233. Sabai Sabai Stratford Upon Avon

 

It’s Mothers Day in Stratford upon Avon and the huddled masses are out and about in town, with their mothers, on a pretty fine day. Aware that it was probably going to be difficult to make a fairly late reservation for dinner at the restaurants of my choice, and a consultation of their booking sites confirming my fears. I suddenly thought of Sabai Sabai and became mildly enthusiastic about revisiting Thai food though anxious about dining in a chain restaurant. Let’s be honest, can a chain restaurant have a true soul? Lets’s find out.

  Stratford’s Sabai Sabai is quite a large restaurant and it was full of young families giving their young mothers a rest for a change (or perhaps they never eat at home on Sundays, I don’t know). It wasn’t going to be a quiet dinner with exuberant squealing infants scattered around the place and a very loud-mouthed young father sitting at the table next to me though fortunately that gentleman was paying his bill midway through my starter and had cleared off by the end of it.

  What could one do but order a double Monkey 47 and be impressed that the restaurant had Monkey 47 on its drinks list? As the Monkey entered the bloodstream everything became very tranquil and I could sit back and enjoy what was to come.

  I started off with a large duck crispy spring roll with a sweet dip. Nothing too remarkable and the salad garnish was notably undistinguished but the spring roll was thoroughly edible and, in truth, enjoyable.

  I couldn’t resist having a massaman beef curry with coconut rice for my main course. This was very generously portioned (enough to provide a takeaway meal the next day). The beef was tender if slightly dry but the sauce was tasty and I liked the little garnish of crispy fried onions. The rice was perfectly cooked and tasty. I should have liked a little more sweetness in the dish but I certainly enjoyed it.

  Dessert was a very fine and wobbly coconut panna cotta, the flavour of the coconut coming through well, with raspberry sauce slices of pleasingly tasty strawberry.

  I was very impressed by the busy front of house staff who quietly but politely and helpfully got on with their work amidst the hubbub.

  I stepped out into the darkening evening and concluded that this had been an enjoyable meal. If I fancy a Thai meal when I’m in Stratford in the future then I shall happily reappear at Sabai Sabai.

232. Lambs Of Sheep Street.

 

  Having booked my hotel in Stratford upon Avon to see the two Henry VI plays (yes, I know there should be three) which I was to see on two consecutive nights (in reverse order, yes, I know, but that’s the only way I could do it and it’s not as if I didn’t know the ending) I discovered that I had made the reservation for the same dates in March as they should have been in April and of course it was on one of those non-refundable cheaper rate deals so rather than lose my payment I gathered up the dog and off we trooped through the pretty fields of Warwickshire to the town of Shakespeare.

  Of course it just had to be Mothers Day weekend didn’t it? so the chances of eating anything but overcooked cod and chips or something in one of the cloned bistros in Sheep Street were minimal but then I remembered that Michelin still listed Lambs of Sheep Street (seemingly therefore not a cloned bistro replica). An early evening reservation was available so after walking Lucy The Labrador in the RSC Gardens I set off on my 30 second walk from our room in the Shakespeare Hotel to Lambs.

  Timber framed Lambs certainly reeks of Shakespeare and anyone visiting the town probably needs to dine there just so that they can swoon at its deeply Elizabethan ambience. The building dates back to the early 16th century and is thought to have been a part of the Shakespeare Hotel called The Shades where coachmen would settle down to a quiet drink after a day on the road bringing 16th century travellers to Stratford. In 1913 Lewis Carroll’s nieces opened a tea shop in the building and for much of the time since then it has been a place to repair to for sustenance. But, given all this atmosphere and history do food lovers need to dine there, as the Michelin Guide suggests, for the quality of the food? Well yes, I think they do.

  Things did not start too well with a bowl of quite expensive but undistinguished bread being served with a stingy amount of unremarkable butter. But putting that behind us the starter of seared scallops classically, and why not?, served with pea purée and crispy pancetta looked pretty and was cooked beautifully. The scallops were small but delicious and nicely cooked. A very enjoyable starter.

