525. Antalaya, Cotteridge.

  Cotteridge, located on either side of the Pershore Road and the next community on from Stirchley as one approaches the city’s southwestern edge, is becoming trendy. They say it’s becoming ‘gentrified’ by which they mean, “more expensive to live in with some artisan coffee shops and an eventual and inevitable artisan bakery outside of which residents will queue for half an hour for their daily bread which the Lord does not give them but sells to them at a hefty price”. Gentrification is not the correct term as the population transforms into a scruffy hipster middle class (which can’t afford the housing prices of Kings Heath or Moseley) and a large number of students but it’s a term these new residents like to use to give themselves a status they hardly deserve.

  But as I say, Cotteridge is becoming trendy as Stirchley becomes overwhelmed by eating joints of various standards though all are generally judged to be rather good just because they are located in Stirchley, once named as Britain’s coolest suburb. As part of this trendiness in Cotteridge, restaurants and cafes, like Spring in the song, are bustin’ out all over. Once such recently opened eating establishment in blossoming Cotteridge serves Turkish food - Antalaya. Some friends, longterm Cotteridge residents, now living the good life in this new hipster paradise though themselves making no attempt to be cool or of the 2020s, invited me to join them there for a pre-Christmas get together and I was keen to go along and see what was on offer. And pretty good it was too.

  Remarkably, in this day of general hospitality industry collapse, a complementary collection of dips and bread was served. The dips were good - tzatziki, a mild hummus and a mildly spicy tomato chutney which tingled just the right part of the back of the throat and the strips of flatbread were pleasingly light.

  As there were four of us, we chose a starter of a platter of hot mezze for four - this was generously portioned and very moderately priced for the amount of food served. The nicely golden fried halloumi was very enjoyable as were the little felafel and the pleasingly textured garlic mushrooms which were perhaps somewhat restrained in the garlic flavour department. I also enjoyed the sucuk, a tasty Turkish beef sausage seasoned with garlic and cumin, and the well made sigara boregi, delightfully crispy Turkish cheese parcels made from filo which encased a happily molten cheesy interior. This had been a meal in itself and served very well by the charming, quietly spoken waitress whose polite attentiveness could teach a thing or two to the front of house staff at some of restaurants I have visited.

   However I had also already ordered a main course - a remarkable plate of mixed kebabs. This again was a very generous plate of food and each type of kebab proved to be intensely enjoyable. There were deliciously flavoured, charcoal grilled chicken shish and lamb shish kebabs. The cooking of the meat was very accurate - the chicken moist and the lamb tender - and the lamb kofta kebab was also nicely cooked and had a pleasing salinity to it. The meats were served with a fresh salad and a bowl of rice (or if one preferred, cous cous). There was more than I could eat but the remaining meats were boxed up for me and enjoyed as cold nibbles the next day. 

  This was all very good. The food was actually delicious, the restaurant clean and modern with comfortable seating and the atmosphere lively but not boisterous. No alcohol is served in the restaurant and I presume the meat is halal. I hope the animals which provided the meat for our meal were stunned prior to their ritual slaughter but alas there is no way of knowing. This doubt makes me hesitate about returning to eat there again

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛

19 December 2025.

447. Kurry Kingdom Cotteridge.

 

  Kurry Kingdom opened four years ago on 19 November 2020, squeezing its launch in between the series of lockdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic which were assaulting the viability of many hospitality businesses at that time, at the site of a former Italian restaurant Bank which was named from its location in a former branch of one of the banks.

  The Bangladeshi restaurant seems to have been remarkably popular since it opened, attracting satisfied reviews on the dreaded Tripadvisor and, even better, managing to stay open despite the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune which the hospitality industry continues to be hit by right up to the Starmer government’s recent antibusiness measures announced in its November budget. 

