481. Riverine Rabbit.

 

  I was delighted to receive an invitation from Erin Valenzuela-Heeger, best described as ‘Front of House’ (though in reality no more Front of House than Ash, her partner, the Michelin ‘Best Young Chef of 2025’), to reserve a spot at the counter of Riverine Rabbit, for dinner as it is remarkably difficult to get a place there and it had been a while since I had last dined there where things have now moved on to, perhaps surprisingly for this tiny, casual and very relaxed restaurant, diners being offered the choice of one of two tasting menus, one of five courses, the other of seven. Rabbit is clearly getting serious.

  Arriving a full half hour early, I cocktailed in Couch, Rabbit’s next door neighbour which is a perfectly matched spot to start the evening before moving next door to explore Ash’s stream of edible delights. and inwardly enthused at my delicious. Despite it being highly regarded and having been the recipient of several awards, I had never visited Couch before but was pleased that I did. It was busy at the start of this particular Friday evening and the service was excellent and the gimlet variant cocktail enjoyable.

 Then, on to Riverine Rabbit where I was the first diner to arrive and was therefore able to have a little chat with Ash and Erin including asking some questions about their experiences at the Michelin awards in Glasgow earlier in the year. I decided to choose the eight course menu - after all what’s the point of missing the full experience when the opportunity comes so rarely?

    I was first offered a cup of Seychellois vanilla tea which I had had before having visited the islands several times in the past and bringing packets of the very pleasant beverage back with me. The reason for offering vanilla tea as a starter was related to Ash’s family having a hotel in Seychelles and she had recently returned from there. It is, it has to be said, a soothing drinking. 

  It was followed by ‘kitchen snacks’ - pretty amuses gueules - and very tasty they were too. Next, the ungenerously named ‘spring peas’ which was more a symphony of things pisine and more summer than spring. 

  Delicious Chalkstream trout tartare with sea herbs moved the meal forward demonstrating Ash’s flair and inventiveness and then, from the longer menu ‘fried chickenn& caviar’ which reminded me of the chicken oyster previously served at Carter’s of Moseley where Ash had worked previously. The crispy coated  chicken was moist and succulent and nicely complemented by the generous portion of Oscietra caviar - this was a course of turf and surf, or perhaps, chicken coop and seabed, which made it essential to lash out on the longer menu.

  Via a happy course of adequately al dente Wye Valley asparagus, finely flavoured and served not with a Hollandaise but a cream fraiche-based sauce I arrived at the lovely slice of accurately cooked, for me, Wagyu which gave much pleasure and then the two desserts, a clever play on another seasonal favourite, strawberries and cream, though being early in the season Ash had sweetened them too heighten the enjoyment of them. Finally, an excellent chocolate dessert which rounded the meal off nicely.

 This was an excellent meal, kindly priced given the work and ingenuity and skill on display, and emphasise Ash Valuenzuela-Heeger’s remarkable brilliance as well the astonishing business good sense she and Erin have shown in picking their location and type of prospective clientele, the food to be served and the price the diner was likely prepared to pay.

Rating, undoubtedly:- 🌝🌝🌝.

As a footnote, Brad Carter, Ash’s former employer at Carter’s of Moseley, announced that he would be opening his new restaurant,  Island, at Kings Cross in London in cooperation with Chef Tom Brown. It will take the form of a surf and turf establishment with Carter handling the meat side of the menu and Brown concentrating on the fish and seafood. No early return to Birmingham, then, for Carter.

483 . The Oyster Club By Adam Stokes.

 

  Lunch in town with a friend at short notice. Where to go? Where more conveniently placed as well as serving good food than The Oyster Club by Adam Stokes? A cocktail first in the very relaxing though bustling The Alchemist and then a very short walk across St Philip’s churchyard to the upper part of Temple Street.

‘The legal one’ cocktail, The Alchemist.

