Vineet Bhatia London – Fragmented Perfection: A Peek Inside VBL

When it comes to dining out, the little details count.

It could be the waiter remembering your favourite cocktail, the way your backside yields to the banquette seating, or the complimentary portion of fresh-out-of-the-oven bread and butter. In the same way elite sports coaches of “marginal gains”, for restaurateurs it’s those 1% differentials that add up to success.

I am reminded of this upon arriving at Vineet Bhatia London, a new restaurant from chef Vineet Bhatia and his wife, Rashima Bhatia, who takes care of everything from branding to HR. To gain entry to this converted Georgian townhouse, parked just off the trendy Kings Road, you have to ring the bell or knock the door. It’s a small but telling detail, signifying that VBL is no ordinary eatery but somehow exclusive; elusive, even.

And so it proves. Inside, I meet Rashima, who has agreed to show me round the recently refurbished space, formerly home to the Bhatias’ Michelin-starred Rasoi restaurant. VBL, she explains, has a completely different identity to Rasoi, more experiential and experimental in nature than its vaunted predecessor.

This is reflected in the decor of the intimate downstairs dining room, where shallow greys play against vivid yellows, turquoise and black to mark a loosening of formality from the heavy red and black tones of Rasoi. The colours apparently represent their Indian beginnings and British residence.

Rashima’s enthusiasm for what others may consider minutiae is startling. One of the rooms she is particularly effusive about is the Ladies Bathroom, which includes ornate tiling and an elegant bowl sink that she purchased via an online auction. On the first floor, she shows me round the restaurant’s two private dining rooms, which are themed to demonstrate the intersection between Indian and British architecture.

The London-meets-Mumbai motif continues into the tasting menu cuisine, which updates some signature dishes from the Rasoi days and furnishes them with some newer concoctions. Coconut Calm, Chocomosa, Mushroom Momo – it’s clear from the dish titles alone that Vineet has moved away from the playful yet respectful Indian preparations of Rasoi. Here, he is allowing his imagination to flourish.

“I was always held back by either financial restrictions in the early days, or by market perception of what box Indian food should sit in,” Vineet has said. “Times have changed now; people are more inquisitive and more connected to food.” As Rashima puts it, “VBL is not an Indian restaurant, but a restaurant that takes inspiration from Indian flavours.”

To underline this unique gastronomic vision, the pair have invested in a multitude of tabletop props, which I am shown in the kitchen. As with the dishes, each piece has a rich heritage, a story to tell – in many cases commissioned and designed to fit the needs of a certain menu item. Rashima takes me through each ware as though it were a child of hers. There are jagged placemats from the kiln of Maham Anjum; raised platform plates designed to mimic the contours of traditional Indian neck rings; cartoonish teapots; and dozens of stacked cloches.

It’s a dazzling range, both evocative and highly thought-out. But surely there is a danger of these idiosyncratic pieces confusing or at least diluting the honed VBL concept? Rashima takes a different stance. To her mind, the VBL concept is defined by its divergence and diversity; after all, Vineet is an Indian-born chef born living in England, with a collection of restaurants transversing the globe. To present a monolithic identity would be to misrepresent their journey.

And what of their signature broken plates, what do these represent?

“I have always been interested in the idea of imperfection,” she says instantly, as though it is a sentence never far from her thoughts. “I prefer art and design that is imperfect in some way. The broken plates were something that Vineet had seen and we felt were true to this ethos”

“For the plates and the placemats, we had to explain to Maham (their designer) that we wanted things with rough edges, that did not have uniform dimensions. To me that is more real and perfect in its own way.”

Later on, I sample the VBL experience myself. And it is an experience. We begin with a platter of refined Indian street food and end with petit fours jutting out of a ceramic, Dali-esque vase-like implement. Notable dishes in between include a stunning hot-smoked salmon dish —enclosed in a cloche which is lifted off at the table to release the smoke— an effervescent tuna tartare complete with billowing dry ice and faux-pebbles, and a dangerously tasty salted caramel ice cream served on a Himalayan salt block and garnished with toasted quinoa. Spellbindingly good.

Far from detracting from the food, the tabletop items add theatre and intrigue. At no time am I inclined to ask the waiter how a dish should be eaten, always a good sign. There is no elaboration for elaboration sake – dishes are intuitive and generous. At the risk of irking Rashima, I find few traces of imperfection.

For more on Chef Vineet Bhatia, go here: http://vineetbhatia.com/

By Isaac Parham