RHU : RESTAURANT REVIEW 
RATING : 3 STARS / 5  (GOOD)
CHEF : TUSHAR GROVER 
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND 
VISITED APRIL-MAY 2025
 
 
There was a glowing, star-making review from Jesse Mulligan of NZ Herald at the end of 2024 heralding Chef Varun Grover. It declared this young professional as the consummate finished product, making not just good food but also hauling cutting-edge techniques. I'd visited Pasture in the same spot in 2017 - Mulligan had praised that joint to the skies too but the 'bad behaviour' scandals that singed Chang and Redzepi, razed to ashes Pasture's fire-driven space. The sous chef from that place had now risen phoenix-like to create his own restaurant.
 
Rhu means "soul" in Hindi and the cuisine here certainly has that quality. It is a bustling breakfast and brunch spot but dinner rush is yet to pick up. The place is compact and has a cafe-style set-up - it is unlikely to win any design awards. From most tables, you can see the kitchen pass and the counter where coffee is made. Semi-polished stone floors and blond wood tables with no table-cloth complete the spartan feel. You may come back for the food but not for any special-occasion ambience. Sometimes the chefs double as waitstaff and do a good job at it, but the dedicated waitstaff on the first evening, though decent, lacked personality. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
There are subtle points of departure from the usual Euro-centric ethos. For example, the table has no spoon, fork or knife pre-arranged - instead a medium-sized plate on the side has a pair of chopsticks parked atop. 
 
 
 
 
The first offering I tasted here - Kingfish with Vanilla - was like the chef's riveting business card being proffered. Nearly ten cuddly slices dovetailed into each other like interlocking fingers, these pearly pink morsels were simply delish, the vanilla a whisper, the citrus gently teasing the pleasant heft of the kingfish into a demersal haze betwixt sashimi and cooked - an offering that would give any ceviche in town a run for its sol.
 
 
 
 
The Fried Chicken was some of the best I've had. On a Facebook group, I set off a little querulous storm when I posited that if they successfully commercialized this, they'd put KFC out of business. 'Twas superior quality chicken fried to a state of surpassing tenderness and glorious crunch. Seasoned with a spice mix so zingy and balanced you'll spend all day figuring it out. With a sauce from "Wicked" - advertised as wasabi sauce, a gentle blend likely with coriander mixed in, like a luxuriously creamy chutney. 
 
 
 
 
"Aged Duck, Radish" - at $42 for a main course, you'd expect something that would expand the waistline of a supermodel. Not here - this stays true to Naomi C and C Crawford. You couldn't fault the arrangement - they said it would take fifteen minutes to cook but that time was likely spent in origami. The duck was nice but not worthy of the zenith Rhu's looking to sashay on to. Ditto for the radish whose petal-like geometry did not bloom into intrinsic taste.
 
 
 
 
While service was good, what rankled on that first evening was an unsaid refusal to change the used plate. I kept the used plate with crumbs towards the other half of the table but this was not cleared. It did not bother me a great deal and I could have verbally requested so, but in a place with a purported premium menu where food and drinks can easily climb upwards of $ 100 per person, this slip-up of service affects the notion of luxury, particularly in a place which is wondering why they do not pack in the patrons for dinner. On the second visit, where the chef was doubling as front-of-house the vigilance and pro-activeness was ironically much better. 
 
It is a daring idea to integrate the flavour of Marigold flower into ice-cream. This flower, popular in India with its bold, spicy fragrance, was successfully infused into ice-cream, but after the novelty and two-dimensional flavour wore off, you were left with a $18 bowl of white ice-cream that would have paled before a $4 good ol' vanilla cone. Other components to make this a composed dessert ? You forgot about minimalism, silly ! 
 
 
 
 
Starters average $24, and main course $42. There are other spots in Auckland which offer elevated cuisine in pared down settings : Mr.Morris and Ahi. But they are run by established star chefs Michael Meredith and Ben Bayly whose name recognition and associated crowd-pulling power do the trick along with considered cuisine. Here the ambience is stripped back, the mains are not substantial enough and the desserts are an afterthought - unless you are a nouvelle cuisine enthusiast, there is little to tempt you back.
 
