550. What’s The Point Of Restaurant Guides?

   I asked Gemini - at a time when I hadn’t got anything better to do - about the subject of how useful each of the main restaurant guides are to the ordinary but discerning diner who was reasonably prepared to eat novel dishes and experience new cuisines. I know AI is often wrong - it makes things up and its research is not as thorough as it might be and I’m pretty sure it rather grovellingly tries to give you the answer it thinks you want to receive. Still it does its best. Anyway we had a pleasant interchange where it did indeed largely express views which were in line with my own. Firstly, is the Michelin Guide any use? Its reply -

    We then moved on to the Good Food Guide which under its present editor uses flowery descriptions and reviews not sparing in the number of words used and is largely aimed at middling middle class hipsters and students giving it the impression of it trying hard to dumb down good food. It has surrendered to trendiness and coolness and this is much to be regretted. 

  Then there is Hardens which is like a Sunday family roast lunch in comparison with the Michelin Guide which is dining at the Ritz. As such it is to be commended. It is a vox pop but mostly the pop is informed, experienced, knowledgeable and discerning. There are certainly some restaurants included in it which would not make the cut in any other guide. I remember sitting in one of the (Harden-listed) bistros on Stratford’s Sheep Street and talking to a couple in early middle age who adored eating there and dined there whenever they were in the town. I smiled supportively, and hopefully not too patronisingly, as they praised their technically unambitious and quite pricey main course, inwardly grimacing as I tried to find even a glimmer of pleasure from the seriously overcooked fish I had been served. Still, I like Hardens, a Guide For The Common Man.

    Gemini deemed that the AA Guide was the guide for me. And I think it might be right.

 The AA Guide sets out the landmark events its own evolution but in terms of it being a restaurant guide the important dates are -

1967 - Introduction of the AA restaurant inspection scheme

1992 - The AA rosette scheme is revised as a 5 tier rating system.

   To explore which Birmingham and West Midlands restaurants had been featured in vintage editions o tge AA Guide I obtained the 1990 edition and perused its pages in search of well thought of Birmingham and other West Midlands restaurants which the Guide deemed worthy of inclusion. It really was not terribly useful. It took far more interest in the hotels it was reporting on with passing reference to eating arrangements in most of them. I really would have been better served by a 1992 edition when the 5 rosette system was introduced. I ordered a copy from É Bay but discovered that I had mistakenly ordered a copy of the 1992 Egon Ronay Guide which was a good thing as I hadn’t paid any attention to that particular important publication up until now (see below).

  Apart from hotel dining the guide mentioned only two restaurants and indicated their grading while the quality of those located in hotels was not indicated apart from commenting on price and nature of the menu. The two mentioned were Sloan’s and The Lombard Room in Kings Norton - 

xxx “Sloan’s, 27-29 Chad Square … Unusually located in a small square of shops to the west of the city centre, this chic, split level restaurant offers an imaginative menu of dishes in the light French style, making good use of fresh seasonal produce, and complementing its cuisine with a fine wine list and friendly professional service”

xxx “The Lombard Room, 180 Lifford Lane …. About ten minutes drive south of the city centre and convenient for the M42 is the famous Patrick Collection motor museum, within the beautiful grounds is the complex that contains the Lombard Toom, the elegant conservatory which holds the lounge and bar - all furnishings and décor are of very good quality. A short, imaginative à la carte menu offers a selection of tempting dishes. The quality of the food is complemented by professional attentive service and a magnificent of wines.”

  I am won over - for the present at least - by the idea that the AA Guide is the guide of choice for diners rather than chefs. I look forward to the next edition. I shall deal with the Egon Ronay Guide and the story of its editor in a future edition of BFAOBP.

Egon Ronay 

551. Summer Crab And Frites At Wildmoor Oak Inn.

 

   The last day in July and summer’s lease now started to feel as though it indeed had too short a date. I had had an eventful two or three days and I felt like I should reward myself for coping with it all by hailing an uber (not literally obviously) and zooming off to the wonderful pub with the Brontëesque name, the Wildmoor Oak Inn, near Bromsgrove, now very familiar to me and already a location which had given me some happy dining memories. Upmost in my mind was the summer special of crab and frites with aioli which I still had not got to eat but I thought this late afternoon just might be the day to enjoy what sounded like a fabulous repast. And so it proved to be.

  Having been warmly greeted and seated in my favourite corner (I could have had an outside table to make the most of this lovely summer evening but outside dining is fraught with its own challenges though it was perhaps getting a little late in the day for pesky wasps to ply their trade) I chose the summer special cocktail, a strawberry daiquiri, and it proved to be the most deliciously flavoured strawberry thing out of all the strawberry things I had consumed this summer. 

  My starter was excellent, from the sheet of ‘specials’ of the day. It was a most generously sized serving of thick slices of gravad lax with sweet little crayfish, crispy sourdough and ribbons of sweetly pickled cucumber to set it all off. Summer’s lease was bringing great pleasure with it.

  But of course, just as Charity was the greatest of its trinity (Faith, Hope and Charity), so the main course was the greatest of the three courses served that evening. Simple but gorgeous. A feast of dressed crab served in a crab shell, a magnificent burst of intense crabby flavour with every mouthful that had me purring with pleasure. Not a single hint of even the tiniest fragment of crab shell (and that does not happen everywhere) and accompanied by the simple citric contrast to the richness of the dish brought to the plate by a good wedge of lemon. There was as well a triumphantly enjoyable pot of aioli, its garlic flavour sweet and soothing and not stringent nor savage and the frites were very good. 

  After this feast I was replete and could not manage one of the formal desserts but instead I asked for some vanilla ice cream and espresso and put together a happy little affogato which rounded off this fine meal in a very satisfying way.

  Still unrecognised by the Food Guides (which questions their validity), Wildmoor Oak Inn continues to deliver high calibre pub food which brings much happy pleasure to the diner.

Rating:- 🌞

31 July 2026.