Time Out rating:
<strong>Rating: </strong>4/5
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<strong>Rating: </strong>5/5
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Time Out says
Thu Jul 12 2012
Bright and inviting both outside and in, Malina somehow melds unprepossessingly with the shops at the Hammersmith end of Shepherd’s Bush Road. This may account for its quietness on a recent Sunday lunchtime visit – certainly, neither the friendly welcome nor the delightful dishes merited empty seats. Encouragingly, however, an extensive Polish family were clearly enjoying themselves.
The decor promises both homeliness and elegance, and the food perfectly fulfils the promise. Beetroot soup had brilliance of clarity and flavour, its dumplings as light and pillowy as the assorted pierogi. Ribbons of zesty apple added unanticipated brightness to another starter, tender pickled herring. There was particular deftness evident in the cooking of mushrooms – in tortellini, pierogi and a chanterelle sauce with pork fillet. If it’s robust earthiness you’re after, the heftily portioned meat dishes won’t disappoint; the bigos, in particular, is a true trencherman’s dish served in a three-bread ‘bowl’, with care and correctness once again exhibited in the near-melting, long-cooked sauerkraut.
Desserts too can be as filling or light as you choose, with the raspberries that give the restaurant its name taking a leading role. This is Polish cuisine for enlightened and straitened times.
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