528. Events Dear Boy Events - January To June 2026.

 

See also Blogs 400, 416, 452 and 492.

12 January 2026 - Aktar Islam, Chef Patron of Opheem, announces that he intends to open a new restaurant, Oudh 1722, in Borough in London during spring 2026.

15 January - Harborne Kitchen announces that it is to close permanently and will not reopen after the Christmas holiday break.

6 February - Chef Angelina Adamo and Charlotte Carter open Vieni in the Goodsyard in the Jewellery Quarter and serve Sicilian-style cuisine.

8 February - The Michelin awards ceremony is held in Dublin and Alex Claridge’s The Wilderness and Liam Dillon’s The Boat (Lichfield), each are awarded a Michelin star for the first time. Opheem retains its two star status and Adam’s, Grace and Savour (Hampton in Arden), Le Champignon Sauvage and Lumière (Cheltenham), Upstairs by Tom Shepherd (Lichfield), The Cross (Kenilworth), The Royal Oak (Whatcote) and The Homeend (Ledbury) retain their single stars. Bibs Gourmands are retained by Tropea, Riverine Rabbit, Duncombe Arms (Ellastone) and The Inn at Welland (Welland). Plates by Purnell in Birmingham and Forelles (Ludlow) are removed from the Guide.

16 February - It is announced that The Mount by Glynn Purnell in Henley-in-Arden will close on the Ides of March (15 March) after 4 years serving diners.

2 April - Raj Rana announces the Itihaas is up for sale for a price of £1.25 million. Rana opened the restaurant in January 2005. Rana revealed that he was planning to move on and be involved with a hotel with restaurant in Worcestershire.

22 April - Hollow Bottom in Guiting Power in Gloucestershire is added to the Michelin Guide.

7 May - It is announced by Chef Patron Munayam Khan that Raja Monkey in Hall Green would close permanently on10 May due to “an increasingly challenging and demanding [hospitality business] climate”.  The restaurant had been in business for the previous 13 years.

  

26 May - Glynn Purnell’s Trillium is added to the Michelin Guide.

28 May - Andreas Antona announces the permanent closure of  Simpsons, the doyen of Birmingham restaurants.

12 June - Andreas Antona awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours list

21 June - Gaijin Sushi in Bristol Street closes after being fined in April 2026 for environmental health offences relating to mice infestations. 

26 June - Adam Stokes announces that Michelin-listed The Oyster Club will close permanently on 11 July.

Omelette Arnold Bennett, King prawns, Sunday lunches roast Chateaubriand and all the trimmings for £32, and Dover sole -

480. The Last Sunday Lunch At Simpsons - The Beef Wellington.

 

 The hospitality business being what it is at present, it was announced a short while ago that with bookings not being quite as numerous as they might be, this was to be the last Sunday lunch served at Simpsons - at least for the foreseeable future. And at last I had someone to join me at Sunday lunch there so that I could order the somewhat celebrated Simpsons beef Wellington. And, who knows if Simpsons’ Sunday lunch will ever return given that Andreas Antona has put the business up for sale? The end, or the possible end, of an era. All things must pass …. eventually.

  The Sunday lunch went out in style. Firstly, two familiar amuses gueules - no less delicious for their familiarity - both very toothsome indeed - and this also applied to the equally familiar and equally excellent bread though as always, I would have preferred plain, ordinary salted butter to spread on the breads and this was kindly supplied was requested.

  I had the scallop dish which had been cooked beautifully and served with its beurre blanc sauce in a delightfully retro fashion in a scallop shell. The tender mollusc had a remarkably enjoyable butteriness to it and there was little else that could have been done to improve the dish. There was much apparent simplicity about it and it did not suffer because of this. My companion thoroughly enjoyed her beetroot starter.

  Then came the presentation of the Wellington. It looked magnificent and its service did not disappoint. The beef was accurately cooked inside its surrounding cover of mushroom duxelle and fine pastry. Its companions were a very sensibly sized serving of pomme purée, a dish of happy cauliflower with cheese sauce, stunningly delicious, sweet, tender carrots and confit cabbage and a fine red wine sauce. This was a memorable dish served on a memorable occasion at a memorable restaurant.

    Dessert was not an afterthought. My lunch companion was overwhelmed with pleasure at her excellent passion fruit soufflé and I was impressed, more than I expected (though I should have known better) by the caramelised miso tart served with a splendidly tasty blood orange sorbet. 

  The mignardises - a chocolate cracknell decorated with a pattern of the tiles in Simpsons, powerfully flavoured blackcurrant pate de fruit and gorgeously buttery madeleines - rounded off a first class meal at a first class restaurant. Long may it keep serving such magnificent food to the diners of Birmingha.

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞.