  I was delighted with my main course of beautifully cooked and generously portioned halibut with its beautiful tender, white flesh complemented by a fine beurre noisette nicely dotted with tiny cubes of cucumber and tomato with capers and samphire and sitting on a bed of excellent crushed potato. A very satisfying and wholly enjoyable dish.

  I was determined to see this fine meal to its logical conclusion and so went on to choose a vanilla panna cotta with a passion fruit sauce. Light and wobbly as it should be. Transiently I thought that the panna cotta was too sweet but the acidity of the passion fruit cut in just at the right moment and all was well with the world.

  This was good food and a meal which deserves to be recommended by the French tyre people. It has clearly kept its standards up for a long time and I look forward to dining at Lambs again.

231. Toffs By Rob Palmer.

 

    In Blog 199 I reported a three day visit to Lichfield including an evening dining at a pop-up by the former Hampton Manor Head Chef, Rob Palmer (Peel’s was awarded a Michelin star during his time there). After my meal at Palmer’s pop-up I wrote, “this was probably the finest meal I have had this year in any restaurant” and I was looking forward enthusiastically to Palmer’s planned new restaurant which he told me he was soon to open in Solihull.

  And so it was just 6 days after he had opened Toff’s there I was perched, not entirely by choice, on a stool at the chef’s counter, witnessing Palmer’s chefs busily going about their business. To be truthful I would rather have sat at an ordinary table, relaxed and in the background, but there I was and the chefs were a pleasure to speak to. The sommelier was initially a little tense but everything settled down and we got on with the eating and drinking and a gin - Sipsmith or nothing at this stage, understandably, Rome was not built in 6 days  - helped me to settle down on my stool and get into observing the dish preparation as the gentle flow of work took place before me. 

  There was a choice of a five or seven course tasting menu. Dare I risk missing any one of Palmer’s dishes? No, I dared not. So, seven courses it was to be then. Good choice.

  Two exquisite little appetisers to start. One, a profoundly tasty tidbit of Old Winchester cheese custard  accompanied by strips of onion pickle on a cracker (exceptionally delightful) and the other an also gorgeous amuse gueule made up of smoked cod’s roe, beetroot and fennel. Then a fine bread was served, light and tasty with delicious cultured butter. I was now resigned to having a pretty fabulous meal as I had hoped for.

  To the starters - firstly, a lovely dish using new season asparagus, Berkswell cheese and chicken (look at the photograph, a lovely-looking dish that tasted even better than it looked). Then mackerel  (the usual taste of the fish is too strong for me but this was tasty without being powerfully flavoured) with slices of golden beetroot and dill.

  Then very nicely cooked, delightfully sweet scallop beautifully matched with kohlrabi and a painfully moresome reisling sauce.  Such pleasures.

  We move on, the rhythm of the chefs’ work unfolding in front of me. A fine second fish course of nicely cooked monkfish on a bed of white cabbage and finished off with various sea herbs and a smoked sauce.

  And so to the duck main course which comes in two parts - first a beignet filled with very tasty ragu of duck offal and leg meat. This did not quite work for me, the texture was not quite right, mildly claggy, and I think it might have been more successful if it had been smaller and served with the duck itself. But the duck breast itself was lovely, not aggressively duck-flavoured which I don’t enjoy but the flavour more gently pleasing and the breast very tender though the skin was not notably crispy (realistically, how often does that happen?). The duck was accompanied, uncomplicatedly, by a perfectly textured carrot and apple and the whole gave great pleasure.

  The clock moved on. Devices and materials appeared to enable the chefs to prepare the desserts. We chatted as this all went on and I learned that one of the chefs had worked with Rob Palmer when he was at Peel’s and would have worked on some of the dishes I ate there just recently before he left for his new job.

  The first dessert was made up of nicely poached rhubarb with buttermilk and enjoyable anise-flavoured sticks and the meal was rounded off with the flavours of chocolate, sherry and vanilla.