  Its Facebook page tells us that, “Continuing the legacy of one of the founding pioneers of the Curry Trade in Birmingham. We are here to bring you back a master class in the art of a fine cuisine from our ancestors across Bangladesh, India, South west Asia”. That’s interesting. Prior to my visit to Kurry Kingdom, I was intrigued to know who this “founding pioneer” was and was optimistic I might find out because this apparently notable figure is not identified on the website despite being hinted at. The other discovery I wished to make was of course, whether or not I was going to experience “a master class in the art of a fine cuisine”.

  Prior to doing so, on a historical note, I found a menu first introduced when the restaurant opened in 2020. It was extremely long and full of almost every south Asian dish one could imagine. This did not seem like good news.

  It has to be said that it was not really possible to indulge in a relaxed meal as I found that my elderly dining companions had no intention of eating Indian food and had mostly never tried it. Now they felt it was too late to do so as they believed the effects on their gastrointestinal system would be too devastating at least in terms of severe nocturnal indigestion - no fault of the food, rather the result of aging. They had been hoping to be served steak and chips which was on the menu but alas we were told that there was no steak at least until tomorrow.

  It was best, I thought, to get on with sampling what was being served. I started off with poppadoms which were pleasingly peppery accompanied by a remarkably ambitiously large pickle and chutney tray which covered the range from the aggressively acidic (mango piclkle) to the the sweet and soothing (raita and mango chutney which woukd have benefitted from it having a little more body to it.

  In place of steak, my dining companions had opted for salmon, but had not been informed that this was a a piece of salmon marinated in spices (which was obviously a problem as they had already rejected anything with the mildest spiciness to it) so that was returned to the kitchen and eventually they settled for scampi and chips which met their approval so that was alright then. The restaurant’s staff dealt with all this with good humour and patience. I was impressed by the what looked like finely cooked chips which were served to the curry naysayers but as for the scampi I can say nothing save that it looked like, er, … scampi. 

  The restaurant has no bar licence and one may bring one’s own tipple if one so wishes but we had none and so I opted for a jug of nicely blended mango lassi which I eventually coaxed my dining companions into sampling and which obtained their evolving approval leaving me with just a small quantity for myself as they realised some ‘Indian food’ can be fun and they glugged it down. Oh, the Labours of a gastronomic Hercules.

  There was little enthusiasm among the English food eaters for a starter and so I ordered onion bhaji for myself which was presented as three crispy little spheres which promised much but delivered less, there being very little flavour in them, with none of the sweetness of caramelised onion for which I had been hoping. For the main, I had my old favourite of lamb dhansak - a complex dish, centred on lentils, though routine on a south Asian menu - it should be dry and sour and sweet and moderately hot, all together. In English restaurants it is usually served with pieces of pineapple to bring out the sweetness though as this is, allegedly, originally a Persian dish, I am a little dubious about any degree of authenticity the pineapple, indigenous to South America rather than South Asia, might give to it. 

  The lamb was very nicely cooked - delightfully tender and moist  - and the sauce had a spot-on dryness to it, and well-judged heat, but there was no real hint of sweetness which would have lifted an otherwise middling-flavoured dhansak to something of great pleasure. There were little cubes of pineapple lurking in the gravy but they had little sweetness to them and contributed very little. Nor was there any hint of sourness. The dish rose above the humdrum but was hardly attempting to reach the heights. The dhansak was served with some nicely cooked rice - I ordered plain rice but the more expensive pilau rice was served. 

  This meal may have been more successful if it had been shared with companions who actually wanted to eat Indian/Bangladeshi food but in the end, after decades of visiting south Asian restaurants, I have to conclude that while the service was enthusiastic, patient and even kind, problems arose from the restaurant not being able to serve what was on the menu and not conveying successfully to uninformed customers what was actually going to be served to them. The atmosphere is very good but the food did not seem to have the depth and sophistication of flavour that I wanted.

  I never did find out who exactly was “one of the founding members of the Curry Trade in Birmingham” whose legacy the restaurant represented..

Rating:- 🌛🌛.

5 December 2024.