Lifestyle: Restaurant Review – Met Bar & Kitchen, Solihull

SOLIHULL has got plenty of places to eat, from the up-market foodie pubs and restaurants in the surrounding villages – think The Boot and The Orange Tree – to the chain eateries in the town centre.

But arguably there is a gap in the middle for the type of offering that doesn’t bust the wallet on the one hand but doesn’t leave you feeling like you could be eating the same thing in Milton Keynes or Hemel Hempstead on the other.

The Townhouse used to fill it but it is no more and Metro (as was) is the obvious place to go now.

Chris Kelly and Alastair Tyson bought the bar/restaurant in 2004, having owned and operated Metro Birmingham since 1997.

I’ve always enjoyed the food in the Birmingham ‘branch’ but the guys have now sold that to Brandasia, which runs the popular Indian restaurant Asha’s, and are focusing their attention on the Solihull venue.

It has been renamed Met Bar & Kitchen and has revamped its menu – the reason for my visit on a recent weekday evening.

The menu, it should be said, is impressive and my dining companion and I were spoilt for choice. We could have gone for Chinese, Moroccan, Indian or Italian plates and there was plenty of fish on offer including two fish curries.

As bonfire night was approaching I kicked off appropriately with bang bang chicken salad in peanut and chilli sauce with baby gem lettuce (£6.50) while she selected pumpkin and ricotta ravioli with sage and walnut butter and parmesan shavings (£6.95).

The restaurant was moderately busy for a Wednesday night in November with the usual mix of professionals and Solihull moneyed types enjoying the Metro/Met diet of relaxed but efficient service in a modern setting (think shiny metal, big windows and comfortable seating).

Of the starters my fellow diner’s was probably the most successful. The ravioli had a big taste with the sage, as it always does, stealing the show. My companion loved the combination of pumpkin and pasta which gave it a satisfying sweetness. “A real treat,” she said.

My bang bang chicken was perhaps less rounded as a dish. The chicken was moist and the peanut and chilli sauce nicely piquant but overall it was overwhelmed by too much lettuce. I suppose the clue was in the word salad – that will teach me.

My main course was much better. Tandoori monkfish on a bed of red lentil dhal with mini onion bhaji and mint yoghurt (£17.95) amounted to a lovely plate of food.

The fish that probably gets called chunky by its seafood mates works wonderfully well with a spicy topping and the dhal was wonderfully moreish. Crispy bhaji set the whole thing off.

My companion chose Moroccan spiced shoulder of lamb with apricot and red onion and giant cous cous (£16.95). This too was a heavyweight dish and having tasted it I would happily have swapped plates. The lamb was falling away and created a superb mash up (down with the kids term) with the sweet red onion and apricot.

A side dish of thyme buttered greens (£3.25) complemented the dish extremely well but I didn’t have any as I was in danger of going beyond my ‘five a day’ and overdosing.

My diner doesn’t share my love of new world wines so, ever the gentlemen, we washed the meal down with her choice, a La Daulny Sancerre (£32.95 a bottle), which to be fair had depth and sophistication. Perhaps she needed that given she was dining with me.

Although my ideal pudding choice is two desserts and one spoon, the main course portions were large (be warned) and we could only manage one dessert with two spoons. We selected steamed orange and poppy seed sponge with clementine syrup and Joe Delucci’s mascarpone ice cream (£6.25).

This was a dessert to savour, which of course we didn’t – going at it like a plague of locusts on a field of corn.

It was so good that we were forced to drink a gloriously sticky glass of Elysium black Muscat dessert wine (£4.75) to celebrate.

I really enjoyed the food here and it’s local enough to where I live for me to return. I like the look of the Sunday brunch, which includes buttermilk pancakes, maple syrup and blueberries (£5.95).

And I might even stay around for the Sunday roast (£13.95) which includes award winning roast beef from renowned Knowle butcher Eric Lyons.

A lot of thought has gone into the revised menu at Met Bar & Kitchen and in my opinion it has paid off.

Met Bar & Kitchen is at 680-684 Warwick Road, Solihull, B91 3DX.
Tel:  0121 705 9495