  With my coffee I enjoyed a fudge especially made as a play on the name of Palmer with its links to  Palmer’s Toffees, a confectionery of the past and which, in an extension of the wordplay, had given rise to the restaurant’s name itself, Toff’s, deriving from the toffee part of Palmer’s toffees. Thus now we had Palmer’s Toffs and hopefully we will have it for a long time ahead.

  I returned to Birmingham, replete and happy, and slept well at The Grand Hotel. Having intended for a long time to have breakfast at nearby Dishoom I set off for there and was settled at a table ordering my first meal of the day. There was quite a selection on offer and I eventually settled on, after a discussion with the helpful waitress, akuri, “an Irani cafe staple. Three eggs, spiced, scrambled and piled up richly alongside plump, home-made buns and served with grilled tomato”. I did not enjoy the dish. It was not attractive to look at, the flavour was poor, not enough spice, not enough salt, a flavourless, tough tomato and ‘buns’ which looked like something you could pick up in an Asda rather than in any way being homemade. The only ingredient on the plate which had any life in it was the ketchup (whether or not that was out of a bottle I know not) and without the ketchup, the dish would have been totally inedible. Definitely one to miss in the future.  

Finally:-

230. The Mount.

 

  Amid much publicity and general food-loving public anticipation, Glynn Purnell’s first ‘pub’, The Mount, (see Blog 223) has finally opened across the road from the excellent Cheal’s of Henley on the main street of Henley-In-Arden. And so, on a bright, warm spring day here I am. And I love the place.

  As I walked down the road from the station the restaurant came into view. There was a flashy car parked outside and a minor madding crowd sitting outside drinking in the sunshine as well as drinking materials rather more liquid. There was a vaguely thrilling atmosphere before I even entered the building. Great stuff - it had the sort of excitement about the place that Glynn Purnell is so clever at conjuring up.

  A good welcome and I was guided to the dining room at the rear of the pub - the place was definitely bigger on the inside than on the outside. The first person to greet me was Chef himself and it was delightful to have a few words with him and shake his hand. He was clearly delighted with his new venture and, from what I could see, quite rightly too. The dining room was bright and modern with a lot of  pleasing art on the walls including some splendid flamingo pictures which could only find a place in a Purnell restaurant - quirky and playful with a twinkle in the eye humour. 

  And what a relief, the joy of Purnell’s former Gingers Bar was restored to me. The cocktail list had some  Gingers Bar classics on it and I enjoyed my scorched lemon and vanilla margarita so much that I lost all control and ordered a second. O, what pleasure.

    And so to the food.  My starter was fabulous - excruciatingly tasty Cheddar custard with equally excruciatingly tasty ‘sweet and sour tomatoes’ and pickled shallots and rocket (which of course I loathe but which fitted in perfectly with this dish). There’s no doubt - new kitchen but Glynn Purnell has not lost his touch.

  Then the main course of Wiltshire pork cutlet, tasty, tender, satisfying, perfectly cooked to my taste and served with delicious mash and charcutière sauce. What real pleasure. Then a pleasingly light dessert of mango parfait with grilled pineapple. All in all, a highly enjoyable lunch. This is a great addition to Glynn Purnell’s list of achievements. As I departed, Chef said farewell and it was a pleasure to have another short chat and hear how pleased he is with the new location which has attracted a scramble for reservations and to hear that he is opening a tapas bar in Edmund Street in a couple of months. That’s another interesting and exciting place to line up to visit.in the near future 

  

Chef and front of house? Why not?

229. Butchers Social

 

  By way of introduction to the Butchers Social it’s worth taking a, er, butcher’s at Blog 211 which reports a visit to Harborne Kitchen located in the old Walter Smith’s butcher’s shop where the first incarnation of the Butcher’s Social Club was founded by present Chef Patron Mike Bullard and Harborne Kitchen’s Jamie Desogus.

  Subsequently, in 2018, Bullard moved the BSB to the building in Henley in Arden where Glynn Purnell has just opened his first venture into pubs, The Mount (where I’m lunching tomorrow), and then, his family purchasing the The Forest Hotel in Dorridge, moved the BSB from Henley to the hotel in 2021. Sometimes it seems you can tell the history of West Midlands dining by mentioning just about ten buildings.

