If you have an upper echelon restaurant in Birmingham and you want a captive audience, it’s quite a good idea to open on Sunday as so few of your rivals are usually open for service then, closed possibly until Thursday, and there actually are potential diners out there who want to go out (or need to go out because they’re visiting the city) to dine at a good restaurant in the city centre.
Adam Stokes has long got the message and therefore he has opened The Oyster Club by Adam Stokes on Sundays, including the evenings, for some time now. It’s true, I have never been there on a early Sunday evening when they have had to fight off hungry potential diners all demanding a stool at the oyster bar or a table in the restaurant downstairs, but there is a decent trickle of customers coming through the doors and they all seem to enjoy their Sunday dining experience there.
As reported in Blog 380, I had a visitor from the distant Antipodes and given the central location I had put him up at the Grand Hotel (and used his visit as an excuse for myself and the dog to take a room there ourselves for three pleasing nights) and Sunday dinner was needed. About a minute’s walk away from the hotel is The Oyster Club and I had no hesitation in resolving to take my visitor there to assuage his hunger. It was either there (he deserved an English Sunday roast in the restaurant’s grand Chateaubriand style) or perhaps as an alternative, good old fashioned Birmingham Indian food in the stylish setting of Itihaas - in the end, the Sunday roast won out.
We were not disappointed. The ‘roast’ is usually so filling that I normally eschew a starter but my guest, still young enough to have an admirably robust appetite, mentioned, somewhat longingly I thought, the new scallop dish on the menu, and so I thought it only polite to let him order it, especially after it had been somewhat lovingly described by the waiter, He was disappointed and neither was I by my choice of excellent tempura prawns - tasty, meaty and lightly crispy coated. The accompanying dip was appropriate and pleasing.
I have reported on the Sunday roast more than once before in this Blog. Suffice it to say that the Chateaubriand was generously portioned, cooked perfectly, exquisitely tender and full of flavour. It was difficult to criticise any of the accompanying vegetables and extras though I note that restaurants in recent times do not seem to consider that horseradish sauce should have a good kick to it - I suppose it’s arguable that the diner’s tastebuds should not be rendered instantly paralysed as the horseradish enters the mouth especially when the beef is so sublime but still, I do like a good punch from the stuff. Enjoying a full bodied horseradish sauce is one of those things that makes an Englishman.
My New Zealand friend enjoyed his meal, as I did mine. Here’s to many more at The Oyster Club where the lights are on on a Sunday evening when the lights others are out and their doors are locked.
Rating:- 🌞
Sad news was delivered this past week that Le Petit Bois in Moseley will close permanently on 27 April. It is a charming and delightful small restaurant which I have visited several times. How lovely to have an unpretentious, rustic French dining establishment available to enjoy - rather like The French Pantry in Ludlow where I had lunch recently - and how sad to have to say Adieu! The owners, Ben Taylor and Zsofia Kisgergely, have stated that the closure is necessary because of the present high price of ingredients but it may also be related to the decline of Moseley which looks a little sad and dilapidated and of course list Carter’s of Moseley last year.
As the tweet says, perhaps some ambitious chef might consider keeping rustic France in Birmingham by opening a bouchon serving Lyonais dishes especially as Birmingham is twinned with Lyon. Bouchons are catching on in London and who knows? may become all the rage. Consider, chefs, setting up in the south west of the city, where there is no real competition - increasingly trendy Kings Norton with its medieval church and buildings and village green or even booming Longbridge town. You may well find you’ve got ready customers in the area.
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