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.

488. ADC’s First Birthday.

  I have not visited Albatross Death Cult (ADC) for some time simply because I had dined there so many times that I felt that I needed a rest from its seafood menu and abundance of sake. In the meantime Grace Dent had dined there and pronounced it to be one of the five best seafood restaurants in Britain and the highly talented and ebullient Senior Chef, Piotr Szpak, who led the ADC team, is no longer in his post there having worked at The Wilderness and ADC for six years. 

Piotr Szpak

  

Leading the service at ADC therefore was Oliver Grieve who had been working alongside Piotr Szpak while studying for his degree in Culinary Arts Management at University College Birmingham and being recently awarded it asa  First Class degree with Honours. In his Linked in page Grieve noted his role as Senior Sous Chef at ADC, to which role he was appointed in January 2025, and described the restaurant as, “a brutalist Japanese-inspired restaurant” 

Oliver Grieve.

  But ADC has now reached its first birthday and this seemed like the right time to renew my acquaintance with this remarkable dining establishment and so I made a reservation for lunch there. The day started sunny and mildly humid but thunder was threatened in the late afternoon; was this the weather forecast or the fine dining forecast? In the end there was no thunder in the skies but there was a thunderously spectacular display of culinary brilliance inside the lovely old factory which is home to ADC. Quite simply, much of the food served, if not all of it, was quite fabulous. And the drinks on offer made this restaurant very unique and a sort of miniature Wonderland and I, very much, was the man who disappeared down the rabbit hole in pursuit of the white rabbit of gastronomic superlativeness.

  Entering and then sitting in the anteroom to sip a fine cocktail, one immediately appreciates that ADC is no ordinary restaurant. In the restaurant proper, Ollie Grieve and his assistant are busy preparing the first dishes of the meal  - some are reassuringly familiar and warmly welcoming while others are new and promising. The menu, handed over at the end of the meal to the diners as they prepare to pay the bill and head off back on to the mean streets, provides a resumé of the pleasures which have been delivered over a joyous three hours or so. None, absolutely none, have failed to delight.

‘Oyster’

   There’s the remarkable ‘oyster’, an old friend to tickle up the tastebuds and reignite the sea in the mouth of the diner. And then the lovely trout tartare with crémeux fraiche and wasabi croustade served alongside a brutally tasty prawn and nam jim tartlet. The dishes are illustrated below - some familiar, some new - the crispy cod skin with taramasalata was perfectly balanced by the rhubarb gel piped on to it.

‘Trout, Crémeux fraiche wasabi’ croustade & ‘Prawn/Nam jim tartlet’

‘Cod skin/Taramasalata/Rhubarb’

Mackerel/Seabuckthorn

‘

Oily mackeral is always a challenge to my aging digestive system but the fish’s strong flavour was matched by the strong hit of sea buckthorn and then a new dish - tuna nigiri - in the form of faux nigiri whereby the boat of rice was substituted for by a pleasing little beignet. A clever little soupçon.

‘Tuna ‘nigiri’’

  The following ‘cox crab - apple - sorrel’ dish was an old faithful but very toothsome for all that and the new dish of supremely beautifully cooked cod with an onion broth was lovely.

‘Cox crab/Apple/Sorrel’

‘Cod/Onion/Tallow’

‘
Mussel/Black pepper/Iberico’

  It seemed to me that ADC’s signature mussel/black pepper/Iberico has reached a new punchy level of flavour and the plump mussels were much to be admired but the little bits of Iberico and tang of pepper are the secret to the pleasure that the dish brings to the diner. A new monkfish dish was certainly the most tender use of this ingredient I have experienced in many a moon and the subsequent chalk stream trout with trout roe and sesame was simply beautiful.

‘Monkfish/Seaweed’

‘Chalkstream trout/Roe/Sesame’

‘Sushi rice ice cream/“Umami”’

  Another ADC signature arrived as the sole dessert - the gorgeous sushi rice icecream with crisps of nori and a nice punchily fruity pate de fruit rounded everything off. ADC remains at the top of its game and indeed may have reached new heights.

