Lifestyle: Restaurant Review – The Balcony, Selfridges, Birmingham

RESTAURANTS within department stores tend to be overlooked when it comes to discussing quality places to eat with even those in the top stores tending to be dismissed as feeding ‘pit stops’ between bouts of frenzied shopping.

To dismiss The Balcony at Selfridges in Birmingham thus would be to do it a disservice since the food – and drink – on offer is of a very high quality.

The restaurant keeps shop hours and so is best considered, in my opinion, for a bite at lunchtime, for early evening cocktails and snack plates or an early dinner.

The cocktail list is extensive and includes a non-alcoholic selection for drivers (£5.50). On our lunchtime visit recently my partner tried a Virgin Mohito, beautifully presented in what to my eyes looked like a posh jar.

She declared it delicious but I could tell the lack of alcohol was driving her wild and she was looking covetously at my large glass of Moko Black, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc (£6.95), which was as fruity and satisfying as you would expect from a top of the range tipple from the Marlborough region.

There is a healthy food menu called Beauty and the Beast – probably aimed at all the ladies who lunch types who populate the restaurant – but we ignored this and went a la carte.

To start we ordered a seafood platter (£12) and then I plumped for the larger portion of chill crab linguine (£12) whilst my companion carried on the seafood theme, choosing line caught monkfish, lemongrass and quinoa green curry (£12).

As we waited for our food we took in our surroundings. As a Searcys restaurant – like the Centenary Bar & Brasserie which I reviewed recently – you expect the boat to be pushed out and they have used the balcony space overlooking the Selfridges shop floor below extremely well. The booth-type seats on the restaurant’s inner perimeter give the best view of the store and beyond, out into the Bullring itself.

The high glass ceiling at the store gives the restaurant a lovely sense of space and the fact that we were surrounded by serious shoppers rather than business types looking at their watches helps to create a relaxed atmosphere.

The downside of this – from a business perspective – is that the service, whilst impeccable, is a little more relaxed than in the eateries around Colmore Row.

Our seafood platter consisted of vintage smoke salmon, mackerel on toast and prawn cocktail.

All a bit predictable you might think but what elevated it was the clever way it is assembled and presented and the quality of the underlying ingredients.

The star of the show was the fresh mackerel presented with an avocado and crème fraiche sauce. Superb. Mackerel and avocado, who knew?

My main course was also a success. The combination of sweet crab and tangy chilli worked supremely well and the dish was extremely satisfying. I washed it down with a large glass of French Vinha del Sud Sauvignon Blanc/Viognier (£5.50) because, well, it seemed churlish not to.

My partner’s monkfish-based green curry was less of a success. She loved the taste and texture of the monkfish but thought the sauce could have had a bit more oomph. I tasted it and have to say I agreed with her.

All in all though it was a very good lunch, enjoyed in interesting surroundings.

My opinion is it’s more suited to a leisurely lunch at the weekend or when you’re enjoying a day off and a spot of retail therapy rather than a business lunch when you need to be in and out in an hour.