520. Sunday Lunch With Beef Wellington At Harborne Kitchen

Former Head Chef Tom Wells.

Head Chef Patrick White.

 

  The thought of a beef Wellington Sunday lunch at Harborne Kitchen was irresistible and so I indeed did not resist and went on unhesitatingly to reserve my table there. Since I last dined there, former sous chef, Patrick White, had replaced Tom Wells as Head Chef, the latter having gone on to be Executive Chef at Hogarth’s Hotel in Dorridge. The restaurant has been redecorated in a cooling, sophisticated, soothing grey with restrained boxes of healthy-looking green plants trailing from high up and positioned under them colourful and perfectly apt tiles. Music was perhaps mildly intrusive but Harborne-cool as REM and Michael Stipe slithered out across the ether. The Harborne Kitchen is aptly named as comfortably off Harbornites chatter away, imbibe and in the back of their mind shiver at the nagging fear of what Rachel Reeves will come up with next.

  A thrillingly warming Old Fashioned taste-alike cocktail made with Bourbon and called Honey and Wine proved to be a secret pleasure until it was whipped away unfinished and mourned. Sunday service does seem rather brisk. Regardless, there was a lovely amuse gueule to start, an inoffensively small portion of Hereford beef tartare sitting on a satisfactory chunk of beef fat potato terrine with a tiny hint of confit egg yolk and the pleasing acidic hit of pickled walnut.

  The starter was a pleasingly cooked Orkney scallop serving interestingly with Jerusalem artichoke, julienne of refreshing, tangy fresh apple and a buttermilk sauce. This was accompanied by an enjoyable slice of sourdough and whipped homemade butter both of which were very good.

  Then the Beef Wellington. This is why I had come to this particular Sunday lunchtime.

  The Wellington was very good and the beef excellent - in fact - I would say that it was absolutely perfectly cooked and the tenderness spot on - very good beef indeed.The surrounding duxelle was tasty and did its job and the pastry was pleasing  The accompanying horseradish sauce was too subtle in its heat but the beef fat roasted potatoes were particularly good and acceptably crispy with well cooked interiors. The roast parsnips were nice and sweet in a parsnip sort of way and the glazed turnip was well cooked but contributed very little. The creamed spinach was as interesting as spinach can aspire to be. 

  Then the great pleasure of a tarte tatin which in this case was made more interesting by using quince rather than apple or pear or even pineapple which has been unsatisfactory when I have been served it in the past. Then quince had an excellent texture and was tasty but less so than apple usually is. There was also a rapidly melting, somewhat unconvincing vanilla ice cream but it’s hard not to enjoy a well made tarte tatin as this dish was. Finally a familiar mignardise, a pair of lips, which is always welcome.

  I wound down after this fine Sunday lunch with another Honey and wine cocktail. I would have been happier if the service, while fully meeting my needs and being appropriately friendly, had been a little calmer and I do wish that on taking one’s seat one is not immediately told that, effectively, one is welcome but only for the next two hours after which one will be expected to settle up and make way for another group of temporarily welcome guests. Yes, I know the economics of running a restaurant necessitate the turning of tables and I accept that but does the announcement of the temporariness of one’s possession of the table at which one has just sat down have to be made immediately on arriving?

  One other trick which might have been pleasing would have been if one of the uncut Wellingtons had been brought to the table to show off the artistry of the complete item. But everything was just too busy,it seemed, for that open.

Rating:- 🌞

30 November 2025.

492. Events, Dear Boy, Events. 2025. Part 2. July To December.

 

See also Blogs 400, 416 and 452..

2 July - Hogarth’s Hotel in Dorridge where previously Rob Palmer had been planning to reopen his Toff’s restaurant from May 2024 to 26 March 2025,appoints Tom Wells who had previously worked at Harborne Kitchen for six years as Executive Chef from November 2019 having also worked as Head Chef at Turner’s in Harborne from February 2007 to May 2009.

Tom Wells

Rob Palmer

4 - 5 July - The annual Colmore Food Festival is held in Victoria Square under hot sunshine on the opening day. A large number of Colmore District hospitality businesses participate including Adam’s/The Oyster Club, Purnell’s Plates, Asha’s, Tiger Bites Pig, Dishoom, Mayan, Isaac’s and Orielle. The Oyster club serves up an excellent dish called ‘Tempura Fish and Chips’ which is a perfectly cooked deep fried kebab of five large prawns, minty pea purée and string chips. Visitors to the Festival are given a free ‘Colmore Cook Book’.

