407. Rough Cut At The Wilderness.

 

  After a week in the West Country it was back to Birmingham and I was soon back in the swing of things with a trip to The Wilderness to experience in its opening week its radical new approach and the remarkable Rough Cut menu. There was much to get excited about and there was some fun to be had from carrying out instructions and writing scores and comments about the meal on to sheets provided. There’s a worry that Chef will hate you if you are too negative about a dish, even if you’re trying to be constructive and honest, or if one is gushingly positive, which you may indeed feel quite legitimately about a particular dish, that one may then just be seen as being ridiculously sycophantic. A balance is needed and restraint.

  That said, there was little to be negative about.

  These were experimental dishes created to help fashion future menus at The Wilderness and, I expect, also at Albatross Death Cult. They are very much of the mid-2020s - British-Japanese-European which is just about the era we are dining out in at present. They were full of Flavourshock, mostly not too shocking but one at least a little too shocking in flavour. The chefs were having fun creating them and and the diners were having fun seeing where these chaps were going with all this.

  My dining companion and I scored the dishes highly. I stumbled at one hurdle - I found the BBQ lobster a little tough and fell at another -  the flavour of the lovely mangalitza was lost to the overwrought char siu. Exquisite ingredients need gentle handling and little apart from themselves on the plate to ensure they can give the diner what they’re looking for.

  Dessert was new to me - exquisite, thin slices of red and white strawberries embellished with a cold tomato consommé. I’d eat that everyday. And then the Thai Green curry Mr Whippy-style ice cream with yuzu jelly. That ice cream is magnificent.

  I look forward to the next stage of evolution of The Wilderness. Ever original, ever tantalising, always exciting, ever delicious, occasionally challenging, always thrilling.

Rating:- 🌞🌞