  A pleasing welcome by general manager Chris Fikeis in an otherwise quiet lunchtime atmosphere. Another cocktail and then straight on to the chilled seafood platter for one with its gargantuan collection of marine life which was easily enough for two. The oysters were excellent - full of maritime salinity and the mussels were generally plump and satisfying. There was dressed crab, which caused us both to order the platter in the first place, and a multitude of other crustaceans with particular pleasure coming from the fine langoustines. There were also king prawns and Atlantic prawns and a series of dips - shallot mignonette, aioli, saffron rouille and a particularly tasty Marie Rose.

  Then on to a regular favourite of mine, a fine whole Dover sole on the bone served with brown butter and capers and delightful brown shrimps. The simplicity of the dish is its strength though perhaps my sole was very slightly over. We ordered a side plate to share of new potatoes but were both sorry to find they had been sautéed. Chefs can not resist overegging the pudding - they need to show off their skills, quite understandably - how much more enjoyable are new potatoes boiled optimally and served salted and with butter. One is rarely presented with this simple presentation of potatoes - I should like to see it more frequently. 

  Despite our potato disappointment, we enjoyed our visit to The Oyster Club and were far too full for dessert. 

  I was pleased to be informed that, following my recently bespoke omelette Arnold Bennett at The Oyster Club, the luxurious dish was soon to be back on the main menu. The Oyster Club then, will be seeing me again soon.

Statue of Arnold Bennett, Stoke on Trent.

Rating:- 🌞.

480. The Last Sunday Lunch At Simpsons - The Beef Wellington.

 

 The hospitality business being what it is at present, it was announced a short while ago that with bookings not being quite as numerous as they might be, this was to be the last Sunday lunch served at Simpsons - at least for the foreseeable future. And at last I had someone to join me at Sunday lunch there so that I could order the somewhat celebrated Simpsons beef Wellington. And, who knows if Simpsons’ Sunday lunch will ever return given that Andreas Antona has put the business up for sale? The end, or the possible end, of an era. All things must pass …. eventually.

  The Sunday lunch went out in style. Firstly, two familiar amuses gueules - no less delicious for their familiarity - both very toothsome indeed - and this also applied to the equally familiar and equally excellent bread though as always, I would have preferred plain, ordinary salted butter to spread on the breads and this was kindly supplied was requested.

  I had the scallop dish which had been cooked beautifully and served with its beurre blanc sauce in a delightfully retro fashion in a scallop shell. The tender mollusc had a remarkably enjoyable butteriness to it and there was little else that could have been done to improve the dish. There was much apparent simplicity about it and it did not suffer because of this. My companion thoroughly enjoyed her beetroot starter.

  Then came the presentation of the Wellington. It looked magnificent and its service did not disappoint. The beef was accurately cooked inside its surrounding cover of mushroom duxelle and fine pastry. Its companions were a very sensibly sized serving of pomme purée, a dish of happy cauliflower with cheese sauce, stunningly delicious, sweet, tender carrots and confit cabbage and a fine red wine sauce. This was a memorable dish served on a memorable occasion at a memorable restaurant.

    Dessert was not an afterthought. My lunch companion was overwhelmed with pleasure at her excellent passion fruit soufflé and I was impressed, more than I expected (though I should have known better) by the caramelised miso tart served with a splendidly tasty blood orange sorbet. 

  The mignardises - a chocolate cracknell decorated with a pattern of the tiles in Simpsons, powerfully flavoured blackcurrant pate de fruit and gorgeously buttery madeleines - rounded off a first class meal at a first class restaurant. Long may it keep serving such magnificent food to the diners of Birmingha.

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞.

479. The New Tiger Bites Pig And French Onion Soup Returns In Stratford.

 

  Once more I was paying a visit to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford upon Avon accompanied by one of my regular lunching companions, this time to see Much Ado About Nothing, so beautifully presented in the fabulous and memorable 2014 production as Love’s Labours Won, starring Edward Bennett as Benedick and the sublime Michelle Terry as Beatrice, and sunk below the water line most recently in the deplorable production at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane where Tom Hiddleston looked permanently bemused and embarrassed in the presence of the wrecking ball that Jamie Lloyd had taken to the Bard (see Blog 468). But of this, more later.