Oyster Club’s Tempura ‘Fish and chips’.

11 July - Alex Claridge reveals some of his new dishes for The Wilderness in an event called Bâtard where former Masterchef The Professionals competitors, Evan Holliday and Jordan Johnson, who had previously worked at Simpsons make their first appearance in The Wilderness’ kitchen, thus joining Simpsons’ former pastry chef, Lewis Perks at The Wilderness. It is also revealed that Marius Gedminas has left his role as Head Chef at The Wilderness and is presently doing some travelling. The new Head Chef is Turkish-born Ediz Engin who was already employed at The Wilderness.

Evan Holliday at The Wilderness.

Evan Holliday, Jordan Johnson and Sonal Clare.

Jordan Johnson

Ediz Engin and Evan Holliday

14 July - Alex Claridge showcases the premiere of a 4 minute-long film about him and his passions at the Mockingbird Cinema in the Custard Factory in Digbeth. In a discussion afterwards he reveals that he intends to stand as a candidate in the next West Midlands Mayoral election.

15 July - Tony Parkin leaves his role as Head Chef at Opheem after less than three months in the post. He :is appointed as development chef with the Open Group (Andrew Sheridan, Sam and Emma Morgan). 

27 July - The Good Food Guide adds the Madresfield Butchers and Grill in Great Malvern to its list of recommended restaurants rating it as ‘Good’.

2 September - Sonal Clare officially announces that he has left his job at The Wilderness to become Midlands Account Manager for Möet Chandon.

12 September - The three day-long 2025 Ludlow Food Festival gets underway.

23 October - Michelin announces that the 2026 Michelin Guide reveal ceremony will be held at the Convention Centre in Dublin on Monday 9 February 2026.

24 November - The Good Food Guide adds Liam Dillon’s The Boat in Lichfield to its list of recommended restaurants. The question is, “why did it take so long?”.

26 November - Michelin adds Stuart Deeley’s The Warwick at Mallory Court in Leamington to the Guide. It is the only West Midlands restaurant to be included among a total of 24 additions for November. However, it is worth noting that Brad Carter’s new restaurant in Kings Cross, Island, has also been included in the guide.

10 December - Glynn Purnell opens his new city centre restaurant, Trillium, at Snowhill in collaboration with Phil Innes, proprietor of Loki Wines. The new Head Chef is Rob Palmer, previously Head Chef at Peel’s Restaurant at Hampton Manor and of his own Toffs in Solihull.

17 December - Michelin includes four new West Midlands restaurants in the Michelin Guide - Journey in Cheltenham (Gloucestershire, Head Chef), Moda in House of George W Davies Hotel in Broadway (Worcestershire, Head Chef James Wilson), Post in Newnham (Gloucestershire, Head Chef Fred Page) and Bastardo’s Trattoria in Shipston on Stour ((Warwickshire).

330. Summer Rain (1 - Harborne Kitchen).

 

  A century ago,  plus or minus forty years, Harborne was traditionally and deprecatingly known by Birmingham residents as ‘Hungry Harborne’ because it tended to be inhabited by those who thought themselves a cut above the rest of the city’s denizens despite them being rather less well off than they would have liked to be, to the extent that they could not necessarily afford to eat as regularly as one would have expected. At the same time, Handsworth, then the location of substantial housing with the feel of Moseley’s Salisbury Road about them, was equally deprecatingly known as ‘Kippers and Curtains’, the meaning not lost on those who lived in the city at the time. Harborne has fared rather better than Handsworth in these post-millennial times though to one who visits there only infrequently, it was obvious to me on my most recent trip to this outwardly well-heeled suburb that the rot has set in just as it clearly has, quite dramatically, in Moseley. But one can hardly still call it ‘Hungry Harborne’ given how many dining establishments representing an eclectic mix of cuisines there are scattered along its ugly tired, high street where there are now quite a number of closed shops.

  Walking along the High Street one can see that Harborne has its population of useless hipsters all intent on prioritising their ‘work-life balance’ but squeezed by their mortgage repayments, mixed with older people who’ve made a quid or two in their now passed working lives and who get angry at the poor service in the long queue at the understaffed post office or feel sad to see Harborne High Street fading right in front of their eyes.

  Still there’s something for the denizens of the suburb to celebrate - Harborne Kitchen is there as the jewel in its dining out crown, indeed it’s a jewel in Birmingham’s dining out crown - the Good Food Guide lists it as ‘exceptional’ - and judging by a Friday lunchtime service is doing remarkably good business in these troubled times with hipsters and the comfortably off retired and everything in between there relishing the fine dishes that emerge from its open kitchen.

