Stirchley is reputed to be, according to some newspaper survey or the other, one of the coolest suburbs in Britain. The ‘High Street’, which is actually a section of the Pershore Road, is an ugly, neglected, characterless dump (away from the main thoroughfare there are some lovely green areas and pleasing 1930s estates) and its rundown appearance hasn’t really changed since my boyhood in the 1950s. It is very unattractive.
In very recent years however middle-class middling-achievers have moved into Stirchley because, being middling achievers, they are unable to afford property in the more established, expensive suburbs where the better-off socialist middle class would aspire to live, starting with Edgbaston and Moseley and working down to Harborne and Kings Heath. They say that they have brought ‘gentrification’ with them to the area though, since they are not in any way members of the gentry (being in actual fact a population of socialist hipsters, negroni drinkers and women in dungarees, mostly employed in jobs which generally benefit their fellows but little) in the case of Stirchley ‘gentrification’ actually means tarted up small terraced houses where honest workmen lived sixty years ago accompanied by a profusion of cafés and small independent businesses where the denizens of the suburb can learn to bake their own bread, swig negronis and hang out in thirdhand attire bought from charity shops.
Being very cool, it is not so surprising perhaps that Stirchley and its businesses get reported on by the gullible as being of high quality either by the hipster denizens of the area or by those lured to the area by its reputation for cool. I was certainly surprised to find that The Good Food Guide inspectors were suddenly inflamed by one or two micro-businesses in the area handing out plaudits to unpromising-looking restaurants on the ramshackle high street.
First, remarkably, up popped Yikouchi At Chancers Cafe accredited with a GFG ‘Very Good’ rating which makes it one of the Guide’s leading Birmingham restaurants though it is hardly any bigger than a dog kennel, does not offer reservations, and only seems to sell the award-winning food on Fridays. I intend to go there when I get the chance but was not excited by the thought of doing so after squinting through the shop windows to see the restaurant’s interior. The food will have to be very good indeed to convince me that the Good Food Guide inspectors haven’t gone mad.
Then a second Stirchley restaurant appeared in the Good Food Guide - rated ‘good’ it was Eat Vietnam, a couple of doors along from Chancers Cafe. This place, from the outside at least, appears even more unpromising with the sign of the old greasy spoon cafe which was the previous occupant of the building still very visibly in place and a tiny sign advertising the real name of the restaurant plus a large ugly red and yellow poster dominating the upper part of the building and reading, “FISH SAUCE IS NOT FOR EVERYONE”.
The Good Food Guide notes that the Chef/owner Ming Nham “was in the music/fashion business before taking to the stoves” and ascribes the “cool soundtrack, buzzy vibe and hipster clientele” to Mr Nham’s former profession. Presumably Ming Nham’s previous occupation also explains the rather unique approach to signage though it has to be said that the interior decor, as I discovered when I visited the restaurant, is without any real amount of artistic eccentricity apart from there being another of the ‘Fish sauce’ epigrams in large letters on one of the walls.
The welcome by the front of house staff was pleasing and a bottle of water was brought to my table immediately and I was not rushed into ordering a drink or making a choice from the menu. I felt comfortable and cosy on a dreary autumn late afternoon - the GFG notes that Eat Vietnam is a “super-relaxed, friendly and comfortable eatery”.
There was a sensibly short paper menu plus a blackboard on the wall above my head with the ‘specials’ written on it. Many dishes were small plates though larger dishes were on offer with accompaniments included in the moderate prices. The dishes looked interesting and highly tempting. After a little discussion with the very friendly and helpful waitress I settled on four small plates though it emerged that one of them was not available which was just as well as three proved to be very ample.
From the board menu I chose pan-fried scallops with potato dauphine and a coconut and scallion sauce. All elements of the dish were delicious and the scallops were nicely cooked and the whole was delightful. I chose from the paper menu, under recommendation, the splendidly tasty spicy, crispy cauliflower, delightfully unctiousness and enhanced with peanut (proof that there is a way to cauliflower heaven for anyone who would not normally wish to eat that vegetable).
Finally, again from the ‘specials’ board, glazed pork with green beans. The pork was pleasingly tender and the glaze acceptably if subtly tasty. Sesame seeds made a contribution to the taste and texture.
There are no desserts available apart from three flavours of ice cream sold in, one presumes, bought in cartons. I question whether this is adequate for a GFG-listed restaurant. I chose the pandan-flavoured offering which was pleasant if unremarkable.
The food was indeed good and well-cooked and presented. The restaurant itself is perfectly apt for its location - a suburb which is home to the self-consciously hipster who in the past might have liked to think of themselves as being Bohemian. A party of about eight arrived while I was there led by a pushy, early middle-aged hipster demanding to be seated in the open air, rather chilly, area in the garden at the back of the restaurant though one or two of of the party, feeling the pleasant warmth of the restaurant itself, looked a little doubtful about the group leader’s decision. Other diners did indeed include a woman dressed in dungarees who looked like a refugee from Greenham Common and I doubt if any diner apart from myself was aged less than forty (and most under thirty).
The toilet was also ‘round the back’, was clean and workable but had a broken lock and no way of indicating that there was already someone in there carrying out their bodily functions. This summed up the restaurant. The food is good but a lot of small neighbourhood restaurants produce good food. If one lives in Stirchley or its vicinity this is a good, moderately priced, place to eat a filling and tasty meal but I think that the Good Food Guide has been a little generous in elevating it to a place in its hoary pages. The Guide is making a move to be more inclusive of small local dining establishments which would quite reasonably make it into a local guide but I’m not sure that if I came all the way from, say, Leeds I would be all that delighted to consult the GFG and as a result, venture out on an unreliable local bus service on a dark evening to find myself on the scruffy Stirchley main thoroughfare and turning up at this odd little restaurant without proper signage.
Ming Nham really needs to take the place to a higher level (first of all fix the lavatory lock) before the GFG, or any other guide starts recommending it on a national basis. It feels like the Good Food Guide inspectors had had one negroni too many the evening they visited this establishment. But that does not mean that I shall not return - the food is indeed ‘Good Food’ and the restaurant is dog-friendly which makes a refreshing change and the Labrador would enjoy an evening there sniffing at the vaguely comical Stirchley hipsters even though, in my experience, they tend to be cat fanciers. Rating:- 🌛🌛.
Ming Nham:-
