a lovely meal here last weekend. All the dishes were delicious, and the set menu is fantastic value. Everything was cooked perfectly and the wine was great!
Would definitely come here again and recommend to a friend!

On a Saturday evening, I planned to go to Relais de Venise (
), but then when I was there, I found a long queue in front of the restaurant. As I did not want to wait all night to get some food, I just walked down the road and entered Verru. A tiny restaurant, with a simple menu that looked nice.
It was not very busy, and the staff was attentive.
There are three reasons, why I don’t give five stars: First, I only got two slices of bread, and wasn’t ask if I wanted more. Not so good. Then I could only order a whole bottle of water, and not just a glass. Also not so good, if you’re dining alone. Third, the espresso was not that good. Fair enough, also not that bad.
The food was very delicious, and the wine was okay as well. As I went for the Skandi special, I could not choose a wine, besides choosing between red and white. But the red that came with the dish was okay, first I thought it was bit warm, but it actually tasted right.
So, after I finished the two slices of bread, I did not have to wait very long for the meat to come. And it was very tasty. It was thin and quite big, came with a good sauce and some (not too many) chips.
The dessert, a elderflower cheesecake with strawberries, was also very nice.
And finally the espresso, was average, nothing that really needs to be mentioned.
But anyway, the main and the dessert were really good, the place was quiet, not very busy, some nice music was playing in the background, and the staff was very friendly and besides not offering more bread very attentive. It’s a nice place to go for dinner!

Verru is small Scandinavian restaurant in Marleybone. I have to say I was really impressed with the food. It was a great value. They have a 3 course lunch special for £15 and dinner is also very reasonable. The wait staff was friendly and you should drop by. My favorite dishes are the sherry chicken pie, the Swedish meatballs and the apple crumble. All are to die for.