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:- 🌞

537. Sunday Lunch At Samo.

 

  Chef Elliot Brown opened his restaurant Samo in March 2026 in the Great Western Arcade. The location had previously been home to Land before it moved a short distance along the arcade and prior to Land’s occupation of the site it had been home to Bistro 1847 where once in his salad days Alex Claridge had served vegetarian dishes. Brown has a distinguished curriculum vitae, having trained at the Hotel du Vin and then at Simpsons when Leo Kattou, now at the Bower House in Shipston on Stour, was Head Chef there. Subsequently Brown worked at Aktar Islam’s short-lived Legna and then at Tierra Tacos and Trentina both in the Jewellery Quarter and then he had gained experience with Italian-style food at Tropea in Harborne. Brown’s intended style is assisted in the kitchen by Greg Shephard, his sous chef.

  Brown’s intended style for his own restaurant was a wise choice - ‘modern bistro’ - with an emphasis on the seasonality of ingredients. My first visit to the new restaurant was for the first Sunday lunch to be served there and it proved to be a very pleasing experience. It really was very good. I was the first diner to arrive for the particular sitting and I received a pleasing welcome and then sat back to enjoy an anis aperitif while the other diners trickled in. The middle class on a Sunday don’t like to hurry themselves.

  As starter I chose an impressive-looking and tasty prawn cocktail surmounted by two king prawns looking accusingly with their dead eyes from the rim of the dish. There was a very generous portion of little shrimps and the Marie Rose was well made.

  But of course I was there for the roast beef and out it came - tender, pink and blushing. There came with it a fine crusty Yorkshire pudding and a banquet of vegetables - very edible beef dripping roast potatoes and slices of roast turnip, gorgeously - yes, gorgeously, that’s the very word, buttery mashed swede with creamed leeks and cabbage and, as an extra, cauliflower in cheese sauce. More vegetables than I could manage but I made a good attempt and there really wasn’t very much left on my plate by the time I surrendered it to be taken to the dish washer, be it machine or human.

    I was kidnapped by the lovely creamy rice pudding with compôte when I read the dessert menu and my choice was fully vindicated by the intense enjoyment it gave. Modern bistro had rendered classic, fine English Sunday lunch. And I had been seated at a window table and what a relaxing time I had watching the Sunday afternoon shoppers pass by. Brilliant!

Elliot Brown & Greg Shephard

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛

29 March 2026.

533. Albatross Death Cult.

 

  I made my reservation for the first service after the announcement of the 2026 Michelin Great Britain and Ireland awards in anticipation of Albatross Death Cult being awarded a Michelin star which it well deserves but did not receive. In all events its mother ship, The Wilderness, was the winner of a richly deserved Michelin star instead so Alex Claridge had something to smile about if he could find the necessary facial muscles to carry out such an act. I imagine he did while celebrating his success in Dublin where the award ceremony had been held.

  I was charmingly shown to my place at the counter as I have got used to during my now several visits to the restaurant which Grace Dent now famously described as one of the top five seafood restaurants in Britain. The maestro of the ADC kitchen, Oliver Grieve, was in place with one assistant preparing the first nibbles of the forthcoming meal and I ordered a pleasing cocktail to get myself started.

  The menu mixed old favourites with new additions. From the former group were the oyster cream amuse bouche and the signature mussels with a broth of n’duja and aflame with pepper - this dish seemed to have evolved to its ultimate state of existence - and the divine sushi rice ice cream with nori wafers. The world will not end while these three classics continue to survive.

  There were of course other wonders - Ollie Grieve was at the top of his game - the trout with dill and wasabi, the gorgeous miniature crumpet on which crab was being serenaded by apple, perfectly cooked cod partnered with artichoke and hazelnut, brill partnered by punchy smoked eel and trout once more but this time partnered with lobster. 

  The dessert brought to the table nicely poached seasonal rhubarb holding hands with crème fraiche and all shook up by Szechuan pepper. And I too felt shook up as Oliver told me that this was to be his penultimate service at ADC as he prepared to depart for Woven by Adam Smith at the Dorchester Collection. It’s hard to imagine what will happen at ADC next but Ollie Grieve is a very talented young chef and he is surely wise to expand his experience at this stage of his career. Let us hope that for the gourmands of Birmingham, it is more a question of au revoir rather than adieu.

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞.

11 February 2026.