You shouldn't judge a book by its cover or a restaurant by the music it plays. However, you can safely make an exception for "Malva" in Munich. The background music tells you as soon as you enter that a visit here in Haidhausen is a celebration of joie de vivre. In summer, you can sit in the courtyard next to the brick wall overgrown with ivy. But even when it gets cooler outside, the small restaurant run by Clemens Huber and Julian Fritz - who both cooked at the Green Star-winning Restaurant Broeding in Neuhausen - exudes a charm all of its own. This is due to the elegant, curved bar, the fact that you can watch them cooking in the kitchen and, last but not least, the service, which is pleasantly hands-on without flaunting the art of waitressing. "We cook classic dishes here that have been perfected over centuries," says Huber. "You don't have to reinvent anything, but we aim to adapt them to our style." And they succeed: Right from the first of the evening's four courses, which consists of marinated tomatoes, a sweet onion and ume creepers, one thing becomes clear: the two chefs are bold. In fact, the three ingredients on the plate consist only of sweetness, freshness and savouriness. The next course continues in the same vein: nettle malfatti with wild mushrooms and fermented wild blueberries. Once again, a familiar dish surprises with an unexpected kick of freshness from the berries. The "Malva" enriches the gastronomic scene with unconventional cuisine that impresses with its lightness and joie de vivre.
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