549. Summer At Tropea.

 

  Push aside the ragus, and the bolognese and ossobucos, it seems to me that Italian food is really all about summer - the vegetables, the fish, the sea food, the lighter meats. And it was summer in June as a blighted first few days of June turned golden as the sun came out, the blue skies became cloudless and the god of weather turned up the temperature.

  I was in the mood for a trip to Harborne heading specifically for one of my favourite restaurants Tropea on Lordswood Road where an Italian summer seemed assured.

  A smooth and friendly - but not over the top - welcome and a suggestion that I might like to start with a Paper Plane which was either well remembered from my previous visits or information cleverly retrieved from records of bills settled up on former occasions. Regardless, I had my Paper Plane and I was all the happier for doing so. The accompanying complementary giadiniera - pickles - and olives were very pleasing - the pickles are sweet and toothsome and are a perfect hors d’oeuvres /antipasto.

  And it was a summer menu indeed. I had come with a picture in my excited mind of the lightly tempura-battered courgette flowers stuffed with goats cheese and mint and enhanced with Moor Pool honey - I was lusting for them; it was the need for them that drove me to travel to Harborne - and they fully lived up to my expectations and memories of them. My only regret was that I ordered just two of them - three of them would have been more sensible or perhaps even four and why not five ….?

  But we cannot say that the choice of another small plate was an unwise one - the pasta - I had the fabulous lobster cappelletti, the excellent pasta filled with tasty chunks of the fine crustacean and served with a delicious lobster and Datterini tomato sauce and dressed with Arënkha caviar (smoked herring roe in the firm of small black pearls currently popular among restaurateurs and a cheap alternative to the real stuff), This was an excellent dish, faux-caviar or not.

  Naturally I could not resist indulging myself in the Tropea aubergine parmigiana which was as good as ever though naturally the portion is rather too large for an old bloke though I made a good fist of it and no-one could have asked more of me. I also splashed out on a very healthily sized plate of barbecued Wye Valley asparagus with a lemon dressing, a good sprinkling of pecorino and pangrattato on top to give that  little extra peasant crunchy texture. The asparagus was lacking in flavour to some degree  - I have had better this summer (from Sainsbury!) just in the last few days - plump and bulky, oozing asparagusic acid and high with flavour. But, allowing for the asparagus’ lack of exuberance it was still a pleasing dish. 

  I also had the Jersey Royals, sadly roasted instead of being plainly boiled, with roasted garlic aioli trailed across them and parsley. As I hinted, I would have preferred the new potatoes to be boiled perfectly and allowed to calmly bathe in the aioli but chefs must be chefs and sometimes they overdo things for the sake of showing they’re putting in the effort.

  And of course I closed with the magnificent Tropea tiramisu which must have been eaten by the Roman gods on Olympus. I was full but made sure I did not leave a cubic micrometre of it.

  Such pleasures, some finer than others, but the whole a delight. 

Rating:- 🌞

12 June 2026.

547. Events Dear Boy Events - July To December 2026.

 

See also - 2024 - Blogs  400 & 416.

                 2025 - Blogs 452 & 492 

                 2026 - Blog 528.

1 July - The Good Food Guide adds the Thai restaurant SOI 1268 (see Blog 440) in Stirchley to its pages as a’local gem’.

11 July - The Oyster Club by Adam Stokes in Temple Street closes.

13 July - The Good Food Guide publishes its 100 Best Local Restaurants list but only 3 West Midlands are included in it - Tropea in Harborne at the number 32 spot, Soi 1268 in Stirchley at 78 and Post in Newnham on Severn in Gloucestershire at number 91.

15 July - The Michelin Guide adds The Two Pigs in Barton-in-Needham in Staffordshire to the guide. The pub is the second dining establishment belonging to Liam Dillon whose The Boat was awarded a Michelin star earlier in 2026.

Liam Dillon

24 July - Alex Claridge comments that the 20% cut in business rates to some hospitality industry venues (but not restaurants nor hotels) announced by Burnham, the new Labour prime minister on 22 July, is “not enough”. Alex states that,”The entire industry is on a precipice …. I don’t know any independent hospitality businesses that are making any money”.

