544. Folium. Aiming For A Star.

  In this city we have several restaurants which serve fine food. I put aside the rustic style and the street food type of restaurants - there are several excellent such places in the city which provide delicious and enjoyable food in their own casual styles. But I’m looking for fine food - imaginative, original, seasonal, cooked to perfection, fabulous ingredients, attractively presented but not to the point of style over substance, served in a lovely dining room, the dishes running along the menu all working with each other, drinks on offer which are knowledgable curated. I always find what I am looking for at Folium where Ben Tesh’s sublime cooking and Lucy Hanson’s immaculate service add up to a fine meal indeed.

  It was my birthday though I did not reveal that to the restaurant. But I knew that this dinner was going to be a fine and pleasing birthday gift to myself. So let’s go straight to the food.

  There was of course the irreplaceable chicken liver parfait in a burnt onion tuile. As gorgeous as ever. There was also another lovely snack in the form of a Cornish crab croustade with brown butter. This was the most spectacularly tasty crab dish, if we may call it a dish, that I can ever recall eating. The flavour was powerful and delicious and most importantly it was bursting with the flavour of crab - not every chef can present a crab dish which is so robustly crab - magnificent. There was too, thankfully, Ben Tesh’s own, immediately identifiable and exhaustingly delicious sourdough loaf with his own cultured butter. The bread an absolute peak in bread baking. An irreplaceable part of dining at Folium.

  Then a new dish. ‘Biodynamic’ noodles with lusty shitake mushrooms, the flavour enhanced by a stupendous full-bodied sauce.it seemed chef was on fire this evening. Next, white asparagus, cooked with a bite to them with a sunflower sauce. Excellent.

  Next a generously sized piece of turbot, the cooking spot on, with brassica tuiles and a powerfully flavoured kohlrabi sauce. The brassica was noticeably salty and together with the sauce made a heavy attack on the flavour of the turbot which was rendered flavourless by the accompaniments. This was a great pity and Chef was good enough to allow me to give my opinion on this dish and accept it with good grace. Really, it’s too sad to let turbot to be sunk beneath the waterline by an assault from its accompaniments.

  Balance was restored to the universe by the fabulous next course which brought with it memorably and deliciously sublime Staffordshire lamb with a remarkable lamb sauce. The gorgeous flavour of lamb was as wonderful as I can remember being served and the accompanying chicory matched its natural bitterness with a a lovely sweetness brought to it in its preparation. I wondered if a neat little slab of Dauphinoise might round it all off but the dish was superb as it was

  And the savouries were done with save that I added the cheese course which was made up of four English cheeses, nicely chosen and in good condition, and included an excellent Lincolnshire Poacher and Stinking Bishop, plus Ben’s very own split pea crackers, delicious malt loaf, cube of Brambley apple preserve jelly and green tomato chutney. The first dessert was a delightful celebration of strawberries for now is their time - finely sliced New Forest strawberry with strawberry cream and elderberry. Best described as “lovely”.

 Finally there was an enjoyable Yorkshire curd tart which was very much like a cheesecake. It had a pleasing texture and its accompanying birch syrup ice cream was interesting and enjoyable. To wind there were two mignardises - a beautifully textured bee pollen financier and a fine manjari chocolate and woodruff pleasure.

  Folium had certainly made my birthday something special and as it was a fairly quiet evening I was able to have a little conversation with them both and they signed my menu which was very kind. Ben is working hard to achieve a higher level of recognition than he has already. He’s aiming for the stars and in my opinion the food at Folium has long been deserving of one.

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞

22 May 2026

542. Spring Dining (3). Return To Blacklock.

 

  I had so very much enjoyed my lunch at Blacklock (see Blog 536) that I just had to return the following week and hopefully to enjoy the atmosphere and once more to marvel at the excellence of the dishes. If anything the place was even livelier than before and absolutely full to the rafters with diners lunching on their toothsome chops and steaks.

  Instead of choosing a starter, I opted for the canapés which seemed a little overpriced at £2 each but then again everything is really now so expensive everywhere you go that it’s getting hard to judge what is a good price and what is a rip-off. The canapés were alright if a little underwhelming - I had one of each - ‘Blacklock potted meats and kimchi’, ‘egg and anchovy’ and ‘cheese and pickle’ - never have I eaten £6 worth of food so rapidly. 