469. Simpsons.

 

  One can not be sure what the future holds for Simpsons given that Andreas Antona has put the restaurant up for sale and there are rumours of Luke Tipping preparing to retire (there is no substantial evidence that I have heard to say that Tipping is preparing to leave the stage on a high).

  Regardless of all this, my regular dining companion and I resolved to have lunch at Simpsons. On the day we visited, Luke Tipping did not appear to be in the kitchen. The restaurant was certainly quiet - possibly about half a dozen of the tables had diners sitting at them. I have seen Simpsons much busier at a mid-week lunchtime in years past.

  In the last three years, Luke Tipping has delivered some fabulous dishes and Simpsons has been at the top of its game. But would the food coming out of the kitchen in the absence of the Chef Director be as consistently good as I had come to expect in recent times whenever I have visited Simpsons? 

  We chose to dine from the ‘Prestige’ tasting menu, cost £140, and at that price we were looking forward to some fine dishes, accurately cooked with some luxury items.

  The meal started with three pleasing canapés  - admirably crispy potato rosti which was slightly oily, crispy coated cod which was very pleasurable and a tasty beef tartare tart. An individual brioche and a slice of sourdough were accompanied by what amounted to some taramasalata and some wild garlic butter, moderately potent Wikd garlic butter, the garlic, we were told, had been foraged that morning.

  Then to the first course proper - a curious smoked cheddar dumpling with the texture of a panna cotta, reasonably tasty with fermented carrots, mushrooms, black garlic and dill pollen. I shoukd have liked the dumpling to have more body to it but the overall dish was pleasing enough. Then came a finely cooked, plump Orkney scallop with a toffee-like flavoured Jerusalem artichoke purée which did detract from the flavour of the scallop, Exmoor cavia, miso and katsuobashi dashi.

  The third course was undoubtedly the star dish of the meal - superbly well cooked skrei cod with chopped mussels which I liked very much, trout roe and a wonderfully buttery smoked eel cream which brought the word “sensational” to my lips. Gorgeous to look at and even more gorgeous to taste.

    This was followed by a slightly exhausting dish which brought an example of almost everything you can do with a beetroot to the table. There was a generous slice of golden beetroot, more of it than either of us could summon up the energy to finish, a toothsome beetroot sorbet, a nicely crispy beetroot tuile, an apt wasabi cream and best of all, little strands of sweetly pickled beetroot which added a thrill to a dish which had too many elements.

  The main was very problematical. Some lovely sirloin pavé was served but it was undoubtedly overcooked, having a dryness to it and, felt my companion, a slight toughness though I found my slice to be tender. I have had some lovely meat dishes at Simpsons in recent years but this one was wide of the mark. Perhaps the apparent absence of Chef was the reason for this inaccuracy being sent out of the kitchen. The dish was lifted by some well-cooked new season asparagus, a morel, the reappearance of wild garlic in the form of a purée, a blob of truffle purée and macaroni, vigorously al dente, covered with cheese which, for me at least, did not travel happily with the sirloin, the cheese’s flavour too harsh for the beef. This is a dish, striving hard to incorporate the produce of the gathering spring, which needs some new thought put into it.

  There was a pleasant first dessert of accurately cooked seasonal rhubarb which I had been looking forward to eating and which did not disappoint me, accompanied by vanilla cream and ginger crumble of which there was a little more than I wanted to deal with. But it was a happy, seasonal dish and served as a light, gentle introduction to the very impressive passion fruit soufflé filled with mango sauce and coconut Chantilly cream. It was a little sweet for my taste but was otherwise a fine soufflé about which no-one could have cause to complain.

  I have had some very fine meals at Simpsons in recent years but this particular lunch was not quite to the standard I have grown to recognise - the overcooked sirloin, the overpowering of one or two key ingredients by the flavours of some other lesser ingredients. Perhaps it reflected the absence of the most senior chef in the kitchen.

Rating:- 🌞

13 March 2025

462. Sunday Lunch At Simpsons.

 

  After a thrilling and delicious Sunday lunch the previous week at Stirchley’s Eat Vietnam’s collaboration with Dan Lee, I felt I was ready to be a little more sedate and classic at Simpsons which of course has recently been put up for sale by its owner and founder, the doyen of Birmingham and West Midlands dining, Andreas Antona. I had opted for the three course Sunday lunch - I had sirloin pave with Yorkshire pudding on my mind as the alluring beef Wellington was only available for couples to share, misere me.

  Simpsons does very good canapés and those served on this visit were delicious and I ate them alongside a white port and tonic. To be honest, the realisation came to me that I was gobbling them with all the pleasure a little gluttony brings with it. Well, I was sitting in a discrete corner being served, to my great pleasure, by Thomas Moore (not, as far as I know, related to his namesake who so displeased Henry VIII and thereby earned himself a sainthood though it took a few centuries for him to achieve that earthly reward). 