  We started off our foray into Stratford via Snow Hill station with what we decided what be a ‘light lunch’ at the recently opened new home of Tiger Bites Pig. The restaurant is spread over the two floors of what used to be Church Street cafe where I remember dining at two or three Ben Tesh pop ups in 2016 prior to his opening of Folium in 2017. Some of his dishes really were quite experimental then but very interesting and served as an exciting introduction to his cuisine then. 

  On the ground floor of Tiger Bites Pig is a counter from which, I assume, takeaways are served, while upstairs is a good sized space for dining. The menu is no more complicated than it was previously and I chose an old favourite - the appealingly, but not unrestrained, spicy Sichuan style roasted lamb bao flavoured with chilli oil, sesame and cooled and refreshed with tangy but soothing strips of cucumber. The bun itself was soft and light and the dish of spicy prawn crackers we ordered had us slyly competing with each other to grab as many of the crackers as we could without appearing greedy. My lunch companion was very pleased with his white cut chicken bao which brought together chicken, sesame, pickled cabbage, green Sichuan peppercorn, spring onions and ‘Mandarin hot sauce. 

Rating;- 🌛🌛🌛🌛

  We thought that this lunch was just the ticket and things went well as we were in time to get to Snow Hill, hop on the Stratford- bound train, head for the Hotel Du Vin where we settled in before going for a pleasant stroll along the bank of the Avon on this warm, sunny spring afternoon and in doing so spot the first black swan to have been seen in Stratford for fifty years, or so we were told. On days like this England looks as grand a place on this Earth as exists, a blessed plot indeed.

All the luxury you need when you get a roll topped bath in your bedroom - Hotel du Vin, Stratford.

Stratford’s first black swan “in fifty years”.

 Things got even better when it emerged that the French onion soup was back on the menu in the bistro of the Hotel du Vin. A meal in itself; dizzyingly sweet, soft onion wallowing in a rather hot broth like a subterranean sea waiting to be uncovered from its location under a gooey, cheesy crouton lid. There are few pleasures more enjoyable than this. And then, an interesting and punchily sea-flavoured main of pâtes tagliolini noires au Crabe - nicely cooked squid ink blackened pasta with a strongly maritime hit of crab (though to be honest the crab did seem a little sparsely spread around the dish, at least to the naked eye) with more flavour from sun blushed cherry tomato and basil and a truly satisfying texture from good scattering of pine nuts. This was a very enjoyable dish though a little too generously portioned for me to be able to fully clear my plate and no room left for pudding.

  My dining companion paired a scallop dish with some very fine frites and was pleased with his meal.

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛.

  And shortly we were off to the theatre, replete and content. The play was, as I recall mentioning above about as dire as you might expect it to be when it is set in a mid-2020s milieu populated by aggressive young men and badly but expensively dressed wags, all of whom speak with an Essex accent à la Reform. 

  The characters of Benedick and Beatrice are subordinated to the dark and vaguely incomprehensible tale of Hero and Claudio and the machinations of Don John with the aim of projecting the subject of  misogynism as the big liberal political theme the RSC wished to rail against on this occasion. It may not have been too much of a loss as the performance of Freema Agyeman as Beatrice was desperately unconvincing and Nick Blood’s underwhelming delivery of Benedick suggested that he should have been left on the benches for this production.

   I thought as the end of the play drew near that the director, with the elitist middle class snootiness of the artist that we witness endlessly in this era of the divided society, was probably directing an attack on the working classes wrapped up in socialist themes of equality and diversity and nothing more. In the past, there have been more gentle but equally patronising depictions of the working class by the middle class for the middle class as we hear everyday in the BBC’s  radio programme The Archers where very nice, gentle middle class village residents are honest and decent while the working class are salt of the earth but comedic and dishonest. But this RSC attack on the working class was much more savage than poking a bit of fun at Eddie Grundy. 

  This ill-judged production would have been better left unmade save that the audience around me found it to be hilarious. As, given the nature of the audience, you might have expected. But it had been the day when sweet French onion soup had returned to the Stratford Hotel du Vin and when a Black swan was swimming on the Avon - emphasising diversity I suppose - so on the whole things weren’t looking so bad.