  It was a day of solid rain which did nothing to enhance the appearance of the High Street. But spirits were soon raised by the professional warm welcome on arriving at the restaurant, the pleasing chat with the front of house staff and the accepted suggestion of an aperitif of white port and tonic with a slice of orange which was sparklingly refreshing and reflected well on the Lisbon elite who apparently quaff it all the time.

  Seated at my table, I was appalled at how badly the younger diners seated near by were eating their food - forks used as shovels delivering huge lumps of food into gaping mouths, huge chunks of bread shoved into oral cavities while leaning forward with their heads almost resting on the table and - horror upon horror - gabbling on in voices loud enough to be heard by all the other diners in the room with their mouths full of food. Horrible. I wish the middle classes would return to teaching their offspring how to eat their food in polite company. This is unlikely to happen as we are now on to the second generation of middle class diners who eat like four year old labradors and are not in a position to correct their brats because they themselves know no better. There is also now, sadly, very little polite company.

  Putting the rest of the diners aside, the restaurant was comfortable, had a pleasing if metropolitan atmosphere and the service was top notch, unimpeachable in fact - glasses of water and wine were kept topped up, dropped napkins were replaced instantly, diners heading for the lavatories were guided to their destination. I chose the ten course Tasting Menu priced at £100 which proved to be extremely good value and a delight to look back on afterwards.

  To start, there were two excellent amuses gueules - the first a full bodied flavoured, aged cheddar gougère textured with walnut and then the signature Jamie’s chicken and white chocolate - a supremely luscious chicken liver mousse invigorated with white chocolate served on a crisp (Blog 211 - January 2022 - has described some of the dishes previously but it’s a pleasure to remind oneself of past and present  items of happiness).

  Next another pleasingly punchily flavoured dish of (inevitably, I suppose) chalk stream trout (delicious but possibly an ingredient which needs to be given a holiday by chefs) on a slightly stodgy brioche with tasty herrings roe and Hollandaise. While the dish was pleasantly flavoured it lacked the elegance of many of the other dishes with a large stripe of Hollandaise draped over the middle of it like a folded duvet.

  Another of Jamie Desogus’ old familiars came along next - the malloreddus, this time served with an adventurous combination of chopped English asparagus and morels and a delightful snowfall of Parmesan covering it. I am not a pasta man and gnocchi give me little pleasure having so great a mass for so small a volume (the gnocchi that is, though this may also be said about myself I suppose) but this was pleasant though again I believe asparagus, when we have it in season, should be enjoyed for itself - the star of the production, one might say - and not chopped and immersed in a milieu of other things.

  Along came another one of Desogus’ favourite ingredients - smoked eel, this time used to surround a satisfactorily cooked plover’s egg and served as a clever, though rather salty, scotch egg soothed with a nice pea velouté and precisely cooked peas and broad beans - an explosion of summer.

  The prawn head and kohlrabi tartare with nasturtiums which followed was full of the right sort of flavour and we marched on to the absolutely excellent, beautifully cooked, generously portioned ‘fillet of cod’ with sea purslane, tiny gorgeously sweet pickles and an almost malty velouté. This may have been my favourite dish and certainly not one to miss.

  The meat course - 21 day aged sirloin and ox cheek -  too, brought with it great pleasure - finely cooked and a well of flavour further enhanced by a full-bodied beef fat sauce and crispy onions. The smoked pomme purée was of a consistency which rendered it practically drinkable

  Baron Bigod remains on the menu providing the basis for a cheese course correctly situated before the desserts. I was not terribly keen on the dish employing the cheese when I wrote about it in Blog 211. I am now a true adherent of Baron Bigod - delightful on buttered crusty bread with a covering of not over sweet honey - and enjoyed the course on offer on this more recent visit - small balls of apple gave texture and sweetness. 

  Then to the first dessert of raspberry, raspberry sorbet, crème fraiche ice cream and aerated white chocolate alongside a happy little beignet filled with raspberry jam. Finally came a generously sized banana mousse with 72% chocolate encasing it and a refreshing lime sorbet to balance the dish. A lovely way to end a fine meal.

  So, once more, back out on to the wet streets of not-at-all Hungry Harborne after a visit to an ‘exceptional’ restaurant asking myself who am I to argue with such a sound judgement. Head Chef Tom Wells had been in the kitchen and delivered one of the courses to the table and a fine job he was doing.

  Rating:- 🌞🌞