537. Sunday Lunch At Samo.

 

  Chef Elliot Brown opened his restaurant Samo in March 2026 in the Great Western Arcade. The location had previously been home to Land before it moved a short distance along the arcade and prior to Land’s occupation of the site it had been home to Bistro 1847 where once in his salad days Alex Claridge had served vegetarian dishes. Brown has a distinguished curriculum vitae, having trained at the Hotel du Vin and then at Simpsons when Leo Kattou, now at the Bower House in Shipston on Stour, was Head Chef there. Subsequently Brown worked at Aktar Islam’s short-lived Legna and then at Tierra Tacos and Trentina both in the Jewellery Quarter and then he had gained experience with Italian-style food at Tropea in Harborne. Brown is assisted in the kitchen by Greg Shephard, his sous chef.

  Brown’s intended style for his own restaurant was a wise choice - ‘modern bistro’ - with an emphasis on the seasonality of ingredients. My first visit to the new restaurant was for the first Sunday lunch to be served there and it proved to be a very pleasing experience. It really was very good. I was the first diner to arrive for the particular sitting and I received a pleasing welcome and then sat back to enjoy an anis aperitif while the other diners trickled in. The middle class on a Sunday don’t like to hurry themselves.

  As starter I chose an impressive-looking and tasty prawn cocktail surmounted by two king prawns looking accusingly with their dead eyes from the rim of the dish. There was a very generous portion of little shrimps and the Marie Rose was well made.

  But of course I was there for the roast beef and out it came - tender, pink and blushing. There came with it a fine crusty Yorkshire pudding and a banquet of vegetables - very edible beef dripping roast potatoes and slices of roast turnip, gorgeously - yes, gorgeously, that’s the very word, buttery mashed swede with creamed leeks and cabbage and, as an extra, cauliflower in cheese sauce. More vegetables than I could manage but I made a good attempt and there really wasn’t very much left on my plate by the time I surrendered it to be taken to the dish washer, be it machine or human.

    I was kidnapped by the lovely creamy rice pudding with compôte when I read the dessert menu and my choice was fully vindicated by the intense enjoyment it gave. Modern bistro had rendered classic, fine English Sunday lunch. And I had been seated at a window table and what a relaxing time I had watching the Sunday afternoon shoppers pass by. Brilliant!

Elliot Brown & Greg Shephard

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛

29 March 2026.

514. Tropea.

 

  Tropea gets everything right. The service is remarkably good, helpful, friendly, just the right amount of time spent in pleasantries and the delivery of information about the food being served and useful suggestions if the diner asks for them and a just sense of knowing what service is.

  The seating is comfortable and the tables are big enough to make sure everything on them is not in a permanent state of having to be shuffled around every minute or so. The decor is bright and pleasant, the large front window opening on to the world outside gives natural light to the restaurant even if it is a mildly depressing street in Harborne chokingly busy with traffic, which never seems to me to be as attractive as those who live there seem to believe - it’s not Hampton in Arden or Henley in Arden or Knowle, let’s put it that way.

  But regardless of the somewhat dreary inner city suburb in which Tropea is located, it’s all about the food and that is at the apogee of great, delicious dining in the city - comfortingly rustic, generally portioned, gorgeously, unashamedly enjoyable.

  I started as I feel I must always do, with my aperitivo in the form of a soul relaxing paper plane and then nibbled on the sweetly acidic, nicely crunchy housemade seasonal pickles while I waited for my other antipasti which took the form of delightful sliced courgettes in light, fawn-coloured tempura batter sweetened moreishly with drizzles of Moor Pool honey and finished with pecorino giving the battered courgettes a furry look  - a nice autumn successor to the courgette flower fritti served in summer.

  And then an absolute gem as the pasta course - lovely paccheri with a delicious sausage ragu and the profound domination of fennel all crested by 30 month old Parmigiana Reggiano, the entire ensemble rendering a dish of deep flavour and pleasing texture. A hit!A palpable hit!

