57. Harden’s 2018. Time Moves On.

  Following on from Blog 56, it’s interesting to look at a more recent edition of Harden’s Guide with the title Harden’s Best UK Restaurants 2018 printed boldly in burning red and yellow (plus a little blue) now on the cover.
  Little else has changed apart from the book’s dimensions, the percentage of the book taken up by restaurants in the United Kingdom outside of London (up marginally from 39.3% in 2011 to 45.4% in 2018) and the reversal of the scoring scheme so that marks now range from 5 (exceptional) down to 1 (poor) with the inbetween scores representing Very good (4), Good (3) and Average (2).
  So how did the West Midlands in general and Birmingham in particular fare in the more recent book?
 ‘Top scorers’ for restaurants outside London -

  £90 - Adam’s Birmingham.       5 5 4
            Lumière Cheltenham.      5 5 4
            Le Champignons Sauvage Cheltenham.    5 5 2
            Purnell’s Birmingham      4 5 4

  £80 - Carter’s Of Moseley Birmingham.       4 4 3

  £70 - Old Downton Lodge Ludlow.       4 4 4
            Cheal’s Of Henley Henley in Arden 4 4 3
            Fishmore Hall Ludlow            4 4 3
            The Cross At Kenilworth Kenilworth.         4 4 3

  £60 - Lasan Birmingham.           5 4 2
           Eckington Manor Pershore.           4 3 4
           Sebastian’s Oswestry.        4 5 3
           Purslane Cheltenham.        4 4 3
           The Butcher’s Arms Eldersfield        4 4 3

  £50 - Prithvi Cheltenham.           5 4 4
           Bosquet Kenilworth.          5 4 3

  £40 - Harborne Kitchen Birmingham          5 4 4
           Pascal At The Old Vicarage Burton On Trent.         5 4 4.

  Sadly only about 6.8% of restaurants on the 2018 ‘Top scorers’ list were located in the West Midlands and this has not really changed from 2011 when the percentage of non-London ‘Top scorers’ was about 6%.

  The Birmingham restaurants mentioned in the 2018 list were Adam’s, Al Frash, Carter’s Of Moseley, Edgbaston Hotel, Harborne Kitchen, Jyoti’s Vegetarian, Lasan, Not Real Indian (NRI), Opus, Original Patty Men, The Plough Harborne, Purnell’s, Rofuto, Sabah Sabah, San Carlo, Simpson’s, Tom’s Kitchen and The Wilderness. Interestingly the 2018 list includes 18 restaurants which was actually one less than the number of restaurants which received recognition in the 2011 edition. We might note of course that Turner’s had been closed rather wilfully by Richard Turner and therefore did not feature in the list and although his restaurant had disappeared from the Harborne dining scene others had taken its place.
  Between 2011 and 2018 the list changed considerably with only Jyoti, Lasan, Opus, Purnell’s and Simpsons appearing in both. The Birmingham dining scene continues to evolve.