409. Folium - Quietly Sublime.

 

  I’m minded to write that Folium is Birmingham’s most underrated restaurant. One might ask how a restaurant listed by both Michelin and The Good Food Guide can be judged to be underreated when it has received these accolades but the problem is that Michelin lists Folium but has not added it to its galaxy of stars although, it must be admitted, the Good Food Guide does describe Folium as “very good” though that, to me at least, after just dining there again, is something of a litotes. I would describe Folium as being “quietly sublime”. It sits at the edge of the Jewellery Quarter tranquil and almost unassuming - its chef, the remarkable Ben Tesh, painstakingly putting together his dishes, meticulous, spot on, no hint of inaccuracy, beautifully presented and the restaurant fronted by an ideal hostess, Lucy Hanson. 

 There are no dramas, the food comes out smoothly and timely; the finely balanced menus delivering signature dishes gladly revisited alongside more recent pieces of inspiration which are made up of delightfully matched ingredients, wonderfully fresh and calmly combined with each other to deliver deeply felt flavours and well matched textures.

  To start the now familiar but never tiresome little burnt onion flavoured crispy tube with its accompanying little spot of wildly beautiful chicken liver parfait. Then the delightful home baked sourdough loaf, tasty, crispy crusted and happily married to the cultured butter and salt served with it. Lucy says her day starts perfectly with this loaf as breakfast - a start to be envied by those of us who do not have an early morning access to the bread.

  Also familiar the gorgeously powerfully flavoured roast chicken dashi poured over a warm savoury custard and covered by crispy shavings of black truffle. Next, fabulous line caught mackeral covered by a pleasing kelp jelly which enhances and cuts through the mackerel’s flavour.

  Next, one of the great dishes of the year - lobster cooked with pinpoint accuracy - as tender as one could ever want lobster to be - served with fine lobster ponzu and a little beignet-style ball of “fried bread” to mop up the sauce. And then an even more exciting dish - a perfect dish, totally unimpeachable - of turbot cooked neither a second over or an second under with white asparagus - equally perfectly cooked - and a gorgeous salted butter sauce. This is a lovely dish and I doubt that any chef could better it. This is a dish for the culinary Hall of Fame.

   The first dessert was brilliant - explosively refreshing - mouth cleansing frozen yuzu with marshmallow and served with puffed buckwheat for a crispy texture. No man nor woman would complain if they drowned in a bath of this dessert. And then the joy of toasted hay ice cream with more buckwheat-derived texture and all enhanced with the flavour of miso.  

  To finish and to wave me on my way, old dainty friends by way of mignardises in the form of a sunflower macaron, its texture perfect, filled with earthy cep fudge and the signature whisky and peat butterfly bun - all the desserts and petit fours bringing the pleasure they should but light and easy on the digestion.

  Ben Tesh has perfected his restaurant over the years to a point where it could easily be said to be at the pinnacle of the city’s and the region’s culinary scene. The secret here is not razzamatazz but quiet, determined perfectionism delivering to the diner sublime, consistent cooking which results in quiet, immaculate dishes of the highest quality.

Rating:- 🌝🌝🌝