  For my main, I chose pork loin chop again, price £8 - the previous week’s had been too delicious not to want to have a repeat performance - and also again the immaculate chips costing £5 and worth every penny. I was neither disappointed with the food nor bankrupted by the subsequent bill which is always a pleasure to savour as one leaves the restaurant, nicely replete. The dish had been served also with an excellent, fresh and tasty broccoli and walnut salad which I had not ordered and was not included in the bill. If one must eat broccoli then this is undoubted the best way to do so.

  For dessert, I had the unrivalled, somewhat deconstructed cheesecake with fruit compote and I derived as much pleasure from it as I had the previous week.

  A couple of weeks later I returned to Blacklock once more, this time on a Thursday lunchtime, and accompanied by a friend. As our mains, we both chose the steak and stout pie which had good pastry and generous meat content. I can not say that it surpassed the pork chop in any way but it was pleasant enough. Described on the menu as being, “swiftly served to be lunchbreak friendly”, the pie seemed to take an inordinately long time to materialise from the kitchen and one would have needed an extended lunchbreak to eat without rushing it. An interesting point about our visit to the restaurant on this occasion was that, compared with my previous visit, the restaurant was much less filled with punters though whether or not tgat was significant remains to be seen.

  Still, I like the chophouse but worry that classic fine dining in Birmingham is gradually fading away - its era ended, a fin de siècle, you might say. Everything is all rustic now and à la carte. Prices  and costs are very high and tasting menus are far less fashionable. The incompetent Labour government has not the ability - nor the inclination - to save the industry. The second half of 2026 may be a difficult time for the restaurant business, worse than anything that has yet come to pass.

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛.

541. Spring Dining (2). Weekday Lunch At Samo.

   In Blog 537 I reported enjoying a splendid Sunday lunch at the recently opened Samo in Great Western Arcade and so I resolved to have a weekday lunch there. I was once more very happily seated in the window and enjoyed watching the passers by, some of whom looked at the menu outside displaying what was on offer and having done so, drifted on. I was quite keen for them to take the plunge and come on in and try what was on offer since I like worthy new businesses to get the support they deserve but also because I was the sole launcher there that day and I was feeling a little lonely.

The menu, I’m afraid, was somewhat disappointing - for the main it was either bavette steak and frites, moules and frites or barbecued hispi cabbage with other vegetables. Barbecued hispi is good enough but hardly the stuff that dreams are made on. It all seemed somewhat unambitious but I suppose if you only have one customer then caution is needed in choosing what to offer lest money be lost rather than made. Anyway, I enjoyed my tasty starter of chicken liver and port parfait witha lovely and lively roasted grape chutney and equally enjoyable toasted brioche. A good start.

  I don’t mind mussels but have never been able to stomach more than four or five in a dish so I rejected the moules and opted for the bavette steak. The bavette was cooked just as I should like it and was tasty and tender - and the chips were nicely cooked in beef fat which gave them a good deep flavour and they had the crunchy outside and soft interior which is now de rigeur to enable one to praise a chip, be it triple or any other number of times cooked. There was a rather bitter sauce, if you may call it that, and it detracted from the pleasure the rest of the dish gave.

  For dessert, I opted again for the creamy rice pudding with ‘seasonal jam’ which was enjoyable and expelled the lasting flavour of what had been poured on the bavette.

  I like Samo and wish Chef and staff well with the venture but the lunch was hardly worth the trouble of travelling into town for,  because, while it gave a fair degree of pleasure, in some respects it was , frankly, underwhelming.

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛

7 May 2026.

540. Spring Dining (1) Wildmoor Oak Inn.

 

  I have been out and about dining this spring. I can’t say I have altogether enjoyed myself. The restaurant business seems depressed - well, we know it is don’t we? - money is short and prices are high. Restaurants everywhere are offering cheaper dining options. Dining establishments which I have seen full just a year or so ago. are nearly devoid of diners. Things must be bad when I have been able to reserve a single dining table on two occasions at Upstairs by Tom Shepherd (though admittedly not until the autumn).

  In the past two or three weeks I have lunched twice at The Wildmoor Oak Inn which has been close to empty on both occasions. I remember that the year before the place was heaving with happy ladies who lunch. Not all that long ago, a second restaurant, The Plough, was opened at Wollaston and I’m not sure if Pete Jackson, the Head Chef, is spending most of his time there but I think the food at the Wildmoor Oak has lost its edge. On the first of my recent visits I had a charcuterie starter which was a little short of charcuterie for the price, and then the haddock and chips which was pretty good and then a very inelegant and over large meringue dessert, a play on a peach Melba using inadequately tender peaches, which was too oversized to finish. 

