A pleasingly gastronomically mid-autumn busy week with the evenings dark once more and The Grand Hotel busy and fun, with one or two local celebrities in the Madeleine bar and, since I know them, to have a short chat with. One is a prominent local politician whom we inform that we are off to dinner at The Wilderness; he looks excited at the prospect of dining there and tells us that he loves the place but then says he only once ate there - when it was a pop-up in Dudley Street. Later at the restaurant, I told one of the front of house staff we had been talking to the politician and he said how much he loved the restaurant only to be told with enthusiasm, “Oh yes, he was here just last week”. Why can’t politicians tell the truth?you ask yourself. There’s rather a long time difference between 2016 when The Wilderness was located in Dudley Street and one week ago with it firmly situated in Warstone Lane.
No matter - my guests and I, as would be expected, had a splendid evening at The Wilderness. Chef Alex Claridge was not to be seen - I suspected he was overseeing the pre-opening of the cocktail bar at Atelier (see below), with Robert Wood but the kitchen’s proceedings were under the excellent captaincy of Head Chef Marius Gedminas.
The wonders came thick and fast - firstly, the impertinence of pizza with a profoundly fabulous beef tartar. There was the delicious silliness of a lychee flavoured ‘slushy’ served appropriately in a little cardboard cup; then the sophistication of a humble lamb rib with peas and then spot on duck with fine sauce, the menu gradually winding its way to very pleasing desserts. Claridge has not lost any of his wit and cheekiness and Gedminas executes the menu faultlessly. Rating - 🌞🌞.
The next evening was the first evening of being open to the paying public of the wonderful new cocktail bar, Atelier c/o Robert Wood, situated in the previously unknown Newhall Square off Newhall Street. At 5PM, with the mid-autumn twilight descending on the city, I arrived at this chic, welcoming, bright establishment to be greeted very nicely by Wood himself, his staff and Alex Claridge who is part of the venture. I might claim that I was the first paying customer to be served there once I was very comfortably sat in a delightful cosy chair, beating even a group of influencers, mostly in the early stages of middle age and on the edge of hipsterity, who turned up to enjoy what was available on the menu while self-consciously preening themselves. All part of the dining scene of the 2020s and amusing to watch.
There was a menu of delightful-sounding original cocktails on offer - I started with a very pleasing light drink and then turned the page and requested the four part menu in which each drink was centred on the flavours of a different season, starting with spring and working through to winter. A nice concept and executed very splendidly. Spring (‘Harvest’) - cherry blossoms and rhubarb - worked well but summer (‘Parklife’) - the remarkably robust flavours of nettle, linden leaf and grass - was absolutely brilliant; then autumn (Wicker trug’) the season of plums, damsons, elderberries and sloes hit the right note and winter (‘Truffle pig’) brought with it a riot of Christmasness and foraging in the deepest part of the wood - English truffles and apples).
Rating- 🌞🌞
I felt better than perhaps I should have done after drinking five cocktails in two hours having thoroughly enjoyed myself but it was time to head back to The Grand stopping en route for supper. I had curry fixed in my mind and was thinking of Itihaas as the place to procure it but I seemed to have missed the restaurant on my return journey and so walking past the previously unvisited Nepalese-style Jo Jo Bar and Lounge I resolved that the very large and spacious dining establishment would be my source of nourishment for the evening. There was only a party of four people besides myself in the restaurant and the two young men in the group were loud and out to impress the women accompanying them. Despite this I soldiered on bravely. The first item to arrive were poppadoms which were somewhat singed and not particularly pleasant - the accompanying tomato and onion pickle and inevitable raita were of little interest.
I chose from a ridiculously vast menu a very edible starter of pretty decent steamed jhol momo (stuffed dumplings accompanied by an adequate tomato and sesame seed sauce) and then opted for a Kathmandu biryani which looked quite attractive cooked as it was sealed under a flat bread. But it was not good - much of the chicken inside was overcooked and there was no flavour of interest in the biryani nor the accompanying sauce nor even the raita. I struggled to eat even a fraction of the dish. This was one of the worst meals I’ve had recently - not dire by any means, I suppose, if one accepts that restaurants should be turning out, at not immodest prices, dishes with little evident enthusiasm put into preparing them and which are greatly sub-optimal. I presume that this was my first and last visit to Jo Jo Lounge.
Rating:- 0
Thank the Great God of Gourmands, therefore, that it was arranged that I should meet some very old (in both senses of the word) friends from around the country for a reunion dinner at the sublime Opheem the following evening.
I’ve covered it many times and will say little more than to comment that the restaurant moves from strength to strength. Chef Aktar Islam was busy supervising the kitchen and bringing out some of the dishes and meeting his diners. The place was bursting at the seams with satisfied customers and each dish was - unarguably - impeccable. The tasting menu is long - the sheer time involved in eating it make such menus a little exhausting - but each second spent at the table in Opheem is an investment in gastronomic pleasure. From the several spectacular appetiser snacks - they’re so good that you feel you should break out into French, so let us call them amuses gueules, through the several courses - some very familiar but often reworked to their ever increasing benefit - bhutta (grilled corn on the cob with tangy spiced butter), heritage tomatoes (rassam), aloo tuk (Chef’s potato dish sensationalised with tamarind), infinitely precisely spiced Orkney scallop with gorgeous tamarind sauce (tisria), meen mappas (finely cooked, meaty monkfish and king prawn enhanced by coriander), pao (now evolved into a mini kebab on a tiny milk loaf), lababdar (perfectly cooked saddle of lamb with shockingly tasty slow-cooked lamb keema and an apt smoked sauce) through to the desserts and then, back in the lounge, to the inventive and gorgeous petits fours included a small and refreshing mango ‘Magnum’ and chocolate and fudge and babas and jellies, this is a feast surely as good as that which is coming out of two star restaurants. I must fit in at least one more visit before the next Michelin awards and Birmingham sees its first two star restaurant getting the recognition it deserves. Rating - 🌞🌞🌞.