   For my main, I chose what turned out to be perfectly barbecued half chicken - its meat as tender and tasty as one could hope for and its size not that of some mean little pullet. This was a bountiful chicken dressed with gremolata and served along with a fascinating salad of celery, parsley, leaves, crunchy radishes and the sweet hit of little halved black grapes - quite delightful.

  I haven’t really considered myself to be a tiramisu man but I opted to have the dish on the grounds that it was about time I did. Of the mistakes I have made in my life, not up to now choosing to eat Tropea’s tiramisu ranks as one of the greatest. On the deliciousness scale this dessert as served in Tropea completely scores 10 and then exceeds the scale by several points. The sponge is so light, the cream so soothing, the whole so toothsome. Best of all, it was a large portion, probably meant to be shared by two but I reflected that the pleasure of dining alone is that one doesn’t have to share such wonderful creations. No, sharing is good but letting someone else even just sample your Tropea tiramisu is a sheer folly which should consign the person guilty of such an act to an instant fifty years in purgatory. I coupled my tiramisu with a bold and perfectly matching White Russian, a choice of which the barman seemed to approve.

Tropea seems to have reached a point where its food is perfectly judged in quality and degree of enjoyment and if it is more unpretentiously rustic than fine, its deliciousness is spectacular. I think it will be my Birmingham restaurant of the year.

See also Blog 489.

Rating:- 🌞🌞 

24 October 2025.

490. Cuubo.

 

My visit for lunch in February was generally enthusiastic and I awarded it one 🌞 which is equal to a mention in the Michelin Guide which is something that happened subsequently. It’s a lovely bright place and everything that goes on there speaks the words, “Fine Dining”. Indeed Cuubo is very much a representation of fine dining eating for the first fifth of the 21st century. The dishes come out clean and elegantly poised and of course it’s all served as a tasting menu and it all looks lovely and is well cooked and presented.

  But is chef Dan Sweet living in the, admittedly recent, past? Is Tropea at the other end of Harborne, 

more at the cutting edge of quality dining in the city? Do we want more rusticity asthe second quarter of this century approaches. Perhaps we want something more aggressively down to earth - a good, man-sized dish of aubergine parmigiana rather than a rectangle of sea bream with pretty sauces and emulsions ad creams. Or perhaps we don’t. What we do want if we are sticking with fine dining and paying high prices for the artistry rather than the ingredients is precision of cooking. My dining companion and I both felt that a couple of dishes presented to us on this lunchtime visit to Cuubo were, while being good, not quite as precisely cooked as we might have wished.

  The slick front of house manager served us first with some pleasing sourdough and truffled butter and then there was a satisfying dish of reasonably tasty tomatoes with a cold tasty tomato tea which all seemed very apt for a hot summer lunchtime.

  Next there was a very pleasing pea gazpacho. This had a hint of mint and was as refreshing as I hoped it would be. A well judged dish.

   Next, chunks of crispy pork belly which were indeed beautifully crispy, very moreish, but the meat itself was a little dry and mildly cloying and, we suspected, a little overcooked. It was a tasty dish however served as it was with a bacon cream, the mild heat of chilli and chicory salad which worked well with the main element. The next dish was also very colourful but here the panfried sea bream was definitely a little over though the skin was nice and crispy. The dish included sweet dattarini tomatoes, sea herbs and nduja cream and would have been excellent save for the cooking of the fish. 

  The final savoury course was made up of three small slices of beautifully cooked chicken breast. The meat was moist and delicious and enhanced by guanciale (cured pork jowl) cream and at the risk of turning this main course into a sort of Sunday roast, nicely and simply cooked Jersey Royals and green beans were sevednalongside and much appreciated they were. I’ve noticed that guanciale is one of Dan Sweet’s more favourite ingredients and the flavour came through very nicely to add to the pleasure of the dish.

 

  The single dessert was not particularly awesome being as it was, a deconstructed Eton Mess (well, I suppose you can’t really deconstruct an Eton Mess but if you could then this is what would look like) but it was an apt dish for a hot day and the accompanying raspberry sorbet was toothsome enough.

  We came away agreeing that it had been a “nice meal but not a great one”.

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛.

26 June 2025.