Lifestyle: Restaurant Review – Fumo, Birmingham

NOT everyone likes to share food. A colleague of mine – who shall remain nameless – attended Fumo’s launch party but struggled with the concept of lots of sharing plates coming out.

When he saw something that took his fancy he would grab it and haul it towards himself, saying “I’m having that”.

Luckily for Fumo – part of the San Carlo group – there are plenty of other people who have bought into its concept of cicchetti.

This usually translates as Italian tapas but many of the dishes originate in Venice specifically and they tend to be slightly larger than the Spanish plates we are used to in tapas restaurants.

Whatever. The concept has taken off in Birmingham and no mistake. When we visited one weekday lunchtime recently the place was heaving and the waiters were whizzing around with trays laden with plates of delicious-smelling food.

The crowd is that same mixture you get in San Carlo itself and at Marco Pierre White’s place at the Cube  – a combination of business faces, ladies who lunch and the odd footballer (odd as in occasional rather than quirky – mind you given some of the local teams of late).

Fumo has certainly been a success story, not least because of its celebrated cocktail bar and good looking staff but it was the cicchetti we were there for and we quickly got stuck into the extensive menu and the daily specials list.

I’ve been here a few times and six seems to be the magic number of dishes for two people sharing but if your appetite isn’t that large or you are in a hurry then you might want to scale down from that.

General manager Marius was there to look after us and brought us a bowl of fat, juicy olives with a tapenade and mixed bruschetta as appetisers.

As at parent restaurant San Carlo (which is just around the corner) the staff here are extremely knowledgeable and are happy to make recommendations.

Taking Marius’s advice we went for Fritto Portofino (£15.95) which is a plate of deep fried prawns, calamari and scallops served with aioli and a spicy Calabrian dip.

We also chose as ‘starters’ a prawn, crayfish and new potato salad (£7.95) and the mozzarella and pepper-based dish Burrata Affumicata (£7.95).

The mozzarela dish, like the earlier bruschetta selection – crab, wild mushroom and Sicilian tomato – was light and full of flavour and complemented the seafood dish superbly.

I love the calamari at San Carlo and here it is just as good – the batter not too thick and the fish fresh and meaty. Squiddy marvellous.

The Calabrian dip was also a hit, reminding me a little of the piquant Mojo sauce you find in the Canary Islands.

The potatoes in the salad were cooked in saffron and received a big thumbs up from my dining companion. In fact I think if we had a third child it would probably be called Zafferano given she liked them so much. 

For our ‘mains’ we chose Pollo Milanese (£7.50) and Marius persuaded me to forego my usual choice of lamb cooked in hay for Spiedino d’Agnello (£8.95) – lamb skewers with potato gratin.

He was spot on with his advice again. The breaded chicken dish Pollo Milanese is supreme comfort food and a gorgeous version of the familiar but the lamb was something else.

It was marinated in chilli and garlic, amongst other things, and was moist and moreish.

The potato gratin was also sensational – made by mixing potato in with that Italian air-dried, salted beef Bresaola and then reforming it into cakes.

It forged a hugely successful partnership with the tender and aromatic lamb – can you tell I mostly write about business?

Marius wasn’t finshed with us yet and delivered a plate of lightly fried zucchini (courgettes) which it would be insulting to call a side dish.

We were too full for dessert but I noticed Affogato on the menu at £4.45 and that mixture of vanilla ice cream, amaretto and espresso would have probably been my choice – although there was a pistachio semifreddo at £5.95 so maybe not.

As you would expect from an Italian restaurant, the wine selection is extensive and whilst there were bottles on the specials menu not far shy of £100, on the main menu there is a wide range of choice to suit most pockets.

Having eaten out fill, Marius told us that the menu is changing again very soon. Ah well, that’s a good excuse to go back.

Highly recommended.

Fumo, 1 Waterloo Street, Birmingham, B2 5PG. Tel: 0121 643 8979.