  Thomas had worked at an early stage in his career at the late Purnell’s and had been the chief server at one of my birthday dinners which I liked to hold there every year for close friends to have the opportunity to urge me to run life’s course for another twelve months. Thomas had been very impressive, virtually an infant prodigy in his knowledge and carrying out of his work front-of-house, and had been promoted at Purnell’s and worked there till the restaurant gasped its last breath. By then he was accomplished in the knowledge and service of wines, and as one door closed another opened. As Purnell’s was closing, so Simpsons’ esteemed sommelier, Gian Giancomo Stella, announced he was returning to Italy after seven years in his finely executed role in Edgbaston, and Thomas was appointed to succeed him and work with him as he familiarised himself with the job. 

  I was also pleased to hear about Adrien Garnier who been Restaurant Manager and Sommelier at Purnell’s - he had decided to return to France after Purnell’s closure but had kept in touch with Thomas and during the meal, Thomas texted Adrien to let him know I was dining at Simpsons and Adrien had replied with a message of good wishes. How very charming and kind.

Thomas Moore

Gian Giancomo Stella 

  

Adrien Garnier

The starter proper was a lovely lobster and prawn raviolo - nicely sized and the pasta well made - with tender salsify and robustly flavoured lobster and pepper sauce. This was an excellent dish. I was recently reading some food reviews by Jay Rayner, who eats well like so many metropolitan socialists who enjoy and can afford the good life (Raymond Postgate the founder of the Good Food Guide was also a notable socialist who made sure he ate the best of food), and who is the retiring food critic of The Observer, and a quote from his final missive for the Observer Food Monthly states, “Hyper-expensive foods are never about deliciousness; they are about status. Don’t bother with them”. 

  Well, firstly he does not define at which point ‘expensive’ food becomes ‘hyperexpensive’ food. To a 78 year old pensioner on £13000 per year income who has had their winter fuel allowance grabbed away by the recently elected Starmer Labour government which Rayner enthusiastically endorsed, I suspect that lobster and roast sirloin pavé (at a supplement price of £10 on top of £75 three course meal price) and passion fruit soufflé (further supplement of £10) are all ‘hyper-‘ rather than plain expensive. The champagne socialist may have an alternative definition. Regardless, I believe, that an expensive element which to the people increasingly neglected by the faux socialists now in power, would undoubtedly be ‘hyperexpensive’, lends something to the pleasure of a special meal which is something that one goes to restaurants like Simpsons to enjoy. The lobster was lovely and the sirloin excellent - tender, cooked to exactly my own preference, delicious and generously portioned.

  It’s a rule that one should listen to experts and then remember that they have their own axe to grind. I suppose, in fact I know, that Simpsons’ prices represent wonderfully good value compared with those of the London restaurants wherein Rayner would most often dine. His ‘hyperexpensive’ is not our ‘hyperexpensive’ and though Simpsons’ prices are not cheap, the quality and delightfulness of the dishes Luke Tipping delivers to diners there represents very good value. Long may it continue even after Andreas Antona has sold the business. 

  The slices of sirloin were served with a towering, crispy Yorkshire pudding and the tenderest, most gorgeously cooked and handsome-looking carrots I have been served in many a moon (others no doubt would have liked some bite to their’s but the undercooked carrot people have had their way for far too long and it’s good to see the kitchens of Simpsons leading the fight back). The roast potatoes again were the mostly accurately, perfectly cooked I have been served in recent memory and I enjoyed the shredded cabbage. The weakest element was the cauliflower with cheese sauce which needed more of the sauce, given that sauce was served, to give it more cheesy flavour though I wish there would be some restaurant or the other which would  serve the cauliflower denuded of any such covering so that diners could appreciate the flavour of cauliflower in all its unique naked flavour. The beef sauce was unctuous and delicious but I should have liked more heat in my horseradish sauce.

  Finally the dessert. I was not able to resist the prospect of the passion fruit soufflé though I longed almost equally to have my first rhubarb of the year which was one of the alternatives. The soufflé was impeccable and the ‘exotic sauce’ was dominated by mango and the chantilly cream innocuous though not really necessary. At the bottom of the dish, when the soufflé had all been scooped away, there was a distinct and not very pleasant bitterness from the sauce that lurked there which I think might have some alcohol element though I could not tell as I disliked it enough not to consume it. This was a pity but it did not ruin what had been a fine meal of a very high standard. I rounded off the meal with a post prandial After Eight cocktail and two delightful mignardises - a delightfully chewy macaron and a Madeleine which was the stuff that dreams are made on and I felt rather pleased with myself. Simpsons marches on. The doyen is still the doyen. 

Rating:-🌞🌞🌞.

16 February 2026.