524. Trillium And Namaste England Revisited

  It is not fair to judge anything on first acquaintance but I often find that first impressions are rarely far off the mark. I was not, shall we say, overly impressed by the food served on my opening minute’s visit to Glynn Purnell’s Trillium, though others visiting a few days after me were jumping in the air with exhilaration after their first meals in this glitzy, sparkling, energetic and expensive dining establishment.

  However, I had made reservations for a second visit the following week and the question was to be whether or not I was going to appreciate the food more than previously.

  I started off with the Trillium cocktail which had not been available the previous week. It was pleasant enough though in the future I would opt for something less sweet.

 I had resolved to order less food on this second visit as I had ordered far too much for me to handle the previous week. I ordered two snacks and no starters and once more enjoyed the extra large gougère (the menu still has the accent over the first e pointing in the wrong direction) and, this time, the battered potato scallop which, though rather lightweight, brought with it pleasure and a hint of Aktar Islam’s sophisticated aloo tuk..

  It was all very busy but the staff had time to chat passingly and the service was fine save that the food was coming out, as in the first week, a little cooler than one might have hoped. It was difficult to see why. It all came to a head with a dish of otherwise very good confit leeks which I had ordered for my main course of braised shoulder of lamb and which were almost inedibly cold. When I mentioned this, apologies were made and a very much better hot dish of leeks was quickly served but at these sort of prices, food should be being served hot. With so many distinguished chefs in the kitchen and with the high prices, Trillium must do better. No simple errors like that should happen at any time. I’m sure that placing cold sour cream on the leeks does not help them to retain a reasonable temperature. The lamb itself was excellent and a big improvement on the pork chop I had had the previous week. The meat was succulent and delightfully tender but best of all it tasted like lamb (this is not the case in a lot of restaurants) - perhaps because it was hogget - and its being matched with mint - the two always making the ideal combination (though you can add some redcurrant if you like and a sprig of rosemary). I thoroughly enjoyed my main apart from the misstart with the cold leeks and my confidence in this new restaurant was starting to build.

 

  For dessert I opted again for the very passable zabaglione made joyous by the two accompanying beignets and topped it all off with a very, very quaffable Old Fashioned.

  This was a distinct improvement compared with the opening day. In between my two visits, a gourmand friend whom I sometimes suspect of having a Stockholm Syndrome as regards restaurateurs, had pronounced that he’d had a very good meal centred on the £55 Creedy Carver duck dish and the photographs certainly looked very good but man can not live by duck alone and I remain to be convinced that apart from Trillium being the spot to be seen at, it lives up to expectations, and its prices.

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛.

17 December 2025.

  After all the glitz and bustle of Trillium, I paid another visit to a recently reopened Namaste England in West Heath. It really is a lovely place, sadly far too quiet but I hope that is just because I chose to dine there early lunchtime midweek, its decor bright with colourful elephants painted on the walls and a Christmas tree to bring seasonal pleasure; with a short and enticing menu which has a marked emphasis on vegetarian dishes while not proscribing meat and poultry. It’s all nicely presented but has a charming home-cooked and rustic air to it all. I like going there.

  This time I started with a pistachio lassi - very good - and then, as on my previous occasion, ordered the nice little onion bhajis which were perfectly spicy and matched by a nice yogurt dip though they were a little dark and looked as though they had been fried for longer than they should have been.

  As my main, this time I had the chicken biryani which was served nicely but there was no pastry cover over the biryani. The rice was well cooked and the little chipmunks of chicken incorporated in it were moist and pleasant. The rice was a little oily and I could not help wondering if this had been a stir fried pilau with added chicken rather than a steamed true biryani. The fried onion slices scattered on the top were also burnt and did not look good. It was certainly a very generous portion but after a number of mouthfuls I grew a little tired and bored with it and asked for the remainder to be boxed up for me to have for summer. Despite its faults the dish was aromatic and tasty and pleasant enough.

