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:- 🌞🌞

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.

534. The (Starry) Wilderness.

 

  It is not unknown for me to dine at The Wilderness. My first visit was shortly after it opened in Dudley Street back in 2016 if I remember rightly, or was it perhaps the end of 2015. Time passes and one forgets details. I remember the shock of the moss covered walls, an exquisite lamb dish and those citric tasting ants lining up to get at the cheese tart. The rest, they say, is history. Ten years or so later, Alex Claridge now has his well-deserved Michelin star. It’s fair to say, I think, as an interested eyewitness, that the ten years leading up to the award have been ten years of relentless struggle but finally the walls of Chateau Michelin have been scaled and the starry flag carried off to be flown at Wilderness Castle. I was happy to be dining at The Wilderness, just a week and two days after the memorable ceremony in Dublin where Claridge’s skill was awarded the recognition it deserved and much celebrating, apparently, took place.

  I was pleased to congratulate Chef and his excellent crew and have a brief chat and then to settle down and be cosseted and regaled with the dishes from the full dining menu - £150 - yes, I know but it was a special occasion  - which was as full of luxurious items, almost all finely cooked, as one might expect - unimpeachable A5 wagyu with an astonishing crab velouté and alive with tamarind, excellent, gorgeously flavoured saddle of lamb and perfectly cooked, gorgeous venison perfectly matched with beetroot and sweet plum. Unfortunately the preceding halibut was served cold and undercooked which was embarrassing for everybody given the so very recent award of the Michelin Star but the problem was quickly rectified and another dish was served, appropriately hot and nicely cooked. Mistakes happen sometimes.

  The pre-dessert was great fun with jalapeno and sorrel combined with the sudden sweet sting of grape and the dessert was mildly challenging as rocket elbowed its way in to a dish of nicely cooked rhubarb and pistachio. Fortunately the rocket did not elbow its way in too much as I really couldn’t taste it and so all was well that ended well at this newly starry but long-established Jewellery Quarter restaurant with Alex Claridge remains uncompromising in his drive to bring his dinners the good,the inventive and the sometimes challenging. No ants though, thank heavens.

Rating:- 🌞🌞

523. Opheem, Birmingham’s Crown Jewel.

 

  I woke up this morning filled with lust. I was lusting after one of Opheem’s crispy, lightly battered shishu leaves. Then again, I can lust after almost everything I was served on my most recent visit to Opheem. Food lust. Such wickedness and Opheem is the wellspring of such lust. It is outstanding - in atmosphere, in comfort, in service and in the food served.

  I’ve written about it several times before and shall not write in great detail again here especially as some of the dishes served have been described after those previous visits to Opheem. And so this particular Blog will be more a pictorial tour of the menu - a gallery you might say - illustrating the glorious dishes that brought me to perpetual Opheem-lust.

 Although many of the dishes on the menu were largely unchanged, the format of the menu itself does show a change - a sign of the times. The menu itself is now two pages rather than four but it remains as informative and detailed as before so no harm is done. It is notable too that Aktar Islam was not in the kitchen on the evening of my visit but the food, I thought, was as unimpeachable as ever. Clearly he has some smart chefs at Opheem. I asked who was the Head Chef now but there was no single name to be given. At Opheem the entire kitchen seemed to act as a well-oiled machine. 

  Voyage through 10 courses of Michelin two starred food -

Amuses gueules - 

Pakora, deep fried shiso leaf with chutney

Bharta, Isle of Wight tomatoes, rassam sorbet and rajastani chutney

Badami korma, Orkney scallop, mooli, apple & almond

Aloo tuk, Ashanti pink fir potatoes, tamarind & mango

Masor tenga, Cornish sea bass, summer squash, seabeet and courgette

Wazwan, laminated paratha, hogget belly & shorma

Mini-milk loaf to accompany hogget dish

Muckwas, barbecued duck, kitcharee, confit duck leg bon bon & reduced nihari sauce

Predessert

Muckwas, lemon sorbet, fennel, black pepper & lemon chutney

After Eight, Vahlrona chocolate & mint

Mithai - including fabulous Madeleines and canales.

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞

11 December 2025.