Among my many faults, I’ve come to realise as the years have passed, is that I like lists and sometimes - but not consistently - I am pedantic, though this is mainly when someone who ought to know better makes an error which they really should not have done.
Thus, though I frequently moan about guides such as the Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland and the now defunct Good Food Guide I do like to read them because there are really great big lists of places in which I am interested. I also like books and collecting things and therefore it is not surprising that I like to collect Michelin Guides which are books made up of long lists.
It isn’t surprising therefore that I feel a vague and ridiculous pain at the knowledge that a gap in my Michelin Guide book year by year collection will exist forever because the 2021 edition is available only in digital format. There will always be a little hole in my world which should have been filled by the 2021 Michelin Guide printed edition. Nobody ever said life should be perfect.
The digital edition has its advantages I suppose but it’s not a book, a joyous, tactile, book-scented little bundle with pages to flick through backwards and forwards. I find a book less annoying to use and you never need to recharge its battery. And despite all this clever technology the text has its errors which make the pedant in me chafe.
This Blog in part gradually makes up a history of dining out in the West Midlands and so I like to list every year the restaurants which appear in the Michelin Guide but this year, though I necessarily did it for those in Birmingham I have not covered the broad sweep of the totality of the West Midlands - Staffordshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, West Midlands county, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, the Seven Counties of Mercia we might call them with a large amount of quite unnecessary pomposity. I have not done so up till now because I find the digital Guide a little tiresome to travel around but girding up my loins I now do so for posterity’s sake. But before I do allow me to let the inner pedant out and tell the Michelin editor that Broadway is NOT in Gloucestershire.
By county -
Staffordshire -
Duncombe Arms B Ellastone
The Boat Inn O Lichfield
The George O Alstonefield
99 Station Street O Burton Upon Trent
The Red Lion O Bradley
Larder O Lichfield
Shropshire -
Charlton Arms B Ludlow
Sebastians O Oswestry
Mortimers O Ludlow
French Pantry O Ludlow
The Haughmond O Upper Magna
Wild Shropshire O Whitchurch
The Walrus O Shrewsbury
Docket No 33 O Whitchurch
Old Downtown Lodge O Ludlow
Forelles O Ludlow
Herefordshire -
Stagg Inn O Titley
Kilpeck Inn O Kilpeck
The Oak Wigmore O Wigmore
County of West Midlands -
Opheem * Birmingham
Purnell’s * Birmingham
Adam’s * Birmingham
Carter’s of Moseley * Birmingham
Peel’s * Hampton in Arden
Simpsons* Birmingham
The Oyster Club by Adam Stokes O Birmingham
Craft O Birmingham
The Wilderness O Birmingham
Opus O Birmingham
Chakana O Moseley Birmingham
Pulperia O Birmingham
Folium O Birmingham
About Eight O Birmingham
Asha’s O Birmingham
Harborne Kitchen O Harborne Birmingham
670 Grams O Birmingham
Bilash O Wolverhampton (which is of course in West Midlands and not Staffordshire which is where the Michelin editor seems to think the city is located)
Warwickshire -
The Cross at Kenilworth * Kenilworth
Salt * Stratford upon Avon
The Royal Oak * Whatcote
Howard Arms O Ilmington
Woodsman O Stratford upon Avon
No 9 Church Street O Stratford upon Avon
Fuzzy Duck O Armscote
Lambs O Stratford upon Avon
Cheal’s of Henley O Henley in Arden
Boot Inn O Lapworth
Tailors O Warwick
Rooftop O Stratford upon Avon
Bower House O Shipston on Stour
Worcestershire -
Pensons * Tenbury Wells
The Inn at Welland B Welland
Venture Inn O Ombersley
The Butchers Arms O Eldersfield
Eckington Manor O Eckington
Old Rectifying Yard O Worcester
Russell’s O Broadway (which of course is in Worcestershire and not Gloucestershire where the Michelin Guide editor seems to think the town is located)
Buckland Manor O Broadway (again Worcestershire not Gloucestershire)
The Back Garden O Broadway (Worcestershire not Gloucestershire, these Michelin people seem to think that just because a town is in the Cotswolds it must be in Gloucestershire)
Gloucestershire -
Le Champignon Sauvage * Cheltenham
Curry Corner O Cheltenham
GL50 O Cheltenham
Atrium O Upper Slaughter
Ebrington Arms O Cheltenham
Daylesford Organic Farm O Daylesford
5 North Street O Winchcombe
Purslane O Cheltenham
The Barn at Severn and Wye O Westbury on Severn
Lumière O Cheltenham
East India Cafe O Cheltenham
Ox Barn O Southrop
Swan O Southrop
Old Butchers 0 Stow On The Wold
Prithvi O Cheltenham
Feathered Nest O Nether Westcote
Churchill Arms O Paxford
Conservatory O Tetbury
Wilder O Nailsworth
The Bull O Fairford
Bhoomi Kitchen O Cheltenham
Gumstool Inn O Tetbury
Daffodil O Cheltenham
O = plate
B = Bib Gourmand
* = 1 Michelin star
** = 2 Michelin stars.
So there we have it, the roll of Michelin-listed West Midlands restaurants of 2021 recorded on one page. There are
11 one star restaurants (6 in West Midlands, 3 in Warwickshire, 1 in Worcestershire and 1 in Gloucestershire)
3 Bibs Gourmands (1 each in Staffordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire) and
68 Michelin plates (5 in Staffordshire, 9 in Shropshire, 12 in West Midlands, 3 in Herefordshire, 10 in Warwickshire, 7 in Worcestershire, and 22 in Gloucestershire).
Gastronomy was alive and kicking across the seven counties when this list was published but I notice one or two of the restaurants listed here have gone to restaurant heaven since then but let us hope that when the 2022 Michelin Guide is published more will have sprung up to replace those who have fallen by the wayside. And also let us hope it is published as a paper version. Oh! and perhaps the editor could brush up his/her English Midlands geography a little.
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