My ski friends (including fellow Yelper Lesley B from Manchester) and I had a reunion yesterday. We hit the indoor snowdome at near by Tamworth and I was delegated the task of finding somewhere nice for dinner.
Now, considering Birmingham is the UK's second largest city, you'd think that it would be full of lovely fine dining experiences. Well, you'd be wrong and I was struggling when the few Michelin starred places were fully booked
So what's the next best thing to a Michelin starred restaurant? A restaurant run a chef who used to run a Michelin starred restaurant!
The chef-patron Andy Waters won a Michelin star when he ran a restaurant of the same name in Henley-in-Arden. He has upped sticks to open this restaurant in central Birmingham in July last year and the Michelin people have already been expressing an interest in rating his new restaurant
The restaurant is quite cozy but beautifully decorated in a modern style with an eye for detail extending from interesting curved light arrangements hanging from the ceiling to flowers in the bathrooms.
After an afternoon's exertions on the slopes, we were hungry and opted for the tasting menu, which included 7 courses with coffee and half a bottle of water included in the price. There was a choice offered for 4 courses
1. The amuse bouche was a cup of parsnip and apple soup. My friend summed it up perfectly by saying it was a taste of Christmas in a cup
2. I opted for Cornish crab with crispy king prawn & salmon tartare for my first course. The Cornish crab tasted very fresh and was accented with some caviar. The salmon tartare could have done with a foil, perhaps something with a bit of texture for contrast. The crispy king prawn was so lovely I even ate the deep fried tail, which flummoxed my friends when they found my plate to be bare! My sister said her carpaccio of beef with ricotta & parmesan cheese, rocket leaves & sweetened red pepper married flavours together perfectly
3. While the others enjoyed wonderfully sweet seared scallops with almonds, sultanas & caper butter sauce, I couldn't resist the seared foie gras with poached pear & spiced Muscat sauce. A good choice with decadently rich liver being offset by the sweet pear and sauce.
4. I think the restaurant undersold our universal choice for main course by describing it as "Jimmy Butler's free range pork with apples, calvados & a confit of savoy cabbage". Once the maitre d' had clarified that this was pork prepared in 4 ways - black pudding, slow braised cheek, pan roasted loin and roasted belly, the monkfish alternative was quickly dismissed. My favourite preparation was the braised cheek, which went very well with the black pudding it was sitting on
5. The cheese course was a deep fried ball of goat's cheese with a slice of truffle and honey. I love truffle and I felt it was a bit drowned out by the goat's cheese, so I ate my slice separately!
6. Our pre-dessert of passion fruit jelly was topped with a fruit mixture. Nice palate cleanser
7. The kitchen was unable to offer the desserts on the tasting menu and so we were given free choice of the dessert menu to choose from. We all chose different dishes to be able to share different things. My poached pear was lovely. My sister's tiramisu was a deconstructed version of the Italian classic shaped into a chocolate box. Lesley B's chocolate fondant didn't quite have the molten interior expected while the last dessert was a trio including mango sorbet.
Some lovely petit fours accompanied coffee.
The ingredients in the dishes included some real treats - caviar and truffle to name 2. The presentation was also top class. A couple of minor technical slips but a most enjoyable meal
Service was lovely and we were able to chat quite a lot with the maitre d' to find out a bit more about the restaurant and its history.
I await with interest to see if the Michelin guide will reward them in January read more