  Then, a week later, I returned to find the charcuterie was again rather more scanty than I was hoping for and the main course of ham hock and mushroom pie with mash to be very ill conceived. The pie was a crust rather than a full pie and I would have expected enough effort would have been put in to produce a pie with a base for the price charged. Ham hock is of course salty and the ‘pie’ certainly was very salty to the point where it approached inedibilty. The slices of mushroom in the orange gravy under the crust were pleasant but I think there’s a lesson here and that’s “don’t use ham hock as a pie filling” and also that a chef should sit down and eat what they’ve prepared. The mash was edible but failed to raise any degree of enthusiasm in me and, though admittedly there was a lot of gravy under the crust, A little sauce boat of grave to pour over the crust may have made the dish look less stark.

Rating:- 🌛🌛

Visited twice early May 2026.

539. Opheem Spring Menu.

 

  A recent dinner - all 10  courses - at Opheem confirmed that, as 2026 progresses, all is well at Birmingham’s 2 Michelin star restaurant despite Chef Patron Aktar Islam having recently opened a restaurant in London, Oudh 1722, and his attention necessarily being directed to that establishment. Dinner at Opheem remains a memorable experience which should be enjoyed at every possible opportunity. The welcome is as professional as one could ever hope for, the delicious pre-dinner snacks are as gorgeous as ever and the gentle transfer from lounge to dining room is managed as soothingly as anyone could wish, the anticipation growing during the course of the short up to one’s table. 

  The menu is of course meticulously curated - delightful new dishes jostle with old favourites, such as the universally beloved aloo tuk, for the title of best dish of the meal. The paper menu itself is presented in a new luxurious-looking packet with the appearance of black velvet and two red macarons tastefully and discreetly nestling at the bottom just as cameos of the king are positioned on a postage stamp 

  Of course, I enjoyed it all - the deep fried shisho leaf pakora with chutneys is such a brilliant take on poppadoms and mango chutney as we have long been used to in local Indian restaurants dating back to the 1960s - I wonder how many poppodums have been nibbled at by Englishmen in the past fifty years - probably trillions of them by now, a figure to dwarf Elon Musks trillion dollar salary. Then there was the mildly spiced Orkney scallop, finely and accurately cooked and aptly served with mooli and apple, the dish rejoicing in the name of Badami korma.

  Amla tok was a dish of Cornish sea bass, again accurately cooked and bringing with it Indian gooseberries and gourd and Wazwan was a delicious way to present hogget. Saagwala was a presentation of Guinea fowl with spinach, wild garlic and seekh kebab with a toothsome accompanying bharta.

  The desserts were familiar and none the worse for that and the post-dinner mignardises were also old favourites but too good not to enjoy again - the gorgeous mini-Madeleine and the fabulous canale should in reality be consumed in large numbers by everyone on a daily basis to lift the national mood.

  Opheem, supreme.

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞

26 March 2026.

538. Raj Doot.

  An old friend who had been born in Birmingham but who had lived in New Zealand for twenty or so years, was visiting and the question was, “Where to have dinner?”, given that it was a Monday evening and that you can’t get a good curry in New Zealand (you can’t get a good anything and I know, I’ve visited that back of beyond several times though Michelin is about to deliver a new guide for dining out in the Antipodes but I expect that the New Zealand section will necessarily be little shorter than that for Dudley in the British Guide). D. had a Birmingham-born individual’s taste for a fine curry and I knew just the place to take him - venerable and colourful and now, even historic, Raj Doot, in the Jewellery Quarter. 

  On a cold late winter evening, Raj Doot lived up to my expectations. It was warm and comforting and comfortable and had better decor with an air of drama to it than any put up by the RSC at Stratford in the past few years. We sat with our drinks feeling cosy and expectant as we waited to be guided to our table. Poppadoms with chutneys to begin and then starters.

  I enjoyed crispy, sweet onion bhajees served with a mildly spicy mint sauce while my dining companion indulged himself with gingered lamb chops which brought him much pleasure.

    As a main, I chose chicken bhuna because of my infatuation with fenugreek - this was very good, tasty, rich and full-bodied, its sauce thick and delicious and the meat tender and nicely cooked. My dining companion enjoyed his dish of rogan josh. We enjoyed the cloud like, happily sweet Peshwari naan and a simple dish of rice.

  Asha’s may appeal to Hollywood film stars but I prefer the old fashioned, glorious character and food of Raj Doot. Sixty years of serving happy curry lovers who enjoy style and personality as an accompaniment to classic Anglo-Indian food. Here’s to another sixty.

Rating:- 🌞