 

‘Petit four’ pate de fruit.

  A lovely touch by the charming staff as I left - a gift bag for my new Labrador puppy.

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞

13 June 2025.

458. Albatross Death Cult - For Sake’s Sake.

  If ever there is a restaurant deserving of elevation to join the constellations of the night skies - that is - totally deserving of the Michelin inspectors awarding it one of the Michelin Guide’s much sought after macarons - stars to the likes of you and me - then it is Alex Claridge’s Albatross Death Cult (previously much reported on in various editions of this blog) along with Ben Tesh’s Folium and Stirchley’s not at all well-kept secret, Riverine Rabbit or Rabbit, whichever one prefers. 

  I returned for yet another visit as the first month of the year drew to a close, the early evening being relatively mild and precipitation-free which was a relief as I ambled my way from Victoria Square down the depressing decay of Newhall Street as it trails inexorably to the edge of the Jewellery Quarter. No introductions, just a relaxed, friendly greeting and a “Long-time no see” from Head Chef Piotr Szpak which is his familiar carch phrase though it isn’t necessarily an accurate observation on his part. But it raises a smile as does bumping into a familiar old gourmand acquaintance of mine, a denizen of the Jewellery Quarter, and we sat side by side updating each other on our most recent dining experiences. This particular evening we were both there, with twelve other diners, for a dinner of mostly familiar dishes paired with shots of various types of sake, which Camilla Bonnannini, ADC’s wine manager, had curated following her recent visit to Japan. In the latter part of 2024 Bonnannini had paired with Oliver Grieve, the other principle Chef at ADC, to enter the Gosset Matchmakers competition and had duly won the contest with a dish of quail, nam jim and carrot prepared in three ways as well as a dish prepared from smoked eel caramelised in brown butter and finished with a blow torch both dishes paired with drinks by Bonnannini.

  The evening began with a truly glorious oyster cream served in an oyster shell and paired most perfectly with a delicious Kodakara yuzu liquor (Camilla was already showing her mettle); then familiar and delightful canapés in the form of a perfectly crispy croustade full of tasty trout roe, the popping in the mouth by its little proteinaceous bubbles giving a joyous child-like pleasure of which I felt mildly ashamed and delightedly happy, both at the same time, the pleasure being added to by the bite of wasabi. The equally crispy container of fine salmon with tongue tingling jalapeño and soothing cream cheese was equally pleasurable.

  Next there was the always remarkable and sublime crab and apple dish which I have previously recorded and on this occasion forgot to photograph and this was paired with the hit of the evening - the Tatenokawa ‘Three Peaks’ 33% which was very admirable and brought on a feeling of soothed mellowness and who can ask for anything more?

  Perhaps the best dish of the evening - the Emperor among kings - was the fabulous dish - mussels with black pepper and Iberico. This has been perfected by the inclusion of more Iberico which has raised it to a divine status. Utterly delicious. The mussels were of admirable texture and the meaty salinity was unsurpassed. 

   The mussels were matched with an interesting fugu (pufferfish) sake which had been bottled complete with pufferfish fins rather as one might find cactus in mescal but the next course, the robust flavoured red prawn with prawn head sauce and this time with pumpkin, was accompanied by a limited edition Nigorizake (cloudy rice wine which retains some of the rice particles in it).

  The last of the savoury dishes was again familiar but also immaculate - fine hamachi (yellow fin tuna) with sesame - unendingly delicious. There was nothing to do but bathe my brain’s contentment centre in the fabulous sushi rice ice cream with caramel and nori tuile - a last, friendly umami assault before the last bugle call of the taste blitz rendered by a red grapefruit juice jelly petit four.

  I have made a reservation to dine again at ADC for the first service after the Michelin Awards ceremony. I can not see why ADC - brilliant and perfect - should not receive a star  If it were in London it certainly would.  For the present at least -

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞

30 January 2025.