 
 
 
On both my visits in early winter, there was torrential rain which initially made reaching the restaurant in a parking-restricted area an arduous drive. But on both occasions, like the typical capricious Auckland dame she can be, the rain stopped, the streets were empty and the short walk to the restaurant was easy. There were five other tables occupied on my first visit, and three on the second. 
 
On the second evening, the young chef - Danny - doing double duty as waitstaff bore a striking resemblance to how the Tamil film hero Silambarasan looked in 2010's 'Vinaithandi Varuvaya'. He had the young clean-shaven Silambarasan's springy agility too. I have never been attended to by a film hero, so this was indeed a special experience. Chef Varun Grover spoke to other patrons but we could never get around to speaking to each other.
 
 
 
 
When was the last time you had "toasted rice water emulsion" in a restaurant ? They had a dish named 'Best part of Congee' which now lives on in this form. Order "Rice, edamame, yeast" and you get a unique dish humming with umami and abundant vegetal zip. There is no actual rice - it has been transformed to please a Frenchman far outside of Camargue, just as there is no actual fried chicken skin but you won't miss it thanks to something else. 
 
The white base of the dish is akin to a light whipped-up sauce, sporting a subtle rainbow savouriness. The chef who was doubling as waitstaff explained a 6 hour process whereby the extracted "milk", cream and parmesan then commingle to create a communion concoction (pardon the religious fervor, the pope was getting elected around this time). Roasted yeast on top not only delivered crunch but also a wonderful smoky-meat umami. There were tranches of light green vegetables, and enough edamame to last the whole of 2025. Sherman's mom would have lovingly approved of scoffing all of that verdure down. 
 
 
 
 
That I chose the mushroom skewers over the miso cashew chicken skewers should tell you how much I looked forward to this dish. Portobello mushroom chunks were gloriously grilled with char et al, but for all their succulence, they lacked the maddeningly pleasurable flavour mushrooms can sometimes ensconce. The sauce cooked with mushroom stem and butter was pleasant. 
 
 
 
 
The salmon main course made up for the previous main's disappointment. Multiple points of excellence lifted it. The sauce with yuzu, orange, lemon coaxed into a beurre blanc was beautiful. Large nasturtium leaves were snugly tucked around the salmon end to end - if you've never seen a green fish, here's your chance. While this wasn't fish grilled in banana leaf to give it a tropical fragrance like some other styles of cuisine, it was a neat technical feat coupled with textural enhancement - you can't eat the banana leaf but you can eat this leaf.The gently flavourful salmon was fetchingly soft - when I told them this rivaled the Mt Cook Alpine Salmon I had at Hilton's Fish restaurant last year, I was informed this was the same variety ! 
 
 
 
 
A side of tomato and strawberry sported little resonance of the intrinsic ingredients (a missed chance in virtuosic sourcing). But cool jelly beneath had a trippy freshness, which when consumed with the former, elevated this salad. For the umpteenth time with an offering like this, I remembered Alain Passard.
 
 
 
 
I asked about the recommended dessert and a little mille-feuille sandwich of chocolate and hazelnut was suggested. It had limited flavour and was more of a grad school riff than sonata. The pastry section here is plain goofing off and you can't jettison the coda like this when you build up the act so meticulously. 
 
 
 
 
From all accounts, they're doing romping business at breakfast and brunch but dinner seems to have limited traffic, the staff themselves saying customers feel it's a bit "experimental". Being an admirer of avant garde, you won't find me similarly cribbing. But on the first visit, the main course section certainly did seem lean, with the next visit improving on that impression. On both visits though, what fell short was the anemic underdeveloped desserts and main courses which did not have the multi-component sumptuousness that satisfies patrons.
The environment could also do with a touch more of the deluxe that nouvelle cuisine places benefit from. The service staff do not have enough charm and personality to fuel a place like this (I'm not talking about the chefs who sometimes double as waitstaff). 
 
From the equally important flavour angle though, this team of chefs can certainly compete at Auckland's higher echelons. At least four different times, I was impressed by the dish quality and creativity and if you can deliver that more often, you can only prosper. Sid Sahrawath reached the top of Auckland's nouvelle cuisine years ago - the only other Indian-origin chef heading in that direction is Varun Grover. 
 
 
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