  Once again I had the excellent homemade pistachio kulfi served beautifully in a pretty little dish and thoroughly enjoyed it.

  This is a lovely place where a decent enough meal can be had. The prices are remarkably low (I paid about £27 for the three courses plus lassi and service which was added at just 5%). Tge service was, as before, charming. I hope that it succeeds.

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛.

23 December 2025.

521. Afternoon Tea And Street Food.

 

  By using the term ‘dining out’, I usually think of two meals, either lunch or dinner. Generally now however ‘dining out’ has extended itself in the casual culture of middle-class hipsters who presently seem to be about the only people who can afford to eat out in their frequently grubby little enclaves in trendy suburbs to anytime-of-the-day street food, expensive burgers and costly pizzas and ‘dirty fries’. Much of this stuff is over regarded by a social group which over regards itself in parallel but there are some purveyors of street food products which do indeed show a passion for their products and consequently bring great pleasure to those who consume them.

  ‘Dining out’ may now also encompass breakfasts & the ‘all-day breakfast’ has long been elevated from its greasy spoon origins to being partaken of in more rarified establishments and ‘afternoon teas’ are now immensely popular particularly with ladies who previously lunched but now settle for a teapot, a scone (whether or not the jam or perhaps the cream is layered on it first is up to them in this casual society - for me the only correct format is scone, butter, jam and cream (call it a Warwickshire tea if you like), sandwiches and dainty little cakes and, if they can get away with it, and long before the sun is below the yardarm, a glass of Prosecco. Why they are called Afternoon teas is perplexing as they are often not consumed at teatime but sometimes as early as 1PM which is silly. I have seen a fatuous article trying to explain the difference between afternoon tea and high tea but I remain to be convinced.

  So we have it - ‘dining out’ - what is it? Lunch and dinner and now also anytime Street food, anytime breakfast and afternoon tea which lasts from just after lunch to just before dinner. 

  Here are some of my recent new-style dining out experiences which I thoroughly enjoyed - 

Breakfast -

  On another stay at the Hotel du Vin in Stratford upon Avon I chose to eat breakfast at the hotel as I have done several times before. This of course was breakfast not all day breakfast. The Hotel du Vin in Stratford really does serve very good breakfasts. I always feel that the scrambled egg is key to judging the breakfast. Oh yes! And the humble slice of black pudding. The perfect scrambled egg is a rare and fabulous beast.mi like it butterfly and mildly baveuse. The HDV chefs so often succeed in sending out a very fine scrambled egg. On this occasion the scrambled egg was excellent though not perfect but well deserving of a 7.5 out of 10. As regards the black pudding, most hotels overcook it and the contents are dry and flag in the mouth. The HdV usually avoids this and retains a little moisture in its cooked pudding which makes it all very edible. On this occasion, the pudding was not wholly perfect but well deserving of a 7.5 out 10. I will just add that the tomato was excellent - sweet and juicy, the mushroom ver pleasing being moist and firm, the sausage tasty but the bacon somewhat overcooked and tending towards the mildly leathery.

The previous evening I had enjoyed a dinner of truly delicious, mildly spiced cauliflower soup and a well-cooked confit duck. This was a very pleasurable pre-theatre dinner before setting off for the Royal Shakespeare Theatre’s Other Place to see a clever production of Macbeth set in a splendidly authentic-looking working men’s club in 1970s Glasgow where Duncan is a gang boss and Macbeth one of his thuggish lieutenants.

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛

  And so to Afternoon Tea. 

  Kiss Me Cupcakes is a coffee and cake shop, now only open occasionally, in Alvechurch Road in West Heath. The owner is Mary Ashman, a skilled baker, whose main work is making attractive and spectacular occasion cakes which are bespoke in design and cleverly made and extraordinarily appealing. Whenever Mary is holding a special event - in this case a Christmas-themed afternoon tea - I try to go along and not only support a valiant local small business but also to simply enjoy myself. The exquisite, wood-panelled sitting area, full of atmosphere drawn from its eclectic, homely furniture and old ceramics such as Royal Albert tea cups, saucers and teapots, is immensely relaxing and dog friendly and no place seems a better spot to find a chilled-out black Labrador lounging in the hope of sharing in the food served than there at Kiss Me Cupcakes.

