In the past I have described Alex Claridge as a genius. Lunch at The Wilderness today has not made me change my mind.
A multi-course lunch of exceptional dishes for just £40. Not just genius but a philanthropist.
Heading through the unending drizzle from St Paul’s tram station to Warstone Lane in the heart of the Jewellery Quarter I was pleased to see the restaurant’s black (naturally) sign hanging at the entrance to a passageway above that of the fine little 24 Carat Bistro which is a grand little place. At the other end of the passageway were the entrances to the two restaurants with that of the The Wilderness rather unexpectedly bookended by two plants with flaming red leaves - a surprising splash of intense colour opening up to the famously black-dominated decor of the restaurant’s interior. Clever.
On entering, the first person I bumped into was the very familiar face of the new General Manager - Sonal Clare who had been General Manager at Purnell’s for several years but who was now looking very much at home and comfortable in his new environment and dressed rather more ‘smart casual’. Nice jacket. It was also delightful to be greeted by Loubie Goldie who has been restaurant manager and marvellous front of house lead certainly since Nomad became The Wilderness, then with its moss-covered walls, in Dudley Street and whose welcoming charm beautifully complemented the exciting food that has been coming out of the kitchen since those early days.
The menu revealed the delights to come. Well to a certain extent anyway. Obviously the menu did not give precise details and left a bit of mystery for the diner to be properly surprised, always for the right reasons, every time a dish appeared.
I can’t go into detail because there’s too many details for any normal human brain to have remembered but nothing - absolutely nothing - disappointed. Pictured below are the spicy little saag-filled beignet with a nice, spicy bite, the excruciatingly fabulous Big Mac steak tartare, the piercingly tasty yuzu ponzu trout - the prettiest, most colourful dish in Birmingham - with its exquisite little doll’s house mushrooms and mushroom dashi, the most perfect lamb with a pistachio crust and the mild bite of mustard with a little piece of lamb’s tongue and a sweetly pickled taste of some Roscoff onion and the uniting delicious lamb sauce around it all, the wondrous ‘milk and cookies’ followed by a light and very happy final course of Yorkshire rhubarb, with rhubarb ice cream, toasted fragments of crunchy corn flakes and yogurt on top like the snow at the top of the mountain you have just climbed. Not that it was a hard and difficult climb, more a gentle ascent through the most pleasant of pastures to the most picturesque of uplands. The Wilderness, not A Wilderness.
Of course there was one last little gem to be had - the trademark chocolate skull, this time very pleasingly made from sweet white chocolate. I held it in my hand and mentally spoke the words, “Alas poor Yorick, I knew him Horatio ....” and then sank my teeth into it!
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| Alas poor Yorick, I knew him Horatio .... |
The Wilderness’ departure from the Jewellery Quarter is expected any week now - probably April - and it will resurrect itself in the restaurant on Bennett’s Hill, off New Street, where Adam’s had its first pop-up version before moving to Waterloo Street and where subsequently Claridge’s own Nocturnal Animals was located for the short period of its existence. It looks as exciting as you would expect, with zebra-striped furniture rather than the total blackness of the present incarnation. I asked Loubie Goldie if she would miss the present location and she said she would - I think they’d all grown rather attached to it - but the current location probably was not as good for ensuring every table would be fully booked compared with a more central location.
Heaven knows what effects the coming weeks of potential virus-induced self isolations will do for the restaurant trade here in Birmingham and in the wider West Midlands. Restaurants in cities and towns such as Hereford, Shrewsbury and Ironbridge have already been badly hit by the floods that followed the record rains of recent weeks (February 2020 was the wettest February in recorded history) and here in Birmingham unprecedented numbers of high range restaurants are opening so competition for custom is growing almost weekly. A hit from a Coronavirus epidemic could be very damaging to the future of some our remarkable restaurants. So I intend to make the most of them while we’ve got them just in case some of them disappear during 2020.
One final note - The Wilderness has been nominated, along with Aktar Islam’s Opheem, as Best Restaurant in the British GQ Food and Drink Awards 2020 (also nominated are The Lecture Room and Library at Sketch, London, Midsummer House Cambridge, Ynyshir Powis and Mana Manchester). Michelin Star-less The Wilderness is certainly in good company in that group. Aktar Islam has also been nominated for the Best Chef award.
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| At the pass. |
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| The Wilderness - Now. |
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| The Wilderness - Things to come. |
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