I have never really appreciated the charms of Kings Heath, if there are any. It is scruffy and clogged with traffic, the more so since some entitled middle class residents have managed to have the dread word of ‘low traffic neighbourhood’ imposed on certain roads (those in which they live) leading off the main road artery running through the suburb. This has resulted in mammoth planters, now rotting with all the rain and highly attractive to the all pervading litter that is strewn around Kings Heath, and full of dead flora, blocking side roads and adding to the post-apocalyptic appearance of the place.
This is a faux Bohemia, colonised it seems by the not terribly useful middling members of the hipster middle class made up of bearded men and dowdy women with more money to spend than the average but not enough to enable them to reside in Harborne or Edgbaston. Kings Heath feels oppressive, the generally unattractive old buildings crowding in on one, and it looks particularly depressing on a dark, very wet early October evening with the streets largely deserted. “What am I doing here?” I asked myself as two thin, bearded men holding hands and speaking in American accents join me outside the restaurant on York Road where we are soon joined by other hipster types, waiting to be let in to the tiny Koba-Ko Japanese-style ramen/noodle restaurant located above a cafe. A lot of them seem to know each other and it is all somewhat cliquey. I toy with giving up and going back to town as we wait in the damp and the dark but as I have already paid half the bill I decide to hold on and endure what may come to pass.
Getting into the restaurant involves a tricky ascent up a steep, narrow, winding staircase but once in situ Koba-Ko is warm and welcoming and interesting. I allow my fellow diners to take their seats and I heave a sigh of relief that I have a table to myself and don’t have to talk to anyone as I feel sure there are very few there with whom I could carry on a two hour conversation which would be of interest to either side. And so I relax.
This was to be a collaboration between Koba-Ko and, quite logically, Thomas Wood of Lucky 7, the Jewellery Quarter cocktail bar, who has a special interest in things Japanese in general and sake in particular. Robert Wood and Sam Hill, who opened Koba-ko in October 2023, appeared to introduce themselves and outline the coming evening and we were ready for action. The thin bearded men mentioned above meanwhile set about playing a version of pattercake, pattercake with each others hands and it seemed a cabaret was part of the meal.
The meal was very good and Wood really had matched the ambitious cocktails with what was served to eat. Firstly, there were three unpretentious snacks which were immensely enjoyable in a daft, guilty pleasure sort of way - tasty deep fried nori in a light crispy batter, a small bowl of refreshing smashed cucumber with a mild back-of-the-throat heat to it and three crispy coated chicken balls, a little overcooked, served on a stick. What pleasure.
Next came a superb dish of cold noodles delightfully flavoured with nori oil matched with Dassai 45 poured from a rare magnum of this particular sake to which Wood gave an excellent introduction and allowed a starring role.
Onwards with Saba shioyaki, delicious salt grilled mackeral - perfectly cooked and delightfully tasty and enhanced with the radish tang of daikon. Wood matched it admirably with a splendid yuzu based cocktail which was a perfect pairing. Afterwards came pumpkin gyoza - the dumplings were ideally textured and the filling very tasty. I found the tomato-based sake cocktail to be my least favourite pairing.
Next to come was panko coated fried pork loin. The pork was well cooked but may have benefitted from feeling the heat for a slightly shorter time. The panko coating however was splendidly crispy. The accompanying shreds of raw cabbage did little for me as did the little blob of mustard which looked out of place and inappropriate.
The dessert which was made up of some pleasing black sesame ice cream and equally pleasing macerated fig rounded off a very enjoyable meal and I was in a happy state of mind when I set out back into the cascading rain and black night, though my happy thoughts were from time to time invaded by grim flashbacks of two grown men playing pattercake pattercake with each other in the centre of a public dining room. Then again, I reflected, this was Kings Heath, so what did I expect?
Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛.
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