271. Carter’s Of Moseley.

Last visited - January 2022.

Rating prior to new visit - 🌞🌞🌞 

This week named 19th Most Exciting restaurant in Britain by Good Food Guide.

  It was quite coincidental that I had reservations made for Carter’s of Moseley at the end of the week that started with me being at the Good Food Guide awards and witnessing Brad Carter’s restaurant being named the 19th Most Exciting Restaurant in Britain for 2022 (it was also the week where Britain’s prime minister resigned hence becoming the holder of that post for the shortest time in the history of that role).

The starters as a trio were immaculate. Firstly a gorgeously coloured beetroot sorbet sitting on a delightfully tasting piece of mackerel on a shiso leaf nestled in a pleasingly crispy pastry with caviar happily crowning it all to tell us that this was going to be a great meal. Anyone who can make me purr whilst eating mackerel has to be a great chef. Then a clever oyster starter with oyster leaf, richly flavoured; then a magnificently large chicken thigh encased in a salt and vinegar ultra-crunchy coating - a fabulous play on fried chicken.

  From the beginning it was obvious that I and my lunch companion were dining in one of the great restaurants of Birmingham, whether or not a national food guide agreed with that statement.

  

  Next came little ribbons of cuttlefish with swede - a pleasing dish - and then a profoundly tasty version of Matthew Boulton’s 1794 ‘Birmingham soup’, a perhaps too-small piece of slow-cooked beef with turnip and a gorgeous consommé all topped off by a tasty lattice shaped to bring Birmingham Central Library to mind. From the accents to the dishes Birmingham is a theme running through the meal.

    Then my least favourite dish - Cornish ray with little shrimps, squash purée and delightful shrimp butter. Skate, and now ray, are everywhere this year presumably on the grounds of sustainability (the autumn months are their ‘season’) and also cost. I’m having problems with their texture and substantiality. I like a meatier, most robust fish which can usually be replied upon to have a more embracing flavour) These cartilaginous fishes just don’t do it for me. That said, of course, the fish was cooked beautifully and so there were no faults in the preparation for table. And then the autumn fare continued in the form of a half BBQ partridge. Delicious, served with seasonal mushrooms, a fine sauce and Carter’s’ own rice (produced from oats and now very successful in its impersonation). Some of the bird’s tasty little offal bejewelled the the faux ritz.

    At a point where I was comfortably replete but not suffering from overindulgence, along came the immaculate dessert, red to emulate the brick buildings of Birmingham, and zinging with the perfectly judged flavour of coffee and a fine crispy wafer to give it ideal texture as well as a Q-shaped tuile (“to recall chef’s favourite club”) placed over it all. A very memorable dessert that makes me want to return to Carter’s as soon as possible if only to relive the pleasure of this ruddy coloured pleaser. With coffee, another crowd pleaser, the by now familiar, and no less celebrated because of that, white chocolate bar with the colours of a Birmingham underpass on it.

  In these heady days of Birmingham’s gastronomic ascendancy, Carter’s Of Moseley is high up there with the West Midlands culinary gods, the pantheon of which continues to expand so that we worshippers in these temples find it increasingly difficult to celebrate each deity as often as we might wish to do. How delightful it is, though, that we are so spoiled for choice. 

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞.