Lifestyle: Restaurant Review of the Year

I’VE been lucky enough to review 14 restaurants this year across Birmingham, Solihull, Leamington Spa and Wolverhampton and, by and large, the food I’ve been served has been of an extremely high quality.

The West Midlands has really come of age now in the restaurant stakes and only the most Londoncentric of national newspaper reviewers can ignore the fact that Birmingham has five Michelin-starred eateries and that the gastro pub and street food scenes in the region are thriving with imaginative and talented young chefs to the fore.

We also have, in my opinion, some of the best Indian sub-continent restaurants in the country.

I still have a few slight moans about the local offering. Too many restaurants in the centre of Birmingham sit mostly empty at lunchtime and bemoan their lack of trade without doing much that is proactive to get people through their doors.

There’s not a lot of point putting on special offers if nobody knows about them.

Another bugbear – and this isn’t specific to the local region – is restaurants which put a price next to a meal on the menu but then charge you separately for vegetables.

Italian restaurants have been especially guilt of this down the years.

It’s a con frankly. If it’s a meat or fish and two veg meaI, I want the restaurant to provide me with a price for a complete meal which includes the vegetables that its trained chef thinks best complement the dish.

I don’t expect to see a menu price for a meal of, say, £15, which quickly becomes £20 by the time I’ve added potatoes and spinach.

One final thing. The balance between chain restaurants and independents is a fine one and in Birmingham we are in danger of tipping the scales towards the former.

Some of the chains are good of course but their buying power means that independents can get squeezed out which would be a shame if it were too happen too often.

People expect to see familiar places to eat and drink when they visit a city centre, but it is the places that are unique to that location that will really help its reputation to grow.

Anyway, with great difficulty I have chosen my three course meal of the year from the restaurants I’ve reviewed.

In all honesty I could have chosen half a dozen excellent dishes for each course.

For my Starter of the Year I could have plumped for the almost perfect calamari at Birmingham-based Italian restaurant San Carlo. Served with green chilli, I would define anyone not to love this take on a classic dish.

Or I could have chosen the fofos at Praza by Pushkar in Birmingham’s Edgbaston. These are Goan fish (cod) rolls served with a beetroot chutney that I described at the time as a taste a sensation.

But the clear winner for me cane at that restaurant’s older sister, Pushkar in Birmingham’s Broad Street.

The chapli kebab I had there is still something I think about months later.

Four pan seared, flat patties of ground lamb spiced with ginger, green chillies, coriander seeds and herbs arrived on my side of the table and I could smell the fresh herbs and spices even before the waiter had set the plate down.

Those flavours come alive when you bite into the kebab and deliver what I can only describe as a lip-tinglingly good eating experience.

The chillies add a nice level of heat and the lamb is tender and moist.

All told, this kebab was one of the best I’ve ever eaten.

The choice was equally difficult for the Main Course of the Year.

My favourite San Carlo dish of monkfish cooked in a tomato, white wine and cream sauce takes some beating and the tandoori monkfish (yes, again) on a bed of red lentil dhal with mini onion bhaji and mint yoghurt I enjoyed at Met Bar & Kitchen in Solihull was a superb plate of food.

But for the winner I am returning to an ‘Indian’ restaurant. The Goan King Prawn Masala at Bilash in Wolverhampton is a dish that once tasted will never be forgotten.

It uses the best imported prawns from Bangladesh and enough herbs and spices to last a TV chef for a whole series.

The prawns marinated in lime juice and garlic were awe inspiring in their own right but when combined with the masala which included coconut, almond oil, chilli and bay leaf – amongst other things – it became a world beater.

As I said at the time, the ‘sauce’ was one of the most intensely pleasurable things I have put into my mouth in a very long time. It coated the fat prawns beautifully and created something that a taste sensation might look up to in envy.

This wonder dish is on the menu at £22.90 and it’s worth every penny.

For my Dessert of the Year I could easily have chosen the cicchetti platter at San Carlo, where small portions of a number of deserts were presented together. The standout for me was that wobbly wonder panna cotta.

On a similar theme, the assiette of three desserts I enjoyed at Aalto at Hotel La Tour in Birmingham were sensational. The trio – strawberry cheesecake, vanilla rice pudding and chocolate brownie with ice cream – left me feeling fat and happy.

But the winner for me was the gorgeous Eton mess which I enjoyed  – strangely enough – at that wonderful French bistro Oscar’s in Leamington.

As I said at the time, it was all sweetness and light – a superb pudding and all very self-contained, not a hint of mess – a sort of Eton neat.

My choice of Restaurant of the Year is Fumo in Birmingham. The cicchetti (think Italian tapas) restaurant in Birmingham from the San Carlo stable has really added something to the city’s food scene over the last year or so.

It always seems to be busy, the atmosphere is great with Italian waiters and waitresses buzzing around with trays full of small platters and the cocktail bar is lively.

And, most importantly of all, the food is delicious.

Click on this link to read all of this year’s restaurant reviews.

 

 

 

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