254. 670 Grams.

My history of dining at 670 Grams is one of always arriving there as a downpour begins and secondly being depressed by the appalling state of Digbeth as unending roadworks cause mayhem for the traffic as it tries to escape the city centre. But once I’m there at 670 Grams life gets a lot brighter.

The first course is ready and waiting to drink down and to nibble at. Immaculate flavours from the word go. It’s impossible to recall the details of everything that was delivered to the table during the following 170 minutes as 16 courses eventually ended up on my table. There was a danger, at least to start, that this might look like series of a canapés but Kray Tredwell is far too clever, far too astute, far too tuned-in not to make this an experience which built up to a sturdy and memorable and utterly satisfying meal. There was no menu, dishes came along in a steady flow of happy surprises, some of them with the most luxurious of ingredients - scallops, lobster, wagyu, some of them as witty little twists on classics such as cauliflower cheese and New York pastrami sandwich, often surprising and novel but totally apt combinations of flavours. It’s hard not to find at least one course you didn’t enjoy in a tasting menu but it is true to say that I enjoyed everything that came across the counter from the pass even though there were no fewer than 16 opportunities for me not to do so.

Tredwell hit the flavour button with just about everything - the opening chunk of grilled pineapple set the scene as it became much more than a chunk of pineapple. And gradually I worked my way through, pleasured every time at the clearing of another fascinating ceramic till what I suppose might be described as the main course came along, Tredwell’s fine and witty take on char siu. After that, no less than four predessert/desserts/petit fours, each a delight and the the 16 course tasting menu had come and gone. This was a tasting menu in the true sense, soupçons of flavour (not for getting textures), original frequently delicious and all admirable. This restaurant remains unique in Birmingham. It’s vaguely anarchic, elsewhere it would be served in a grand dining room where it would be ceremonious rather than that little bit cheeky. You have only to catch sight of Chef, driven and in the zone, putting his dishes together to see that something truly great is hatching in this little restaurant in the Custard Factory.