  The tea does not have the pretensions of that which is served at, say, The Grand Hotel. But Mary serves it all very nicely. Neat little sandwiches - seasonal turkey and cranberry, smoked salmon and cream cheese and cheese with a delightful sweet chutney. Mary’s scones served with whipped cream and strawberry jam are light and moist, as fresh as anything newly baked (which of course is precisely what they are) and a great pleasure to languidly consume whilst sitting in one of KMC’s very, very comfortable armchairs. There’s a toothsome mince tartlet, just as sweet as you need it to be, and the lightest of fairy cakes beautifully decorated in the style of a Christmas wreath. The meringue with raspberries and passion fruit seeds , is unimpeachable - crispy outside, gooily gorgeous inside and there’s a fine chocolate brownie as well as the cinnamon hit of a gingerbread man to round everything off. This is fine value for £19 which of course includes tea - I was served two pots of Tea Pigs tea and enjoyed the quality of it. 

  Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛.

5 December 2015.

And food, a street food lunch.

  Another facility not far from my home is Herbert's Yard in Longbridge where the immaculate Greidy’s has been the outstanding stall over autumn and into winter. I had a lunch there on a cold grey day and was warmed very pleasurably by my Greidy’s sriracha Thai chicken strips, quite hot to be honest, but full of flavour from the sewer sriracha sauce. The tender, moist chicken strips were served with a necessary and excellent salad and some very well cooked, instantly addictive salted chips and Inconcluded that this was one of those dishes tgat everyone should eat at least once before they die.

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛.

 I had chosen all the above dishes wisely. Breakfasts/afternoon teas/street food. Yes, I think they are part of the dining out scene (when done well) in this age when men can’t be bothered to shave, scruffy is fashionable and going to work is an occasional day out.

  

517. Namaste England.

 

  I described a visit to the West Heath located Namaste England back in May 2025 (Blog 484) and reported that I had found it to be a pleasant experience. Very shortly after dining there it closed without warning (trade did appear to be rather slow) but, with something of a flurry, it reopened on 11 November with a little flurry of advertising on social media.

  I was therefore interested to make a return visit and found that the owners had clearly had a rethink including opening for lunch (which suits me very much) and adding much more colour to the place with garlands of flowers hanging from the windows, more pictures and a lovely mural featuring a pair of elephants along one of the walls. Service was charming and genuine and the food cooked it seemed by a different chef - a lady keen to receive feedback - was excellent .

  I have no pretensions when it comes to south Asian food - I do not seek out “authenticity” as so many who claimed to know about the subject used to do in the past and determinedly gave the cold shoulder to anything that wasn’t eaten with fingers nor was was served “on the bone”. I like nice tasty food, nowadays less spicy than I may once have chosen to eat, nicely presented and if possible with elements of the sweet and the sour. 

  The food at Namaste England did have the ring of authenticity to it, I thought, but was readily appealable to a western plalte. It was very well prepared but had a refined rusticity to it.

  To start I had a very good lassi and four really exquisite little onion bhajis - tasty and with a crispy exterior - served with soothing raita. Very enjoyable. My main was a fine meaty lamb rogan Josh with just the right amount of heat in it. It looked tempting and lived up to its appearance.i had a reasonable buttered naan with it.

  Then, for dessert, came a real gem - a delicious homemade pistachio kulfi served in a pretty lidded dish. Lots of south Asian restaurants serve bought-in kulfis but this was the real McCoy - absolutely top notch. It is worth returning to the restaurant for the kulfi alone.

  Here we have it then, a fine little suburban restaurant which is just a little different from many such dining establishments, serving good food where the diner notches up a very modest bill. If this were located in Stirchley tge hipsters would be pouring in already.

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛

13 November 2025.