  Dorridge itself is an unremarkable, rather twee 1930s suburb for the comfortably off and it’s clear that Bullard was remarkably canny in opening his new restaurant there. The town is not a place you really take much notice of; the number of times I’ve sailed through Dorridge on the train journey from Birmingham to Stratford without lifting my head to take a look at it are countless. But it is exquisitely conveniently located close to Birmingham on the railway line and it is a matter of a few minutes journey from Moor Streetjcbzck or Snow Hill stations. And The Butcher’s Social can not be more than 20 yards distant from Dorridge Station - a brilliant location. 

  Here’s an interesting point which needs to be considered. Suddenly, apart from Kray Tredwell’s opening of his excellent but rather diminutive 670 Grams, all the major developments in West Midlands dining out are taking place not in the city itself but in villages/towns around it. Thus Tom Shepherd opened his new restaurant in Lichfield and just a few months later was awarded a Michelin star, the starred Peel’s restaurant is located in Hampton in Arden and has now been joined there at Hampton Manor by Stuart Deeley’s Smoke and the remarkable Grace And Savour. Based on his recent pop-up in Lichfield I tip Rob Palmer to be the next starred West Midlands Michelin-starred chef for his newly opened Toff’s in Solihull. And Glynn Purnell himself is extending out into the surrounding West Midlands with his highly publicised The Mount in Henley (did I mention I shall be lunching there tomorrow?) situated across the road from Matt Cheal’s fabulous Cheal’s of Henley which has surely been wrongly overlooked when it comes to the handing out of Michelin glitter.

  And what’s happening in Birmingham city centre itself with its failing trams, its tyrannical Council, its filthy streets and catchpenny’Clean Air Zone’? Nothing new to report. And that’s bad news for the city for all the great new chefs and some of the great older ones have sensed the direction the wind is blowing and that direction is straight out of the city. In fact we may be witnessing the closing days of Birmingham’s gastronomic golden age. 

  So, to where the action is …. Dorridge.

  The Butchers Social, located at one side of the Forest Hotel, with a nice outdoor seating area, is a pleasure to enter, spacious, attractive modern decor, a smart bar, an open kitchen where the smartly turned out chefs are beavering away. The front of house staff are excellent, knowledgeable and welcoming. And isn’t it nice to have a simple three course menu with a good but not excessive range of gastronomically titillating dishes on it. I was comfortable and entering into the spirit of things and a glass of Hendricks and  tonic was getting air into the sails.

  For my starter, after a consultation with my very wise and charming waitress, I opted for three beautifully pan-seared scallops with miso, hazelnuts (which seem very in vogue at the moment) and watercress salad though I am bound to say that the watercress was more of a garnish than a full blown part of the dish (pleasingly, after my recent excursion to Weston super Mare (see Blog 228) it at least was not a peashoot garnish). This was a delicious start and I really felt that I was enjoying myself.

  In our deliberations, my waitress and myself had agreed that I should have a dish of stone bass (sublime, am I bad person for wishing that chefs would dump the turbot and serve more stone bass? - yes, I know turbot is far too expensive to ‘dump’ but still ….) served with punchy lobster ravioli, three charming seaweed, dumplings, a pot of enjoyable greens (kale, leeks, hispi cabbage and broccoli) and a highly enjoyable slice of dauphinois. Every element of the dish was excellent and I consumed it like a trencherman. 

  By now quite euphoric, I studied the dessert menu and concluded that these were my sort of desserts. Eventually I settled, again in learned consultation, for ‘pinky winky’ cherry parfait, decently flavoured, with tiny peaks of mango purée and coriander and mixed berry ice cream which was bursting with sweet sharpness. I’m a little bored with granola but I could see the point of it. Eschewing coffee per se, I chose another item from the dessert list - affogato with which I am currently obsessed - served with Kahlua, something which I may now consume on a twice daily basis.

  How lovely it is to really enjoy a meal. Butchers Social is now up there in my pantheon of West Midlands restaurants I most want to eat in.