557. The Cross At Kenilworth.

 

   It was some time - years - since I had last dined at the one Michelin-starred The Cross at Kenilworth where Adam Bennett has held the ship steady as Chef Director since it was opened by Andreas Antona in 2013. Bennett had joined the staff of Simpsons when it was situated in Kenilworth in 2003 and had moved to work with Antona at the new location of Simpsons in Edgbaston in 2004. Coventry-born, Bennett had trained ar Henley College and subsequently worked under Anton Mossiman at the Dorchester and in France ar Restaurant Gut Lassausaie and Restaurant Marc Meurin before returning to England to work in country house hotels including Mallory Court. When Simpsons opened in Edgbaston he was appointed Head Chef under Luke Tipping who was Executive Chef and he held the post until 2013 when he stepped down to lead the United Kingdom team in the Bocuse D’Or competition held that year. Matt Cheal stepped into the role while Bennett’s team achieved the highest position (4th) ever for a British team. Bennett led the team again in 2015 with Britain coming 6th in the European finals and achieving 10th place overall. Bennett took up his post at The Cross in 2013 and the restaurant was quickly included in the Michelin Guide and then awarded a single star which it has retained ever since.

  Rather like Heaven, as described by Jesus Christ, there are many rooms in The Cross with a large outdoor dining area at the back of the building which has all the outward appearance of being an everyday pub until the interior is viewed and the dining rooms are revealed to the unsuspecting - they are spacious, comfortable, cheerfully decorated, rustic in a smart, high middle class sort of way and … busy.

Adam Bennett at the pass

  I chose to order from the three course à la carte menu (£90). Two canapés in the form of gougères with two types of sauce were served. There was a discernible cheese flavour but not at all intense but the exteriors were pleasingly crispy though slightly oily. I have had far more memorable canapés at Simpsons with much stronger and gorgeous flavours than the pair served at The Cross on this visit.

  Afterwards, some good sourdough was served with a nice Jersey butter and this helped to fill the long gap between the time I placed my order and the time when the first course eventually showed its face. It did seem that food was slow to come out of the kitchen, perhaps the baking hot weather was something to do with it.

  It has to be said that the starter was delicious - Dorset crab with a good pasta in the form of cavatelli and a saffron sauce with the well-judged bite of chilli. There seemed to be plenty of crab meat and the pasta was cooked nicely. There seemed to saffron gave it all a warm, comforting appearance and this was a pleasing dish.

  I chose what proved to be a remarkably good and delicious main course of beautifully tasty and tender sirloin cooked over coals with it being spot on as medium rare and served with some toothsome slow cooked short rib and sweet Roscof onion and 6 very well triple cooked chips with black garlic purée and unctuous red wine sauce. This was an excellent dish, the meat being Hereford beef from Ireland (I expect you understand my meaning) and of high quality and the cuisson just as I would have wished it to be. A lovely dish

  For dessert I chose the fine peanut butter parfait with milk chocolate crémeux, the richness of both being splendidly balanced by banana and lime ice cream. A pleasingly light but satisfying dessert.

In contrast to the previous evening’s dinner at Oscar’s French Steakhouse and Bistro where service was speeded up to a dizzying pace, the meal at The Cross proceeded at a snail pace but it’s hard to argue with saying, “Something worth having is worth waiting for”.

12 August 2026

Rating:- 🌞🌞

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 

533. Albatross Death Cult.

 

  I made my reservation for the first service after the announcement of the 2026 Michelin Great Britain and Ireland awards in anticipation of Albatross Death Cult being awarded a Michelin star which it well deserves but did not receive. In all events its mother ship, The Wilderness, was the winner of a richly deserved Michelin star instead so Alex Claridge had something to smile about if he could find the necessary facial muscles to carry out such an act. I imagine he did while celebrating his success in Dublin where the award ceremony had been held.

  I was charmingly shown to my place at the counter as I have got used to during my now several visits to the restaurant which Grace Dent now famously described as one of the top five seafood restaurants in Britain. The maestro of the ADC kitchen, Oliver Grieve, was in place with one assistant preparing the first nibbles of the forthcoming meal and I ordered a pleasing cocktail to get myself started.

  The menu mixed old favourites with new additions. From the former group were the oyster cream amuse bouche and the signature mussels with a broth of n’duja and aflame with pepper - this dish seemed to have evolved to its ultimate state of existence - and the divine sushi rice ice cream with nori wafers. The world will not end while these three classics continue to survive.

  There were of course other wonders - Ollie Grieve was at the top of his game - the trout with dill and wasabi, the gorgeous miniature crumpet on which crab was being serenaded by apple, perfectly cooked cod partnered with artichoke and hazelnut, brill partnered by punchy smoked eel and trout once more but this time partnered with lobster. 

  The dessert brought to the table nicely poached seasonal rhubarb holding hands with crème fraiche and all shook up by Szechuan pepper. And I too felt shook up as Oliver told me that this was to be his penultimate service at ADC as he prepared to depart for Woven by Adam Smith at the Dorchester Collection. It’s hard to imagine what will happen at ADC next but Ollie Grieve is a very talented young chef and he is surely wise to expand his experience at this stage of his career. Let us hope that for the gourmands of Birmingham, it is more a question of au revoir rather than adieu.

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞.

11 February 2026.